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Preschool and maternal labour market outcomes: evidence from a regression discontinuity design

Expanding preschool education has the dual goals of improving child outcomes and work incentives for mothers. This paper provides evidence on the second, identifying the impact of preschool attendance on maternal labor market outcomes in Argentina. A major challenge in identifying the causal effect of preschool attendance on parental outcomes is non-random selection into early education. We address this by relying on plausibly exogenous variation in preschool attendance that is induced when children are born on either side of Argentina's enrollment cutoff date of July 1. Because of enrollment cutoff dates, 4 year-olds born just before July 1 are 0.3 more likely to attend preschool. Our regression-discontinuity estimates compare maternal employment outcomes of 4 year-old children on either side of this cutoff, identifying effects among the subset of complying households (who are perhaps more likely to face constraints on their level 2 preschool attendance). Our findings suggest that, on average, 13 mothers start to work for every 100 youngest children in the household that start preschool (though, in our preferred specification, this estimate is not statistically significant at conventional levels). Furthermore, mothers are 19.1 percentage points more likely to work for more than 20 hours a week (i.e., more time than their children spend in school) and they work, on average, 7.8 more hours per week as consequence of their youngest offspring attending preschool. We find no effect on maternal labor outcomes when a child that is not the youngest in the household attends preschool. Finally, we find that at the point of transition from kindergarten to primary school some employment effects persist. Our preferred estimates condition on mother's schooling and other exogenous covariates, given evidence that mothers' schooling is unbalanced in the vicinity of the July 1 cutoff in the sample of 4 year-olds. Using a large set of natality records, we found no evidence that this is due to precise birth date manipulation by parents. Other explanations, like sample selection, are also not fully consistent with the data, and we must remain agnostic on this point. Despite this shortcoming, the credibility of the estimates is partly enhanced by the consistency of point estimates with Argentine research using a different EPH sample and sources of variation in preschool attendance (Berlinski and Galiani 2007). A growing body of research suggests that pre-primary school can improve educational outcomes for children in the short and long run (Blau and Currie 2006; Schady 2006). This paper provides further evidence that, ceteris paribus, an expansion in preschool education may enhance the employment prospects of mothers of children in preschool age

Strategies for exchanging information in preschool

We have interviewed four parents and a teacher at a Swedish preschool to investigate the practices for spreading information in preschool. Our findings suggest that frequent presence in the premises of the preschool is important to get information, and that parents rely heavily on routines to make it work. When either of these points fail, breakdowns occur. Discrepancies in parents’ and teachers’ IT use also complicates the information exchange

Fulfilling the Promise of Preschool for All: Insights Into Issues Affecting Access for Selected Immigrant Groups in Chicago

Presents findings on access to quality early education among small immigrant groups. Outlines policy implications of programs used, knowledge of "Preschool for All," value of preschool education, transportation and enrollment barriers, and other factors

When the Court Divides: Reconsidering the Precedential Value of Supreme Court Plurality Decisions

Abstract Many opinions are divided on what religious freedom should protect and the area is unexploredin preschool. Is it the parents, the child or preschool teacher right? The aim of the studywas to investigate Maria klasson Sundin´s concept and theoretical models of religious freedomfor children through three Swedish preschool settings and also how three teachers interpretsand expresses children's freedom of religion. Through a qualitative interview study theaim was to investigate how the concepts of religion, autonomy and freedom is interpreted andexpressed by the teachers so a picture through this three concepts can categorise the teachersin a model; freedom of thought, tradition and life interpretation model so a broader picturecan be made to understand how the children's freedom of religion is expressed in the preschoolsetting and how the teachers work. The Result showed through the analysis that themodels fail to categorise the teachers in any theoretical model but on the other hand the understandingof preschool teacher’s expression and interpretation of the concept of religion,autonomy and freedom showed both diversity and lack of knowledge on the subject mattersreligious freedom which fall within the child rights issues. Furthermore the analysis showsthat children in preschool lack religious freedom, it can be interpreted rather in terms of afreedom of parents and preschool teachers. Further research is needed in the area of children'srights and religious freedom for preschool children and their teachers in (e.g.) investigate differenceof public municipal and private preschools, religious, and non-religious

Factors that Determine Preschool Teacher Self-Efficacy in an Urban School District

The aim of the present study is to determine what teacher variables are predictive of preschool teacher self-efficacy in an urban school district. A total of 83 preschool teachers participated in the study. Teacher variables, such as years of teaching experience, job satisfaction, location of employment, age, and self-efficacy were included in a series of ANOVA analyses. Linear regression modeling reported years of teaching experience outside the birth-2nd grade setting (β= -.232, t(1,79) = -2.124, p\u3c .05) and job satisfaction (β = .294, t(2,78) = 2.793, p\u3c .01) were statistically significant predictors of preschool teacher self-efficacy. This study found that teachers with a greater amount of teaching experience outside of the birth-2nd setting feel less efficacious about themselves and their abilities to positively influence student achievement and outcomes in the preschool classroom. Further policy implications, such as hiring practices are discussed

Infant self-regulation and body mass index in early childhood

BACKGROUND: Poor self-regulation during preschool and early school age years is associated with rapid weight gain. However, the association between self-regulatory capacities in infancy and weight status in early childhood has not been well studied. Objective: Examine prospective associations between infant self-regulation and body mass index (BMI) in early childhood. We hypothesized that infants exhibiting less optimal self-regulation would be at greater risk of obesity at 3–5 years of life. METHODS: We used data from 5750 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), excluding premature infants and infants small or large for gestational age. Our primary predictor was infant self-regulation measured at age 9 months by parent completion of the Infant Toddler Symptom Checklist (ITSC). We defined child obesity at preschool and kindergarten age (approximately 4 years and 5–6 years respectively) as a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 95th percentile for age and sex by US Centers for Disease Control growth charts. We created logistic regression models comparing risk of obesity at preschool and kindergarten age in infants with ITSC scores ≥ 6 to infants with scores < 6, controlling for covariates. RESULTS: Twenty-one percent of children with ITSC scores ≥ 6 at 9 months were obese at preschool age compared to 16% of children with lower ITSC scores. At kindergarten age this difference decreased to 18% vs. 16% respectively. After adjusting for covariates, infants with ITSC scores ≥ 6 had 32% increased odds of being obese at preschool age (aOR 1.32; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.70) though this association decreased at kindergarten age (aOR 1.07; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Poor infant self-regulation at 9 months is associated with an increased risk of obesity at preschool entry but not at kindergarten entry. Helping parents manage and respond to children’s self-regulation difficulties prior to preschool age may serve as a focal point for future interventions.2016-12-01T00:00:00

The administrator, teachers and parents involvement in preschool during Movement Control Order

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the whole education system including the preschoolers in Malaysia in receiving a proper teaching and learning lesson especially in the classroom. Movement Control Order (MCO) implemented by the government has restricted the act for each person in the daily life. However, the action and role that has been played by the preschool administrators, teachers and parents in ensuring the smoothness of the teaching and learning process of the preschoolers should be recognized. This study focuses on the responses and roles that have been conducted and given by the preschool management and teacher as well as parents in assisting their preschoolers children during the MCO period. This study also determined the reaction played by the preschoolers in adapting the new norm act according to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) given by the government. A qualitative research design by using observation and interview based on the responses given by ten randomly chosen among preschool parents, teachers and administrators in a government preschool in Johor, Malaysia were used in this study. Phenomenology research was conducted to investigate the experience that has been gone through by the informants of the study during the MCO period. Narrative writing analysis were used to explain the outcome. This study indicated that the preschool administrators and teachers were able to collaborate and conduct an excellent code of practice according to the SOPs given by the government. Meanwhile, parents were able to establish a strong communication with the administrators and teachers by following the SOPs and assist the preschool management in ensuring their children are following the new norm acts according to the SOPs. A strong collaboration between all parties involved has shown a good example to the preschoolers during the pandemic MCO period

Central state child care policies in postauthoritarian Spain: Implications for gender and carework arrangements

In Spain, public preschool programs have continuously expanded in the past three decades. However, this education policy has done little to support increases in the proportion of women in the paid workforce. Preschool is not child care because the former does not address the care needed by children younger than three years old and offers programs with short hours and long holidays.Publicad

Assessing Vocabulary of Children: Investigating the Evaluation and Instruction of Basic Concepts

Vocabulary knowledge of preschool children is a key factor in predicting literacy success in elementary school (Hammer, Farkas, & Maczuga, 2010). However, few deliberate attempts to teach basic concept vocabulary have been studied (Bowers & Schwarz, 2013; Wilson, 2004). The purpose of this research is to determine if large group explicit instruction with interactive activities of specific basic concept vocabulary will increase preschool children\u27s understanding of basic concept terms when measured by a standardized basic concept assessment. This research will also assess the validity of a basic concept-curriculum based measure (BC-CBM) as an efficient tool to monitor a child\u27s understanding of basic concept vocabulary over time. There were 30 preschool children (M age=53.8 months) who participated in this experiment. Results demonstrated the standardized assessment and BC-BM raw scores improved through intervention. Further research is supported to evaluate the BC-CBM on a larger scale and control for more factors, which influence vocabulary development in children. Keywords: basic concept, vocabulary, preschool, assessmen