title: Home-School Differences in Beliefs, Support, and Control during Public Pre-kindergarten and their Link to Children's Kindergarten Readiness.
abstract: This study examines the prevalence of home-school match in child-rearing beliefs and socialization practices (control and support) and their relation to ethnicity and readiness skills of children (n=310) making the transition from publicly sponsored pre-k to kindergarten. Home-school match was operationalized both as a continuous absolute measure and as categories of match or mismatch. Overall, home-school match was more prevalent than mismatch. However, the results corroborate previous ethnographic studies showing higher rates of home-school mismatch among African Americans and Latinos than Euro Americans. Controlling for race and socioeconomic status, parents' beliefs and practices predicted readiness but teachers' did not. Absolute indicators of home-school differences were not related to kindergarten readiness. Directional indicators revealed that children attained greater skills when parents and teachers matched on child-centered beliefs, low control, and high support. Contrary to the cultural match hypothesis, home-school mismatch was associated with better outcomes than match in the case of adult-centered beliefs, control, and low support.
authors.affiliation: Tulane University.
authors.forename: Oscar A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Barbarin
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Downer
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Odom
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Darlene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Head