CHILD-CARE FOR CHILDREN IN POVERTY - OPPORTUNITY OR INEQUITY

Data from a nationally representative survey of child care centers and a 5-site, observational study of centers were used to examine the qua lity of care provided to children from low-income families. Comparison s were made to a national sample of centers; among Head Start, public school-sponsored, and other community-based subsidized centers; and am ong centers that Served families from differing socioeconoMiC groups. The quality of care in centers that served predominantly low-income ch ildren was adequate, but highly variable, with structural indices exhi biting higher quality than observations of global quality and of staff -child interactions. When compared to Head Start and public school-spo nsored centers, the community-based centers had smaller groups and few er children per teacher for preschoolers, but also had less well educa ted and compensated staff. Centers that predominantly served children from upper-income families provided the highest quality of care across multiple indices, and those that predominantly served children from m iddle-income families almost uniformly provided the poorest quality of care. The centers that served children from low-income families did n ot differ significantly in quality from the upper-income centers on mo st indices. However, the teachers in these programs were observed to b e less sensitive and more harsh than teachers in the centers that serv ed more advantaged families. The implications of the findings for rese arch and policy are discussed.