Early schooling, quarter of birth and academic achievement in Primary Education

Recent works from different disciplines deal with the long-term effects of childhood conditions. International studies that show the positive influence of pre-primary schooling are systematically based on students over 3 years old. The analysis of the impact on later academic outcomes for children under 3 years is almost non-existent. Besides, the maturity differences when entering the education system, because of the one-year gap within each age cohort, also appear to have long-term effects on educational outcomes. The present work provides evidence for Spain of the influence of early childhood education -before age 3- and the quarter of birth on the competences of students in fourth grade. To do this we use the national diagnostic assessment held in Spain in 2009. The sample was obtained hierarchically and therefore multilevel regression techniques are applied to detect how these two factors influence the four competences assessed, controlling other factors that could influence the outcomes according to the literature. The estimations indicate that early schooling has a statistically significant and positive effect only on linguistic and mathematic competences. This effect is even greater for students born in the fourth quarter of the year, who show worse outcomes in all competences compared to the rest of their peers. The results point to the need of extending free pre-primary education in Spain, preferably for the younger students, and to establish specific plans to support students who have had little schooling in non-compulsory stages or were born in the last quarter of the year.