Economic Policy Institute Hosts Press Conference on the Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Kindergartners at Nat'l Press Club

9/24/2002

From: Nancy Coleman or Stephaan Harris of the Economic Policy Institute, 202-775-8810

News Advisory:

INEQUALITY AT THE STARTING GATE: Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Kindergartners

On their first day of kindergarten, average achievement scores for young children in the most impoverished families are 60 percent lower than scores for children in the highest income families. That startling fact is just one of the many findings of Inequality at the Starting Gate, a groundbreaking nationwide portrait of 16,000 children as they begin kindergarten and the enormous learning gaps between them based on their families' socioeconomic status.

The authors will be joined by a number of other experts on early childhood education and equality to discuss these new findings and their implications for national education policy.

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, Sept. 30, 10-11 a.m. National Press Club (14th & F Sts. NW, Washington) First Amendment Room

WHO: -- Valerie E. Lee, report co-author and professor of education, University of Michigan, whose research has focused on educational equity. -- David T. Burkam, report co-author and lecturer and assistant research scientist, University of Michigan, whose most recent work involves equity in early schooling, math and science. -- Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute -- Christopher Edley, Jr., professor, Harvard Law School and founding co-director, The Civil Rights Project. -- Bella Rosenberg, assistant to the president, American Federation of Teachers. -- Richard J. Coley, director of the Policy Information Center, Educational Testing Service and author of "An Uneven Start: Indicators of Inequality in School" -- Mark R. Ginsberg, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the nation's largest organization of early childhood teachers and others working with children from birth through age eight.

PREVIEW MATERIALS UNDER EMBARGO ON OUR WEB SITE: NEWS RELEASE: http://www.epinet.org/newsroom/releases/02/09/pr020923starting.pdf REPORT: http://www.epinet.org/newsroom/embargoed/inequality_startin g_gate_embargo.pdf PASSWORD: gatekeeper

The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan economic think tank founded in 1986. The Institute can found on the web at http://www.epinet.org.