Childcare for all children: contributes to academic performance, but has limited impact on reducing socioeconomic inequalities

Inequality of Opportunity in Education

Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, such as those with low incomes or parents without diplomas, generally perform worse at school than children from more privileged backgrounds. This gap not only affects their performance in grade 8 but also their entry level into secondary school, impacting their chances for further education and future careers. Clair explains: “The structural differences in school skills and performance highlight a persistent vicious cycle of inequality that spans across generations. In this study, we examined whether toddlers who attend childcare later have better school skills and academic performance than those who stay at home.”

Generation R 

The study used data from Generation R, a large-scale study on the development and health of children born in Rotterdam. The researchers analyzed data from 2,215 children and looked at their use of childcare at toddler age. Childcare was defined as professionally organized care outside the home, such as daycare or a childminder. The research focused on the effect of attending childcare for at least two days a week. The children's school skills were measured using IQ scores at age 13, and their academic performance was assessed using Cito test scores in grade 8.

The Benefits of Childcare 

The research shows that children who attended childcare two or more days per week at a young age had an average IQ of 1.8 points higher and a Cito score of 1.1 points higher than children who attended less than two days a week. As the researchers expected, they also found socioeconomic inequality in school skills and performance. Children from disadvantaged families had an IQ that was on average of 7.5 points lower, and a Cito score of 4.8 points lower than children from more privileged families. Clair notes: “Using statistical techniques, we examined whether socioeconomic inequalities would decrease if all children attended childcare for two or more days a week. We found that this would slightly reduce the IQ and Cito score differences between children from disadvantaged and privileged families. However, this reduction in inequalities was small and statistically insignificant.”

Practical Implications 

Several municipalities in the Netherlands are experimenting with free childcare for all children, or specifically for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Clair states: “The results from our study prove that early childhood childcare, before children start primary school, can contribute to school skills and academic performance 10 years later for both children from socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged families.” Therefore, Clair and her colleagues advise converting these municipal pilot programs into structural policy. Given the current staff shortages in the sector and the rising costs of childcare, it is important that children from disadvantaged families also have access to childcare. “However, just providing access to childcare for all children is not enough to break the cycle of socioeconomic inequalities in education. Additional measures are needed to effectively address the vicious cycle of inequality of opportunity.”