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

Stewart, Kitty ORCID: 0000-0001-7744-8741, Campbell, Tammy and Gambaro, Ludovica (2019) The peer composition of pre-school settings in England, and early recorded attainment among low-income children. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40 (6). 717 - 741. ISSN 0142-5692

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Abstract

Evidence suggests that early education can promote children’s development and narrow attainment gaps between those from lower-income and higher-income families. However, realisation of these potential benefits depends on many factors, feasibly including peer composition. We use national census data for a year-group cohort of children in England in 2011, to answer two questions: how are low-income children distributed across pre-schools; and what is the relationship between the proportion of low-income peers in a low-income child’s setting and these children’s subsequent recorded educational attainment? In contrast to many European countries and to the United States, we find that the majority of low-income children attend mixed settings. We find little evidence for associations between the proportion of low-income peers and low-income children’s subsequent early attainment. We suggest that this may be due to an arguably optimal distribution across settings, where the funding and provision context of 2011 facilitated a lack of clustering of low-income children.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cbse20/current
Additional Information:	© 2017 Informa UK Limited
Divisions:	Social Policy Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2019 15:57
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2024 02:57
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/100214

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