Start Date

4-8-2014 2:45 PM

End Date

4-8-2014 4:00 PM

Subjects

Early childhood education

Abstract

Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), this is the first analysis for Australia to evaluate the impact of attendance at preschool programs on matched Year 3 nationwide National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test outcomes in the domains of numeracy, reading, spelling, writing and grammar. We also disaggregate the impact of specific teacher qualifications on children’s cognitive outcomes. While one year of learning in Year 3 is represented by about 50 NAPLAN points, we find average preschool domain effects as much as 10–15 points. The impacts for NAPLAN scores in numeracy, reading and spelling domains are the strongest and are significant. The highest increases in NAPLAN scores were attained by children whose preschool teachers had diploma- or degree- level qualifications, identifying for the first time the crucial nature of teacher qualifications in driving nationally representative long-run preschool treatment outcomes.

Share

COinS
 
Aug 4th, 2:45 PM Aug 4th, 4:00 PM

Early Bird Catches the Worm: The causal impact of pre-school participation and teacher qualifications on Year 3 NAPLAN cognitive tests

Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), this is the first analysis for Australia to evaluate the impact of attendance at preschool programs on matched Year 3 nationwide National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test outcomes in the domains of numeracy, reading, spelling, writing and grammar. We also disaggregate the impact of specific teacher qualifications on children’s cognitive outcomes. While one year of learning in Year 3 is represented by about 50 NAPLAN points, we find average preschool domain effects as much as 10–15 points. The impacts for NAPLAN scores in numeracy, reading and spelling domains are the strongest and are significant. The highest increases in NAPLAN scores were attained by children whose preschool teachers had diploma- or degree- level qualifications, identifying for the first time the crucial nature of teacher qualifications in driving nationally representative long-run preschool treatment outcomes.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.