Elementary School Education Overview

Elementary school is an exciting time to meet new friends, discover new ideas, and master new academic skills. It’s also a critical time for schools to help young people advance social emotional learning (SEL), "the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” More schools and school systems across the country are enacting policies and practices to help students self-regulate, manage stress, build resilience, and more. SEL can also help students as they navigate new academic skills in their elementary school years.

One of the most important academic skills that every young student must master is reading. Becoming a strong reader opens up a world of opportunity and helps students learn other subjects like social studies, science, and math. Reading proficiency is also closely tied to future success in middle and high school. Researchers at Yale University have shown that “three quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school.” And low literacy is also linked to higher high school dropout rates. According to Double Jeopardy: How Third Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation:

About one in six children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.

There are more than 28 million elementary-school aged children and 67,408 public elementary schools in the U.S. The majority of students are Latino, Black, Asian, American Indian & Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or two races or more.

Children 5 to 11 By Race/Ethnicity

According to the Nation’s Report Card, only 34% of students overall can read proficiently by the fourth grade. However, children who are Black, Latino, and Native American are even more at risk for low literacy rates.

4th Grade Math Scores by Race/Ethnicity - 2017

Achievement gaps are likely to grow over time. Thus, it’s important to address them early in a child’s educational career. One way to increase reading and math proficiency in elementary school is to bolster the teaching of math and reading skills during the preschool years.

Disparities in education are caused by many factors, including how schools are funded. Non-white school districts get $23 billion less than white school districts despite serving the same number of students. The Annie E. Casey Foundation in partnership with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading has highlighted five factors that affect reading proficiency, in particular. Learn more about each barrier below.

Chronic Absence from School and Summer Learning Loss

Chronic absenteeism and summer learning loss are other barriers to reading proficiency and academic success. A study by the RAND Corporation has shown that attending high-quality summer programs can help students perform better in school. Unfortunately many students, especially those from low-income families, don’t have access to summer enrichment opportunities.

It’s estimated that 5 to 7.5 million students are chronically absent (miss more than 18 days) from school each year. “Hispanic ELLs (English language learners) and Native American students were the most likely to miss three or more days of school ... followed by Black students." Children from low-income families are also more at risk for missing school.

Absenteeism occurs for a variety of reasons, including “residential mobility, and extensive family responsibilities (e.g., children looking after siblings) -- along with inadequate supports for students within the educational system (e.g., lack of adequate transportation, unsafe conditions, lack of medical services, harsh disciplinary measures, etc.).”

Quality of and Diversity in Teaching

The quality of teaching has an enormous impact on a child’s ability to learn, but there is a lack of uniformity in teaching standards across U.S. schools. Power to the Profession is a national resource working to elevate, standardize, and create a coordinated system of high-quality teaching. Its goals also include addressing disparities in school funding and advocating for better pay for early childhood educators.

Teaching quality and student achievement can also be improved by diversifying the teaching force. Research shows that having a teacher of the same race can improve student outcomes. “Black students who have even one Black teacher third grade are 13% more likely to enroll in college, according to research from Johns Hopkins University and American University.”

Racial bias in school discipline is another factor affecting elementary students of color. Research from Brown University found that teachers’ different treatment of black and white students accounted for 46% of the racial gap in suspensions and expulsions from school among 5- to 9-year-old children.