Giving Children a Better Start: Preschool Attendance and School-Age Profiles

Abstract

Abstract:We study the effect of pre-primary education on children's subsequent school outcomes by exploiting a unique feature of the Uruguayan household survey (ECH) that collects retrospective information on preschool attendance. A rapid expansion in the supply of pre-primary places over the last decade generates sufficient variation in the data to warrant identification. Using a within household estimator that only exploits differences in exposure across siblings, we find small gains from preschool attendance at early ages that magnify as children grow up. By age 16, children that attended preschool have accumulated more than 1 extra year of education and are 27 percentage points more likely to be in school compared to their siblings with no preschool education. We speculate that early grade repetition harms subsequent school progression and that pre-primary education appears as a successful policy option to prevent early grade failure and its long lasting consequences.

Empowering parents to improve education: Evidence from rural Mexico

“…Still, these results are important as grade failure and repetition are associated with long-term problems in terms of academic achievement. In particular, they are related to poorer test performance and a higher probability of subsequent dropout in later years (Berlinski et al, 2008;Jimerson, 2001;Manacorda, 2012 andMarshall, 2003). Moreover, grade repetition can exacerbate crowding in primary schools (increased class sizes), especially in the earliest grades, thus increasing the burden placed on teachers (Brophy, 2006).…”

“…students in grade g at the end of the school year t over the total enrolled in grade g at the beginning of school year t. 11 Even if not as sensitive as test scores, these measures are important as they are correlated with long-term problems in terms of academic achievement. Repeating students tend to fall further behind their peers in later years, which in turn increases the risk of early school dropout (see for example, Berlinski et al, 2008;Jimerson, 2001;Manacorda, 2012 andMarshall, 2003).…”

“…These measures are important as they are correlated with long term-academic achievement and early school dropout, with repeaters falling further behind their peers in the later years (Berlinski et al, 2008;Jimerson, 2001;Manacorda, 2012 andMarshall, 2003). We exploit the gradual phasing-in of the AGE intervention over time to identify difference-in-difference estimates of average treatment effects.…”

Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking on Inequality

“…26 In Pakistan, CCTs made available only in favor of girls led to increases in enrollment in the range of 11-13 percentage points. 27 Also in Bangladesh, the Rural Development Program and the Rural Roads and Markets Improvement and Maintenance Program have boosted employment and wages in agricultural and nonagricultural activities, as well as aggregate harvest outputs. Per capita annual spending across households in the program areas has risen by about 10 percent.…”

Supply and quality choices in private child care markets: Evidence from São Paulo

“…A growing body of evidence suggests that enrollment in preschool education has sizable positive impacts on subsequent educational, behavioral and economic outcomes (Berlinski et al, 2008(Berlinski et al, , 2009Currie and Thomas, 1995;Garces et al, 2002). Drawing on evidence from a series of studies, Heckman (2006) concludes that early childhood care for disadvantaged children is more effective than interventions that come later in life, and advocates shifting educational spending to young disadvantaged children on both efficiency and equity grounds.…”