Search

We study the effect of paternity leave on early child development. We collect sur-vey data on 5,000 children under age six in Spain and exploit several extensions of paternity leave that took place between 2017 and 2021. We follow a differences-in-discontinuities research design, based on the date of birth of each child and using cohorts born in non-reform years as controls. We show that the extensions led to significant increases in the length of leave taken by fathers, without affecting that of mothers, thus increasing parental time at home in the first year after birth. Eligibility for four additional weeks of paternity leave led to a significant 12 percentage-point increase in the fraction of children with developmental delays. We provide evidence for two potential mechanisms. First, children exposed to longer paternity leave spend less time alone with their mother, and more time with their father, during their first year of life. Second, treated children use less formal childcare. Our results suggest that paternity leave replaces higher-quality modes of early care. We conclude that the effects of parental leave policies on children depend crucially on the quality of parental versus counterfactual modes of childcare. [Funding for this report was provided by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.]

This paper documents the impact of home libraries on academic achievement, economic success, and health. It summarizes research that shows how children without access to reading materials at home are more likely to suffer learning losses when out of school and how home libraries are one of schools' and communities' best tools to combat learning loss. In sum, the paper illustrates the importance of creating a literacy-rich home environment for all children and outlines the essential components of a student home library--a tangible, cost-effective way to afford every child access to a bright, successful future. [This report was prepared by Scholastic Research & Validation.]

By the time children in low- and middle-income countries start primary school, large socioeconomic disparities are evident in children's learning and development. Both pre-primary and home environments can play important roles in influencing school readiness and can contribute to disparities in early childhood development, but there is limited evidence on their relative roles in low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines how pre-primary quality, stimulation at home, and early childhood development vary by socioeconomic status for pre-primary students in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The results demonstrate substantial socioeconomic inequality in stimulation at home, more so than in pre-primary quality and inputs, although there is variation in the degree of inequality across different dimensions of pre-primary quality. "Double inequality" is observed, where students with less stimulating home environments experience slightly lower quality pre-primary inputs. There are particularly large pre-primary inequities in structural quality (physical environment) and less inequity in process quality (pedagogy). These results suggest that targeted investments in pre-primary education in Egypt are necessary to reduce inequality in school readiness but are likely insufficient to close the socioeconomic status gap in children's development. Investing in interventions to improve vulnerable children's home learning environments, as well as investing in quality pre-primary, is critical to address disparities in children's development. [This paper is a product of the World Bank's Education Global Practice. The study is the result of a collaboration between the World Bank and the Ministry of Education and Technical Education of Egypt (MOETE). It was funded by the UK Strategic Partnership for Egypt's Inclusive Growth Trust Fund and the World Bank.]

Only three out of five children are enrolled in preschool globally, and only one out of five in low-income countries, yet the expansion of preschool education came to a near standstill in 2020. To restart it, we propose a policy instrument called the Preschool Entitlement. It entails the right of every child to 600 hours of quality government-funded preschool education per year (3 hours per day, 5 days per week, 40 weeks per year). Existing preschool institutions and other organizations with legal status (public, private, faith- or community-based) can offer the child development program after a process of rigorous accreditation to ensure quality, inclusion, and safety. In other respects, they will have the freedom to shape the program according to local circumstances and local preferences. This makes it possible to supplement the daily 3 hours with additional hours of childcare that can be financed by families, local government, employers, national associations, faith-based organizations, ministries of social affairs, or others. In this manner, the Preschool Entitlement reconciles local autonomy with governmental responsibility for quality, access, and equity. In low- and middle-income countries, government costs would range from about 0.15 to 0.4 percent of GDP, and the benefits are likely to be significant.

The National Quality Framework (NQF) was established in 2012 to create a more efficient and cohesive approach to regulating early childhood education and care, and outside school hours care in Australia. The NQF provides a shared vision for governments and the children's education and care sector, and an agreed tool for measuring and monitoring service quality. It sets standards for safety and quality so that all children who attend services regulated under the NQF are supported to have the best start in life. This occasional paper discusses how and why the NQF came about, what has changed in the last 10 years, and future directions.

The context for child care and early education (CCEE) changed rapidly in March 2020 as the global pandemic caused the closure of child care programs and schools, widespread job loss, and negative impacts on the broader economy and family life. Black and Latino families and families with lower income experienced disproportionately negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of structural racism and a history of inequitable systems. Many of the negative impacts of the pandemic have directly impacted families' access to high-quality CCEE. As leaders in CCEE consider the implications of COVID-19 for children, families, policies, and programs, a research, evaluation, and data agenda that identifies key questions, research methods, and data needs will be a critical tool. This research, evaluation, and data agenda can (1) alert decision makers to racial and economic inequities in outcomes and promote tracking of key equity indicators, (2) encourage the development of new projects and data initiatives, (3) support the synthesis of information across projects, (4) identify key topics for consideration that may be otherwise overlooked, and (5) promote the application of knowledge to planning and development. The goal of this report is to get input on high priority questions that can inform the field's understanding of the pandemic's impact on the CCEE landscape, including children, families, CCEE programs, the CCEE workforce, and the broader system of agencies, local organizations, and institutes of higher education that support CCEE. The purpose of this work is to develop and revise a research, evaluation, and data agenda that can be used by a wide range of stakeholders (state administrators, policymakers, advocates, funders, etc.) to prioritize research questions that need to be addressed and identify potential data sources to answer these questions. [This report was produced through the Child Care and Early Education Policy Research and Analysis (CCEEPRA) project.]

This occasional paper is the seventh in a series on the National Quality Framework (NQF). It explores the quality of children's education and care services based on the socio-economic status of the area in which they are situated. The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) is used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to classify services by the level of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage of their local area. This paper uses SEIFA as a proxy measure to identify services that are more or less likely to educate and care for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper begins by highlighting contemporary research about the association between socio-economic status and developmental outcomes, and the impact of high quality education and care on children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. It then outlines the quality and availability of education and care in low socio-economic status areas, analysing service quality ratings and reassessment results. The paper also examines differences across service and provider management types, and remoteness classifications. The detailed analysis suggests that there are differences in the overall quality ratings of education and care services located in high and low socio-economic status areas. Services in relatively disadvantaged areas are slightly more likely to be rated Working Towards NQS and notably less likely to be rated Exceeding NQS than those in relatively advantaged areas.

This report asserts that every child--regardless of race, income, or opportunity--should have consistent access to high-quality learning experiences from birth and provides a roadmap toward change at scale, including the development of residency programs and improved compensation for the infant/toddler workforce.

This paper evaluates and compares two randomized interventions in Tonga, one targeting the home environment of children up to age 5 and one targeting the school environment for first and second grade students. The first intervention supports communities to set up and run playgroups that aim to improve caregiver-child interaction at home and ultimately improve children's readiness for school. Among children of mothers without high school education, being in a treatment community positively affects the school readiness literacy domains and overall score by 0.19 and 0.2 standard deviation, respectively, for girls and the literacy domains for boys by 0.17 standard deviation. The second intervention provides teachers with training, materials, and coaching to improve reading instruction practices and students' reading ability. It increased average early grade reading scores by approximately 0.18 standard deviation per year of exposure. Two cohorts of children were potentially exposed to both interventions, providing an opportunity to compare, for the same population of children, the effects of an early childhood intervention with a school-based intervention using a common measure of learning achievement. The school readiness intervention is found to have positive effects on early grade reading scores only among children in the reading intervention's control group; effect sizes of approximately 0.29 standard deviation were found at the end of second grade for children exposed to one year of the school readiness intervention and at the end of first grade for girls exposed to two years of the intervention. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

Early childhood is a time of extensive development in the brain and many of the body's biological systems that are critical for health. Learning and development during these early years can have a critical impact on future educational attainment, which is an important determinant of health. There are also other important aspects of early childhood that can influence health, school readiness and future educational attainment, including experiences, relationships and the environment in which a child grows up. Poverty is often a considerable barrier to healthy development. Recent advances in the science of brain development offer us an unprecedented opportunity to solve some of society's most challenging problems, from widening disparities in school achievement and economic productivity to costly health problems across the lifespan. Understanding how the experiences children have starting at birth, even prenatally, affect lifelong outcomes -- combined with new knowledge about the core capabilities adults need to thrive as parents and in the workplace -- provides a strong foundation upon which policymakers and civic leaders can design a shared and more effective agenda. Despite research demonstrating that high-quality early childhood care and education can be beneficial to children, research has also demonstrated that the majority of children in the United States are placed in low-quality care, some of which may be detrimental to the longterm development of children. This paper will look at traditional preschools and discuss three of the emergent philosophical and value-laden approaches to early childhood care and education that allow districts, teachers, parents, and students greater flexibility in meeting the needs of their children. These are: Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf.

In the past decade, American and Canadian pediatric societies have recommended that pediatric care clinicians follow a schedule of routine surveillance and screening for young children to detect conditions such as developmental delay, speech and language delays and disorders, and autism spectrum disorder. The goal of these recommendations is to ensure that children with these developmental issues receive appropriate referrals for evaluation and intervention. However, in 2015 and 2016, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care issued recommendations that did not support universal screening for these conditions. This occasional paper is designed to help make sense of the discrepancy between Task Force recommendations and those of the pediatric community in light of research and practice. To clarify the issues, in this paper I review the distinction between screening and surveillance; the benefits of screening and early identification; how the USPSTF makes its recommendations; and what the implications of not supporting screening are for research, clinical practice, and families.

Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely-reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status families, including recent proposals that the pattern is a particularly US phenomenon. We use matched birth and school records from Florida siblings and twins born in 1994-2002 to provide the largest, most population-diverse consideration of this hypothesis to date. We find no evidence of SES moderation of genetic influence on test scores, suggesting that articulating gene-environment interactions for cognition is more complex and elusive than previously supposed.

This occasional paper is the fourth in a series on the National Quality Framework (NQF). This paper offers detailed insights into education and care service quality ratings for Quality Area 3 (physical environment) of the National Quality Standard (NQS). The focus is on ensuring the physical environment of a service is safe, suitable and provides a rich and diverse range of experiences that promote children's learning and development. This paper begins with an overview of the physical environment standards and what these aim to achieve, highlighting contemporary research and theory behind sustainable environments promoting children's learning. It then outlines the operational requirements of the National Law and National Regulations for the physical environment, with a particular focus on the requirements specific to different service types. The paper also describes how service approval requirements in the National Law apply to the physical environment, and how providers may seek waivers for certain legislated requirements. The paper is intended to be of interest to people who deliver education and care services, families, people who provide training and professional development services to the sector, and to officers in the state and territory regulatory authorities that regulate education and care services.

Although many studies have investigated links between maternal employment and children's wellbeing, less research has considered whether the stability of maternal employment is linked with child outcomes. Using unique employment calendar data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=2,011), an urban birth cohort study of largely low-income families, this paper investigates whether the stability of maternal employment in early childhood (birth to age 5) is linked with child behavior and cognitive skills at ages 5 and 9. Employment stability (continuous employment over all 5 years, low levels of job churning, longer job tenure) was linked with less child externalizing behavior, but there was little evidence to suggest stability was particularly important for PPVT [Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test] and Woodcock-Johnson scores. Rather, for PPVT and Woodcock-Johnson scores, an increase in maternal employment in early childhood more generally was associated with higher scores.

Recent studies show that texting-based interventions can produce educational benefits in children across a range of ages. We study the effects of a text-based program for kindergarten parents, distinguishing a general program from one that adds differentiation and personalization based on the child's developmental level. Children in the differentiated and personalized program were 50 percent more likely to read at a higher level (p<0.01) compared to the general group; and their parents reported engaging more in literacy activities by 0.31 standard deviations (p<0.01) compared to the control group. Effects were driven by children further from average levels of baseline development.

ACECQA has published the second in its series of occasional papers, analysing one of the most challenging quality areas -- Children's Health and Safety. Quality Area 2 addresses one of the primary objectives of the National Quality Framework -- to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of children attending education and care services. The paper examines performance across service types, socio economic and remoteness classifications, jurisdictions and management types. It also breaks down Quality Area 2 and highlights that standard 2.3 (each child is protected) and element 2.3.3 (incident and emergency planning) are the most challenging aspects of the Quality Area. One of the findings from the analysis is that services in remote and very remote areas may benefit from more support to understand and comply with the requirements of Quality Area 2. The paper also summarises recent state, territory and Commonwealth initiatives around child safe organisations, as well as some examples of the types of compliance and enforcement action that state and territory regulatory authorities have taken relating to children's health and safety.

Many students begin their college experience enrolled in large introductory classes. These classes are likely to enroll students who are at risk of leaving college without a degree. As such, these classes have the potential to reach at-risk students including first-year, first-generation, undeclared, and underrepresented minority (URM) students. Unfortunately, large lecture classes can make it difficult for students to develop meaningful relationships with faculty members or peers, even though it is known that the presence of strong faculty-student relationships predicts student engagement (Jaasma & Koper, 1999). One route to engaging students is the intentional use of evidence-based pedagogical practices. There have been substantial efforts to improve large lecture classes through the strategic use of discussion sections, active learning, and varied forms of assessment. Additionally, efforts to increase students' engagement and persistence have taken place outside of the classroom. We believe that some evidence-based practices developed outside the classroom are ripe for use in large lectures. In the current paper we describe an integration of academic content with practices that support student engagement and success in a large general education course, "Child Development." We begin with a brief description of the class, as it was before modification and as it is now. We then summarize some of the literature that describes evidenced-based methods of supporting at-risk students and explain how we have used this literature to inform our alignment of pedagogical practices with pedagogical goals. We share means of authentic assessment used in this course that target academic mastery and student well-being during and after the course's completion. Throughout this discussion we report on early indications that our modifications have met our intended goals. We conclude by considering principles that might guide redesign of other large classes. [Foreword by Pat Hutchings.]

This study examines the community-wide effects of two statewide early childhood policy initiatives in North Carolina. One initiative provides funding to improve the quality of child care services at the county level for all children between the ages of 0 to 5, and the other provides funding for preschool slots for disadvantaged four-year-olds. Differences across counties in the timing of the rollout and in the magnitude of the state financial investments per child provide the variation in programs needed to estimate their effects on schooling outcomes in third grade. We find robust positive effects of each program on third-grade test scores in both reading and math. These effects can best be explained by a combination of direct benefits for participants and spillover benefits for others. Our preferred models suggest that the combined average effects on test scores of investments in both programs at 2009 funding levels are equivalent to two to four months of instruction in grade 3.

Amid growing recognition that strong academic skills alone are not enough for young people to become successful adults, this comprehensive report offers wide-ranging evidence to show what young people need to develop from preschool to young adulthood to succeed in college and career, have healthy relationships, be engaged citizens, and make wise choices. It concludes that rich experiences combining action and reflection help children develop a set of critical skills, attitudes, and behaviors. And it suggests that policies should aim to ensure that all children have consistent, supportive relationships and an abundance of these developmental experiences through activities inside and outside of school. The Wallace Foundation awarded a competitive grant to UChicago CCSR in 2013 to undertake the project, which included a review of relevant literature spanning decades as well as interviews with national experts in research, policy and practice, and young people and the adults who work with them in schools, programs and agencies throughout Chicago. The report offers evidence to show how, where, and when the "key factors" to success develop from early childhood through young adulthood, emphasizing the kinds of experiences and supportive relationships that guide the positive development of these factors. Recognizing that there are no silver bullets to promoting social-emotional learning, the report emphasizes a range of factors that build on one another over time. It also emphasizes factors that are particularly malleable, as well as the age at which each of the key factors comes into prominence, offering adults the most promising window for positive intervention. A key problem the report identifies is that disadvantaged youth often face extra challenges. For example, they often have fewer in-school and out-of-school opportunities for consistent, positive developmental experiences and relationships and face significant opportunity gaps to developing the essential skills to become productive adults. An appendix provides a list of experts who provided input and feedback throughout this project. [This report was written with David W. Johnson, Sarah Dickson, Ashley Cureton Turner, Ashley Mayo, and Kathleen Hayes.]

This study examined differences in kindergarten children's behavioral functioning across rural and non-rural communities, as well as explored the effect of risk in each setting (i.e., rural, nonrural) on these children's behavior. Data from 116 kindergarten students and their parents and teachers was analyzed. Multileveling modeling was used to explore the main and interaction effects of community setting and cumulative risk on parent and teacher reports of children's behavioral functioning. Findings suggested that community setting or cumulative risk did not predict kindergarten children's behavior; however, risk differentially predicted children's behavior based on rural or non-rural community status. Particularly, cumulative risk predicted poorer student outcomes upon entrance in kindergarten in rural communities than non-rural communities. Limitations of the study and implications for practice are discussed.

The early childhood period from birth to age 8 is an exciting one for growth, development, and learning. It is when children begin to develop social-emotional competence, and it is also a time when children's emerging skills may result in behaviors adults and peers find challenging. It is important that adults who care for and teach young children be prepared to address challenging behavior in positive and instructive ways. Positive approaches to preventing and addressing challenging behavior go beyond only reacting in the moment and instead aim to address the underlying cause of the behavior and teach the child needed social-emotional or communication skills. In this statement, the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children defines "challenging behavior" and "social-emotional competence," provides a summary of DEC's position on the identification of and intervention with challenging behavior, and offers recommendations to the early childhood special education and early care and education fields about positive approaches to preventing and addressing challenging behavior. In so doing, DEC reaffirms its commitment to the healthy social-emotional development of all children and provides guidance to professionals and families in preventing and addressing challenging behaviors.

This paper discusses the importance of incorporating personal assistance into interventions aimed at improving long-term education and labor market success. While existing research demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of low-touch behavioral nudges, this paper argues that the dynamic nature of human capital accumulation requires sustained habits over time. To foster better habits, social connections are critical for encouraging enduring effort and intrinsic motivation. The paper showcases examples from various stages of human capital accumulation, including early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, in which interventions that incorporate personal assistance substantially out-perform less intensive nudges. We underscore the importance of interactive support, guidance, and motivation in facilitating significant progress and explore the challenges associated with implementing cost-effective policies to provide such assistance.

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use surveys. Based on the conceptual framework of an education production function, we cover evidence on child, parent, and school inputs and students' cognitive and socio-emotional development. The German panel evidence shows that children's learning time decreased severely during the first school closures, particularly for low-achieving students, and increased only slightly one year later. In a value-added model, learning time increases with daily online class instruction, but not with other school activities. The review shows substantial losses in cognitive skills on achievement tests, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Socio-emotional wellbeing also declined in the short run. Structural models and reduced-form projections suggest that unless remediated, the school closures will persistently reduce skill development, lifetime income, and economic growth and increase inequality. [This paper was prepared for the XXIII European Conference of the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti on "Long-term socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic."]

This paper draws from the Center on Reinventing Public Education's (CRPE's) study of pandemic pods conducted in 2020 and 2021 to understand what lessons can be drawn from the focused implementation of the whole-child approach in pandemic learning communities and to what degree these lessons are applicable to traditional schooling. The majority of the learning environments and their leaders that are the focus of this paper intentionally aimed to support children's social, emotional, physical, and mental health and/or identity development, as well as their academic growth. Promoting a safe, supportive, connected, and culturally competent learning environment was also a key priority, especially in pods designed for students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Universally, these elements were supplemental to academic instruction.