<P> The home environment makes the largest contribution to the prediction of initial kindergarten reading disparities . Characteristics of the home environment include home literacy environment and parental involvement in school . Home literacy environment is characterized by the frequency with which parents engage in joint book reading with the child, the frequency with which children read books outside of school, and the frequency with which household members visited the library with the child . Parental involvement in school is characterized by attending a parent--teacher conference, attending a parent--teacher association (PTA) meeting, attending an open house, volunteering, participating in fundraising, and attending a school event . Resources, experiences, and relationships associated with the family are most closely associated with reading gaps when students reading levels are first assessed in kindergarten . The influence of family factors on initial reading level may be due to children experiencing little schooling before kindergarten--they mainly have their families to rely on their reading growth . </P> <P> Family SES is also associated with reading achievement growth during the summer . Students from high SES families continue to grow in their ability to read after kindergarten and students from low SES families fall behind in their reading growth at a comparable amount . Additionally, the summer setback disproportionately affects African American and Hispanic students because they are more likely than White students to come from low SES families . Also, low SES families typically lack the appropriate resources to continue reading growth when school is not in session . </P> <P> The neighborhood setting in which children grow up contributes to reading disparities between low and high SES children . These neighborhood qualities include but are not limited to garbage or litter in the street, individuals selling or using drugs in the street, burglary or robbery in the area, violent crime in the area, vacant homes in the area, and how safe it is to play in the neighborhood . Low SES children are more likely to grow up in such neighborhood conditions than their high SES peers . Community support for the school and poor physical conditions surrounding the school are also associated with children's reading . Neighborhood factors help explain the variation in reading scores in school entry, and especially as children move on to higher grades . As low SES children in poor neighborhood environments get older, they fall further behind their high SES peers in reading growth and thus have a more difficult time developing reading skills at grade level . </P> <P> In a study by M. Keels, it was determined that when low - income families are moved from poor neighborhoods to suburban neighborhoods, there are reductions in delinquency in children . When comparing different social statuses of families, the environment of a neighborhood turns out to be major factor in contributing to the growth of a child . </P>

Why does socio-economics play such an important role in terms of its contribution to inequality