Are low and middle income children ready for school? 

We see a lot of research into the school readiness of the poorest children, but what about those from low- to middle-income (LMI) families? The Resolution Foundation in the UK has published a new report that uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study to explore this, and found that LMI children are five months behind their more affluent peers on vocabulary skills when they begin school and exhibit more behavior problems. A number of factors were found to influence achievement for this group, including parental education, which was shown to be a powerful predictor of school readiness for these children. The challenge is how to break this cycle, and research-based parenting programs are one possibility.