Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is seen as an equalizer for social inequalities in learning outcomes. In this recent study, Markus Laaninen, Nevena Kulic and Jani Erola found that although ECEC generally benefited children's long-term learning outcomes, contrary to current international research, it was not found that ECEC compensated for the achievement of low-SES children in the Nordic countries.
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) participation is especially emphasized in gender egalitarian perspectives as it enables mothers to participate in the labour market. Furthermore, it has been considered to be able to narrow the achievement gap between children from different family backgrounds in both targeted and universal ECEC settings. The Nordic countries are considered the golden standard for family policies which is reflected in universal, subsidized, and high-quality ECEC. However, there are still some differences between the Nordic countries in how childcare is organized and at what ages ECEC is attended. The research sought to find out how these small differences would reflect the disparities in child outcomes in the Nordic countries.
Using PISA studies from 2015 and 2018, the study looked at how ECEC starting age is connected to literacy test scores at the age of 15 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Further, the study investigated how children's socioeconomic status moderates the connection between ECEC starting age and literacy.
According to the results, children who started ECEC earlier performed better on average in the PISA literacy tests in all Nordic countries. The biggest benefit seems to be for those who started ECEC at the age of 2-3. However, family background appears to explain a large part of the association between ECEC starting age and literacy.
Contrary to previous international research, it was not found that ECEC generally compensates for low socioeconomic status in learning outcomes. Instead, in Norway it was found that in fact, more affluent children would benefit more from an early start in ECEC. These findings have limitations due to their correlational nature. Still, based on the findings, ECEC is not necessarily a panacea for lowering achievement gaps due to parental background even in high-quality universal ECEC systems.
Acknowledgement:
This research was funded by the Research Council of Finland (decision number: 345546) and Alli Paasikiven Säätiö.