Three Essays in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three essays investigating children’s early learning experiences in the United States. Specifically, I examine early learning achievement outcomes for immigrant children and low-income, minority children to identify early educational barriers and to reduce early achievement gaps. In addition, I focus on measurements that are often not included in early childhood studies in understanding mechanisms that impact children’s early educational outcomes. The purpose of my three essays dissertation is as following: (a) understand whether the immigrant paradox phenomenon has persisted over the last two decades in early childhood and contribute to the theory behind why there might be a paradox, (b) examine the role of parental migration status in understanding parents’ educational investment decision to their children, and (c) highlight the importance of understanding implementation fidelity in evaluating scaled up early intervention programs.