Study confirms fears that COVID pandemic will reduce kindergarten readiness

Numerous studies have sounded the alarm about how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the learning, development and mental health of school-age children. But few have focused on the effects felt by the 22 million children under the age of 6 who were not yet in school.

Now, a study published on February 5, 2024 in JAMA PediatricsLed by Cincinnati Children’s Researchers in collaboration with Cincinnati Public Schools, documents the pandemic’s detrimental effects on kindergarten readiness.

The findings are based on data from approximately 8,000 kindergartners who took a state-required Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) in 2018, 2019 and 2021, including 3,200 children who receive care in preschools. Cincinnati Children’s Primary Care Clinics.

What the researchers found was concerning. Only 30% (or 3 out of 10) of Cincinnati Public Schools students were assessed as ready for kindergarten in 2021, a significant drop from the 40% (or 4 out of 10) assessed as ready in 2018. Researchers found a similar trend among 3,200 children. who receive care through Cincinnati Children’s primary care sites: 21.5% deemed ready to learn in 2021, up from 32% in 2018.

“This means that 7 in 10 children in Cincinnati public schools were not considered ready to learn when they entered kindergarten during the pandemic. This trend was even more pronounced among the most disadvantaged and Medicaid-covered children than we see in our primary care clinics.” says lead study author, Kristen Copeland, MD, Division of General and Community Pediatrics.

“It will take intense efforts on many levels to help these children overcome this disruption,” Copeland said.

The pandemic has amplified existing gaps

The research team took a deeper dive into KRA scores involving patients treated at Children’s Pediatric Primary Care Centers in Cincinnati. This involved linking KRA scores to other prior assessments of child development and early reading exposures, as well as social, socioeconomic, environmental, and family characteristics and factors.

These factors included the family’s financial hardship and food security, the primary language spoken in the home, the child’s race and ethnicity, and maternal stress or depressive symptoms, all known to be linked to a child’s ability to succeed in kindergarten.

The Readiness Assessment includes a series of 27 questions and tasks administered by teachers to measure a child’s skills in early reading, early mathematics, gross motor and fine motor tasks, self-regulation and attention . The Cincinnati Children’s Study identifies several factors generally associated with lower levels of kindergarten readiness, including:

• One child had previously failed a developmental assessment between 18 months and 5 years of age.
• Child insured by Medicaid (an indirect measure of low family income)
• Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnicity
• Family needs medical interpreter during clinic visits
• The gender of the children is male
• Parents rarely say they read to their child
• The family previously reported suffering from food insecurity

“To our knowledge, this is one of the first and largest studies to use real-world data to analyze protective and risk factors related to school readiness in a population traditionally reluctant to participate in research studies,” says Copeland.

Reasons to be optimistic

Although lower readiness scores can be considered burdensome, the research team says that many of the factors that limit readiness can be addressed because a structure already exists to do so.

“The good news is that we identified several factors predicting later kindergarten readiness, which we already measure during primary care visits,” Copeland says. “Plus, we have primary care resources to quickly get children the extra help they need, whether it’s speech therapy, legal help, welfare, food pantry or delivery of products, or practical assistance with registering for preschool, high-quality childcare and an advance.”

There is great potential for strengthening connections between community organizations to help families support their children’s learning and development before kindergarten.

The co-authors say this study reflects an ongoing partnership between Cincinnati Children and Cincinnati Public Schools, which has built bridges over the years to overcome many existing barriers to data sharing. Expanding these relationships to other school districts and establishing similar collaborations in other cities will likely help even more children impacted by the pandemic get back on track in school.

“These cross-sector connections underscore the urgency for primary care organizations to become more involved in promoting equitable early childhood development, not only in Cincinnati but across the United States,” says co-author Robert Kahn , MD, MPH, director of the Fisher Center for Child Health Equity at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.