Effects of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Characteristics and Class Composition on Highly Competent Children.

The conditions that prevent highly competent children from fully developing their learning potential rarely have been addressed. The authors investigated the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, class composition, and changes in the proportion of highly competent children in kindergarten and in Grades 4 and 7. The authors used cross-sectional data from 78 Vancouver, British Columbia, schools to conduct a series of multiple-regression analyses. Results show that the proportion of highly competent kindergarten children was correlated weakly with neighborhood socioeconomic status. In contrast, in Grades 4 and 7, the proportion of highly competent kindergarten children was correlated strongly with neighborhood socioeconomic factors. In addition, the proportion of children at risk was strongly and increasingly correlated with the proportion of highly competent children in kindergarten and in Grades 4 and 7.