Teachers' education, classroom quality, and young children's academic skills: results from seven studies of preschool programs

In an effort to provide high-quality preschool education, policymakers are increasingly requiring public preschool teachers to have at least a Bachelor's degree, preferably in early childhood education. Seven major studies of early care and education were used to predict classroom quality and children's academic outcomes from the educational attainment and major of teachers of 4-year-olds. The findings indicate largely null or contradictory associations, indicating that policies focused solely on increasing teachers' education will not suffice for improving classroom quality or maximizing children's academic gains. Instead, raising the effectiveness of early childhood education likely will require a broad range of professional development activities and supports targeted toward teachers' interactions with children.     

Early schooling: its influence on reading comprehension at primary level / Escolarización temprana: su influencia sobre la comprensión lectora en primaria

Abstract

Early schooling may influence the future academic results of students. In spite of this, there are very few studies providing evidence to demonstrate such an influence, with children under three being included in the notion of early schooling, as is the case in this study. We analyse the influence of this kind of education on the reading comprehension of fourth year primary students in Spain, on the basis of the data obtained from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2011. Given the type of sampling used with PIRLS, with its hierarchical structure, we estimate multilevel educational production functions. The results obtained indicate that early schooling, as well as the socio-economic and cultural background of families, has a positive effect on students’ results in reading comprehension. These results support proposals for widening opportunities for receiving free education in early childhood, at least for socio-economically disadvantaged families, in order to compensate for the lack of early schooling received by their children and the consequent effects this has on their reading skills.     

COLLABORATION AMONG EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS AND FACULTY THROUGH A REGGIO INSPIRED LONG‐TERM PROJECT

To effectively teach young children, early childhood teachers must be prepared to collaborate with families of diverse backgrounds. Studying the unique cultural contexts of children and families in American early care and education programs and communities will offer early educators information needed to develop empathy for the families with whom they wish to partner. This study investigated the attitudes of Chinese graduate students in the United States toward American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students are a unique and growing population of approximately 189,000, 40% of whom have at least one child attending American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students’ educational expectations for their young children and reasons behind these expectations were also explored. Findings showed that participants’ views of American early care and education reflected Chinese culture and life experience. In terms of American education, these Chinese graduate students compared the American programs’ curricula to the Chinese national curriculum, a curriculum they successfully mastered. Implications for early childhood teacher education programs are discussed.     

Revisiting major determinants of participation in adult education with a direct measure of literacy skills

The purpose of this article is to investigate major determinants of participation in adult education. Specifically, a direct measure of literacy skills available in the International Adult Literacy Survey is included. Interpreted as a measure of human capital, it is expected that literacy skills are at least as important a predictor of participation in adult education and training as educational attainment. The findings however do not support this expectation. Instead educational attainment remains the most important factor predicting participation in adult education and training. The models in this article are based on the idea that readiness to learn is formed early in life and further developed through educational and work experiences. Factors that are hypothesised to influence participation in adult education and training are separated into factors associated with the long arm of the family and the long arm of the job. The findings indicate the long arm of the family plays an important role, which supports early intervention, especially during the formal schooling years. The results also highlight the strong link between the use of literacy skills at work and participation in adult education and training.     

Relative importance of early childhood development domains for schooling progression: Longitudinal Evidence from the Zambia Early Childhood Development Project

While the effects of early childhood development on later educational outcomes have been widely studied in western countries, rigorous evidence from sub-Saharan African countries is limited. This longitudinal study uses Zambian children’s developmental outcomes at age six as predictors of educational enrollment and attainment at age 15. Fine motor, receptive language, and early literacy skills were most strongly associated with on-track enrollment. Fine motor skills were most predictive of enrollment. Cognitive, socio-emotional, and executive functioning skills predicted grade repetition. Overall, the results suggest substantial heterogeneity in the associations between domains of early childhood development and adolescent schooling outcomes in Zambia.     

我国学龄人口分龄平均受教育年数的计算及其应用研究

学龄人口年龄结构的变化对整个学龄人口的平均受教育年数会产生重要的影响.以与学制和年龄相对应的“标准(或适龄)受教育年数”为基本参数,以受教育程度构成的年龄变化为依据考虑学龄段内的错龄上学,对学龄人口的分龄及整体平均受教育年数的探索性研究结果显示,我国学龄人口的分龄及整体平均受教育年数普遍提高,总体受教育程度高移化趋势显...     

Technology and educational choices: Evidence from a one-laptop-per-child program

This paper provides the first causal estimates of the effect of children’s access to computers and the internet on educational outcomes in early adulthood, such as schooling and choice of major. I exploit cross-cohort variation in access to technology among primary and middle school students in Uruguay, the first country to implement a nationwide one-laptop-per-child program. Despite a notable increase in computer access, educational attainment has not increased; the schooling gap between private and public school students has persisted, despite closing the technology gap. Among college students, those who had been exposed to the program as children were less likely to enroll in science and technology.     

Public vs. private schooling as a route to universal basic education: A comparison of China and India

This article examines whether focusing primarily on public schooling can lead to more rapid achievement of universal basic education (UBE) than relying on a mixture of public and private schooling. Through a structured, focused comparison, we find China's greater emphasis on public schooling has contributed to higher enrollment, attendance, graduation rates, gender parity, and proportion of students entering higher education than India, the country with the world's largest private sector in primary and secondary education. This comparison suggests that greater emphasis on public schooling in developing countries may lead to more rapid UBE attainment than encouraging privatization.     

Students with reading and spelling disabilities: peer groups and educational attainment in secondary education

The present study investigated whether the members of adolescents' peer groups are similar in reading and spelling disabilities and whether this similarity contributes to subsequent school achievement and educational attainment. The sample consisted of 375 Finnish adolescents whose reading and spelling disabilities were assessed at age 16 with the Finnish dyslexia screening test. The students also completed a sociometric nomination measure that was used to identify their peer groups. Register information on participants' school grades also was available, and educational attainment in secondary education was recorded 5 years after completion of the 9 years of basic education. The results revealed that the members of adolescent peer groups resembled each other in reading disabilities but not in those of spelling. Reading disabilities and academic achievement shared within the peer group also contributed to educational attainment in secondary education. Finally, reading disabilities played a larger role in educational attainment among males than among females.     

Understanding higher education access: Inequalities and early learning in low and lower-middle-income countries

Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio-economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle-income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio-economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio-economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio-economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children’s lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.     

It’s special and it’s specific: understanding the early childhood education experiences and expectations of young Indigenous Australian children and their parents

Whilst early childhood education is regarded as important for young Indigenous Australians and it has been a feature of policy since the 1960s, it does not receive the same attention as compulsory schooling for Indigenous Australian students. A serious lack of large-scale research contributes to the devaluing of early childhood education for young Indigenous Australians by some stakeholders such as governments, academics and research, but not for the main stakeholders, namely young Indigenous Australian children and their parents. This paper aims to address this by drawing on large-scale qualitative and quantitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. First, it will analyse data pertaining to the experiences of Indigenous Australian children to uncover what they believe to be special about their early childhood education. Second, it will analyse data pertaining to the specific choices made by their parents regarding their early childhood education. The paper concludes by discussing the role of research in strengthening areas within Indigenous Australian early childhood education and identifying areas where it is valued to the same level as compulsory schooling.     

Kindergartenbesuch und späterer Bildungserfolg

This paper analyses the impact of attending kindergarten, the most common early childhood care and education program in West Germany, on children’s placement at secondary school level. The analysis is based on an education production function that controls for parental background and regional variation in the educational system. The analysis confirms the hypothesis, that kindergarten attendance can have a long-lasting positive effect on educational chances. In four of six specifications a longer attendance of early childhood care and education increases the probability of attending a higher level secondary school. However, there are diminishing returns to early childhood education.     

Connecting Education,Welfare, and Health for American Families

The relationship of education to social mobility, health, and socioeconomic stability is examined in this study. The central question is: how do educational access and attainment reduce poverty and increase social immersion in a system that affords opportunity for quality health care and economic prosperity? An historic perspective, related and compared to current conditions for those who live at or below the poverty line, highlights the extreme difficulties of overcoming the barriers that separate people from consistent quality education, access to quality health care, and the opportunity to move toward economic independence.

The latest statistics showing the significance of socioeconomic status (SES) to cognitive development, educational achievement, healthy living, and social mobility are factors that have and continue to affect large portions of America's poor. The increase of early childhood programs is a beneficial first step in closing the achievement gap, but the physical and mental health problems plaguing the poor must be addressed if we are to reduce the poverty rate and improve educational opportunities for all children.     

Education,work and earnings of Peruvian women

This study describes trends in educational attainment among women in Peru, and examines the determinants of educational attainment, labor force participation and employment, and earnings. Data were obtained from the Peruvian Living Standards Survey among a sample of 5644 women aged 20-59 years. Findings indicate that parents' educational variables had a positive and statistically significant relationship with the educational attainment of their daughters. The impact declined over time from older to younger cohorts. School reforms improved women's access to education. Education became more universal and compulsory over time. Daughters of mothers with white collar occupations had higher levels of schooling than farmers' daughters. The effects of fathers' education was larger. There was a wider gap between farmers and nonfarmers. Textbooks, teachers, and number of grades offered were the only primary school inputs that showed any clear cohort trend in their effect on years of schooling. As primary schools became more available, textbooks had a greater impact on school attainment. The impact of textbooks was larger for women than for men. The number of grades offered had a large positive effect which increased across cohorts from older to younger. Findings suggest weak effects of school reforms on women's likelihood of participating in the paid or unpaid labor force. Years of schooling had a very small and negative effect on total labor force participation. Woman's paid employment was influenced by age, education and training, household characteristics, and family's unearned income. Educational attainment had a small positive effect on participation in paid employment for younger women and no effect for older women. The average rate of return in paid employment to primary education was about 12%. Primary education had the highest rate of return. The return to job tenure was higher for younger women.     

The effect of Vietnam-era conscription and genetic potential for educational attainment on schooling outcomes

This study examines whether draft lottery estimates of the causal effects of Vietnam-era military service on schooling vary by an individual's genetic propensity toward educational attainment. To capture the complex genetic architecture that underlies the bio-developmental pathways, behavioral traits and evoked environments associated with educational attainment, we construct polygenic scores (PGS) for respondents in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) that aggregate thousands of individual loci across the human genome and weight them by effect sizes derived from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of years of education. Our findings suggest veterans with below average PGSs for educational attainment may have completed fewer years of schooling than comparable non-veterans. On the other hand, we do not find any difference in the educational attainment of veterans and non-veterans with above average PGSs. Results indicate that public policies and exogenous environments may induce heterogeneous treatment effects by genetic disposition.     

Sex,urban/rural and minority differences in educational attainment in Soviet and post-Soviet Tajikistan

This paper analyses the educational attainment of Tajikistani adults born between 1947 and 1989. Adults in the oldest cohorts completed school during the educational expansion of the Soviet period and the youngest cohorts completed their education in the post-Soviet period, which was marked by educational contraction. To date, there is not a clear picture of attainment trends during the Soviet period that provide a perspective for judging educational attainment in the post-Soviet period. Using household survey data collected in 2007 by the World Bank, I conduct a synthetic cohort analysis to estimate the likelihood of completing basic, secondary and higher education for men and women; urban and rural residents and ethnic majority and minority citizens. Findings for particular groups are mixed, but in general the gap in educational attainment between advantaged groups and disadvantaged groups narrows during the Soviet era, but widens in the post-Soviet period.     

学习化社会背景下的瑞典教育改革——以学前教育和高等教育为蓝本

二战后,瑞典为推进学习化社会的建设,政府以终身教育为指导思想大力改革传统教育体制,尤其重视学前教育的基础性和高等教育的引导作用.在学前教育的改革方面,瑞典政府明晰学前教育目标,强调儿童的全面发展,革新学前教育内容和方式.在高等教育的改革方面,瑞典政府扩大高等教育的规模,为终身教育实施提供条件,加强对高等教育的调控,为终身教育提供制度保障.     

Bridging the gap: a longitudinal study of the relationship between pedagogical continuity and early Chinese literacy acquisition

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between pedagogical continuity in literacy education and early literacy development by comparing Chinese children in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Stratified random sampling was used to select 24 preschool and Primary 1 classes in four communities catering to middle‐class families in each city. The 24 teachers were interviewed about their teaching methods and views on pedagogical continuity in individual sessions. Further, their teaching activities were videotaped over a period of a week. Their students (n = 758) completed a Chinese literacy attainment test at the beginning and at the end of the same academic year. Analyses indicated that Hong Kong students outperformed their Shenzhen counterparts in Chinese literacy attainment, at both preschool and primary levels, concurrently and longitudinally. This suggests that the holistic approach followed in Hong Kong might have a more positive impact on children's literacy development than the approach followed in Shenzhen. Implications of the findings for early childhood curriculum reform are discussed.     

Teacher’s primary role for education reform: equalizing learning outcomes

When a teacher plans instruction, he has in mind some prototypical students or group: someone like himself or some group similar to his in ability. With this conception of the prototypical students or group, he teaches only one-third of students to reach a level of achievement. At the end of semester, most teachers give their grades, generally reflecting students’ IQ scores, according to a normal distribution curve. There are good learners and poor learners, faster learners and slow learners in any classroom, mainly due to their inborn abilities or environment. We believe that all people are created equal, and deserve equal educational opportunity. Therefore, educational outcomes should be equal for all students in general basic education. Equality of learning outcomes and vertical equality in the learning process are very hard to achieve. Nevertheless, it has to be an ideal goal of schooling and a long-range objective of education reform. In accordance with the goal of schooling and education reform, the principal role of teachers should be teach all students to master their subject.     

The experience of school in Scotland, 1970s to 1990s

Reforms to secondary schooling in the 20th century are most commonly discussed in relation to structures—the extension of secondary education to all students in the first half of the century, and the ending of selection into different kinds of school after the 1960s. Yet reformers also sought to give students a more satisfactory experience of school. Understanding statistically the changing experience which students had of secondary school following the reforms of the 1960s requires a lengthy time series of survey data collected contemporaneously and the capacity to link that information to evidence on attainment and on demographic factors such as sex and socio-economic status. Data from a unique series of such surveys in Scotland is used to investigate whether secondary schools became more humane in this period, whether students were more engaged with their schooling, and whether they thought that schools prepared them for life after they left. The conclusions are that the long-term aspirations of reformers to make schooling more satisfactory for students were broadly achieved. There were indeed improvements of experience and sentiment of these kinds, and they extended to students at all levels of attainment, to both sexes, and to all levels of socio-economic status.