Nonmetropolitan Status and Kindergarteners’ Early Literacy Skills: Is There a Rural Disadvantage?

Rachel E. Durham, Pennsylvania State University
P. Johnelle Smith, Pennsylvania State University

This study seeks to discover whether beginning kindergarteners vary in early literacy readiness according to their metro/nonmetropolitan status, net controls for family structure, socioeconomic status, parent-child interaction, educational resources, preschool childcare, and county-level economic characteristics. The restricted-use Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of Kindergarteners provides student-level family and reading assessment data, as well as county identifiers that can be matched with county economic data from the Economic Research Service. A two-level hierarchical linear model will be conducted to test the relationship between family characteristics, county-level characteristics, and early literacy ability. Initial results show that there is a net effect of living in a nonmetropolitan area on reading readiness when children enter kindergarten.