We investigated whether school climate, specifically effective school leadership, strong family ties, and trusting relationships, moderates the well-documented disparities in pre-kindergarten quality for Black and Latine students relative to their peers. In a sample of 615 public schools in a large, urban school district serving a minoritized student population (the average school in the sample served 66% Black and Latine students), we first explored patterns of disparities and found that Black and Latine children, on average, experience lower-quality pre-kindergarten in terms of classroom organization, emotional support, and instructional support. Using structural equation modeling, we found that a multi-dimensional index of school climate moderated this relationship with pre-kindergarten quality in terms of classroom organization and emotional support, but not instructional support. These findings suggest a potential role for school climate in mitigating existing inequities in the quality of pre-kindergarten.

我们调查了学校氛围，特别是有效的学校领导，牢固的家庭关系和信任关系，是否缓和了黑人和拉丁裔学生相对于同龄人在学前教育质量方面有据可查的差异。在一个服务于少数学生群体的大型城市学区的 615 所公立学校样本中（样本中的平均学校为 66% 的黑人和拉丁裔学生提供服务），我们首先探索了差异模式，发现黑人和拉丁裔儿童，在平均而言，在课堂组织、情感支持和教学支持方面体验质量较低的学前班。使用结构方程模型，我们发现，学校氛围的多维指数在课堂组织和情感支持方面调节了这种与幼儿园前质量的关系，但在教学支持方面没有影响。这些发现表明，学校氛围在减轻学前教育质量方面现有的不平等方面具有潜在作用。