[Lmresearch] New study--Effects of Public Preschool Expenditures on the Test Scores of 4th Graders:Evidence from TIMSS

[Russell W. Rumberger]

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           Effects of Public Preschool Expenditures on the Test Scores of 4th Graders: Evidence from TIMSS

            by Jane Waldfogel, Fuhua Zhai 

                This study examines the effects of public preschool expenditures on the math and science scores of 4th graders, holding constant child, family, and school characteristics, other relevant social expenditures, and country and year effects, in seven Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries -- Australia, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, U.K., and U.S -- using data from the 1995 and 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). This study also explores whether preschool expenditures matter more for children who may be at risk of poor school achievement, as indexed by having low levels of resources in the home or coming from an immigrant family or a family that does not always speak the test language. 
                Our results indicate that there are small but significant positive effects of public preschool expenditures on the math and science scores of 4th graders. We find that an increase in preschool expenditures of $100 per child would lift children's math scores by between .07 and .13 of a standard deviation, and their science scores by between .03 and .07 of a standard deviation. We also find some evidence that children from low-resource homes may tend to gain more from increased public preschool expenditures than other children, but that children of immigrants may gain less (perhaps because they are less likely to attend such programs). Thus, this study provides new cross-national evidence that increasing public preschool expenditures would raise children's math and science achievement but mixed evidence as to the role of such expenditures in helping to close gaps in achievement between less and more advantaged students. 
            More (PDF) >>

            [Preschool/student achievement/disadvantaged]


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