Leveraging childcare and early learning data to understand the impact of socioeconomic status on accessing resources that promote academic readiness

Socioeconomic status and academic readiness have been linked in multiple studies and scholarly works. A study done by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that children from low-income or marginalized backgrounds enter the education system at a disadvantage in terms of academic readiness, attributed to disparities in household income, parental education, race, and access to resources.[1] According to Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory, the developing child is a part of a range of systems which shape the child’s development and academic readiness.[2] Here, this study investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status and other disparities in cohesion with the systems outlined in Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory, attempting to understand the influences on a child’s development, academic readiness and the effects of such on their adult life. Open-access data from the Canadian Survey on Early Learning and Childcare from Statistics Canada was used to analyze correlations between different factors and illustrate the impact of such factors on academic readiness and performance. By combining early childhood education data with machine learning, the study demonstrates potential for early identification of learning deficiencies, tailoring learning experiences, and more efficient allocation of educational resources.