The Role of Parenting Practices and Preschool Education for Social Inequality in Learning Outcomes: A Cross-Country Comparison Using Test Scores

Research on preschool education and day-care programs is gaining momentum since the discovery of its potential to reduce social inequalities in educational attainment. Much of this research relies on case studies to measure mid and long term effects of preschool attendance on academic performance and school transitions. In this paper we adopt a broader focus and a comparative approach by exploring the extent to which early (pre-primary school) child stimulation can reduce background differentials in learning outcomes across 28 countries from the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Particularly we seek to unveil the relative impact of direct parental involvement and preschool education, as different ways of child rearing, on educational disadvantages that stem social origins, and the extent to which this applies to all the countries in our sample. Are the effects of both practices (institutional vs. at parental home; formal vs. informal) substitutive or complementary? Are there measurable cross-country differences in the learning benefits of preschool education? Is kindergarten attendance equally stimulating for children from different socio-economic origins? Is the impact of different parenting practises sensitive to national contexts? How do institutional characteristics of the educational system affect performance at this stage?

To answer these questions we use PIRLS 2011, an international data source clustering students of primary education (4^th grade) across countries. PIRLS provides a standardized measure of reading literacy among students in 4^th grade. We estimate random-constant and random-slope multilevel models to assess the effect of the type of child care adopted by families on educational outcomes. This approach enables us to decompose the observed variance in reading skills into its constitutive parts at the country and student level. Beyond our substantive findings, we discuss the potential for a broad comparison of multi-layered processes that result in unequal life chances among children.