The peer composition of pre-school settings in England and early recorded attainment among low-income children

Abstract

We would like to thank the Nuffield Foundation for funding this research. The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. The Nuffield Foundation has funded this project, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. More information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org. Many thanks also to the Department for Education for use of the National Pupil Database (NPD), and to the NPD Requests Team, for facilitating access. Lastly, we would like to thank colleagues in the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, our project advisory group, and two anonymous reviewers, for helpful comments and suggestions.

Measuring disadvantage in the early years in the UK: A systematic scoping review

“…Exploring studies that assessed both indicator types provided insight into their different conceptualisations. Most studies made a distinction between the different indicator types, for example, recognising “family” or “household” as different from “neighbourhood”, “area” or “other” disadvantage ( Ajetunmobi et al, 2014 ; Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services, 2010 ; Emerson, 2009 ; Emerson et al, 2009 ; Gore, Emerson, & Brady, 2015 ; Hawkins, Cole, & Law, 2009 ; Institute of Health Equity, 2020 ; Letts, Edwards, Sinka, Schaefer, & Gibbons, 2013 ; Marryat, Thompson, Minnis, & Wilson, 2015 ; Northern Ireland Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, 2010 ; Oakley, Henderson, Redshaw, & Quigley, 2014 ; Paisi et al, 2018 ; Public Health England, 2019 ; Stewart, Campbell, & Gambaro, 2019 ; Sylva, Stein, Leach, Barnes, & Malmberg, 2011 ; The Sutton Trust, 2010 ). However, a few studies, particularly those that looked at a wide range of factors that may influence child health beyond disadvantage, did not make clear conceptual distinctions between the level used to describe disadvantage, and some grouped these multiple indicators into one ( Camacho, Straatmann, Day, & Taylor-Robinson, 2019 ; Emerson et al, 2014 ; Gonzalez-Gomez, O'Brien, & Harris, 2020 ; McGillion, Pine, Herbert, & Matthews, 2017 ).…”

“…21 studies measured disadvantage using both individual- and area-level indicators. Five could not be used because they combined or presented indicators in such a way that we could not interpret them separately ( Emerson et al, 2014 ; Gonzalez-Gomez et al, 2020 ; McGillion et al, 2017 ; Public Health England, 2019 ; Stewart et al, 2019 ). Therefore, we compared associations for 16 studies.…”

Does school SES matter less for high-performing students than for their lower-performing peers? A quantile regression analysis of PISA 2018 Australia

“…On the other hand, if studies show dissimilar findings, then there will be an opportunity to develop a rich and nuanced theoretical framework about the factors that explain these differential effects. For example, it is plausible that school SES effects are minimal for some or even all students when school segregation is not pronounced, as found by Stewart et al (2019) in their study of pre-school settings in the UK, or Jehangir et al (2015) for Finland. Similarly, it is plausible that school SES effects do not vary by achievement level in national contexts with a small proportion of private, feecharging schools.…”

The role of early learning environments in child cognitive and socioemotional skills development: A study on educational inequalities in Ireland

“…To date, studies assessing the influence of ECE quality are scarce (e.g. Stewart, Campbell, and Gambaro 2019), compared to those on the effect of ECE attendance.…”