DEVELOPING AN INDEX OF EDUCATIONAL RISK FROM HEALTH AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS KNOWN AT BIRTH

The goal of the work described in this report was to develop a new chi ld health index that could be reported annually by the National Educat ion Goals Panel for each of the 50 states, as well as for local areas. This index would serve as an indicator of health condition at birth t hat relate to children's readiness to learn upon school entry. The new standard birth certificate adopted by nearly all states in 1989 conta in more than a dozen items of information that are potentially useful for this purpose. The availability of these data make it possible to s um across the individual health factors to form a composite index made up of factors with demonstrated relevance to later educational perfor mance for all children born in a given year in a given geographical ar ea. In this paper, we describe the development of such an index. Our i ndex consisted of six risk factors: late (third trimester) or no prena tal care, low maternal weight gain (<21 pounds), closely spaced birth (within 18 months of a previous birth to the same mother), three or mo re older siblings, mother smoked during pregnancy, or mother drank alc ohol during pregnancy. In 1990, 55% of all birds had none of these ris k factors, while 14% had two or more of these risk factors. There were substantial variations by race and ethnicity on this index. American Indian births fared the worst with only 37% of such births having no r isks and 28% having two or more risks. Asian births, on the other hand , had the best start on life with 62% of Asian births showing no risks and 11% showing two or more risks. To demonstrate the importance of t he index to future school success, we analysed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, predicting from birth characteristics to children's reading and vocabulary test scores at ages 4 and 5.