This research examines the extent to which a mother's ethnicity, social class, and immigration status, singly or in interaction, are associated with her beliefs about how best to prepare her child for kindergarten. One hundred and fifty-six lower- and middle-class Euro-American, African-American, non-immigrant Latina, and immigrant Latina mothers with children beginning kindergarten completed anonymous questionnaires asking mothers about their values as well as demographic information for mothers and their child's father and maternal grandmother. In this research, ethnicity and immigration status classifications were unambiguous. The social class indicators, education, occupation, and family income, did not relate consistently across the ethnic/immigrant groups. For Euro-American, non-immigrant Latina, and immigrant Latina mothers, relationships among social class indicators were generally linear. For African-American mothers, family income tended to be depressed compared to education and occupation. For preparation for kindergarten, middle-class Euro-American mothers valued getting along with peers most, African-American mothers most valued academic preparation, and Latina mothers, regardless of immigration status, valued learning to respect authority most. Contrary to the literature, mothers generally valued academic learning goals and learning to respect the teacher more than they valued learning to get along with peers. Mothers' satisfaction with school affects their children's educational success. This study suggests that assessing mothers' values about early education would provide educators with information helpful in achieving successful learning for their students. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)