1. International
Early Learning
and Child
Well-being Study

2. Questions
on early
equity
Key
findings
1
3
Rationale
for this
work
2
Implications for
early learning
systems
4
An overview

3. Questions on early equity?
Are there significant equity gaps among children at five years-of-age, based on
socio-economic status?
How do these equity gaps compare with those among 15-year-olds?
What risk factors are associated with poorer early outcomes?
Are there disadvantaged five-year-olds who do as well as their advantaged peers?
Does resilience increase or decrease with age?
What does it take to achieve a level playing field for disadvantaged
five-year-olds?
What can education leaders and policy makers do to give more
children a strong early start?
?

4. We will see what exacerbates early inequities

5. And what factors reduce these early gaps

6. Rationale for this work
Increasing interest in children’s early learning outcomes arises from:
Concerns about
uneven quality of
ECEC provision.
Desire to
improve equity for
disadvantaged
children.
Growing realisation that
early learning improves
later success in school
and child well-being.
Increasing investment
in Early Childhood
Education and Care
(ECEC).

7. We know early development predicts adult outcomes
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
End-of-programme
test scores
Third grade
test scores
Adult outcomes
(Source: Bartik, 2014)
Abecedarian
Perry
Head Start
CPC
Predicted
percentage
effects on adult
earnings of
early childhood
programmes,
based on test
scores versus
adult outcomes.

8. An holistic approach is most effective
ADULTHOOD
EARLY
CHILDHOOD
AND CHILDHOOD
Language and Literacy
Numeracy
Visual-Motor
Skills
Attachment
Social
Well-Being
Emotional
Health
Self-Regulation
LIFE OUTCOMES
• General well-being
• Life satisfaction
• Physical and
mental health
• Educational achievement
• Employment, income,
socio-economic status
• Citizenship

9. IELS provides countries with reliable, valid, comparable data
How are
our children
doing?
Are all groups
of children
getting a strong
early start?
Is our early
learning system
really making
a difference for
children?
Are we
here?
Or here?
Or not doing
well at all?

10. The International Early Learning and Child Well-being
Study (IELS) is designed to help:
Governments
Teachers
Education leaders
Parents
Give every child
the strongest
possible start
in life.

11. EARLY LEARNING
OUTCOMES
LIFE OUTCOMES
Emergent
literacy
skills
Emergent
numeracy
skills
Self-
regulation
Social and
emotional
skills
• General well-being
• Life satisfaction
• Physical &
mental health
• Educational achievement
and attainment
• Employment, income,
socio-economic status
• Citizenship
ECEC
INDIVIDUAL
CHARACTERISTICS
HOME ENVIRONMENT
COMMUNITY
Countries conceptualised a cross-country study focused
on early childhood

12. Using a combination of direct assessment...
No reading & writing
No text involved, only visual and audio material used
One-on-one administration
Each child assessed with
one-on-one support from trained study administrators
Stories & games
Interesting and fun, developmentally appropriate
Tablet delivery
Simple and intuitive, no previous experience needed

13. ... And indirect assessment methods

14. IELS also prioritised hearing the voices of children
What do you like
most about your
centre/school?
Who do you prefer
to play with?
What do you want
to do or be when
you grow up?

15. Information was collected from nationally representative
samples of five-year-olds
For this study, information was collected from:
7 000 CHILDREN
in England, Estonia and
the United States

16. Early Equity
FROM EVIDENCE TO ACTION

17. The learning gap between disadvantaged and advantaged
five-year-olds is, on average, 8 - 20 months
-5 0
-15
-20
Emergent literacy
-12
Emergent numeracy
-11 3
12
-9 Working memory
-8 Mental flexibility
-20 Social-emotional skills
-10
MONTHS OF DEVELOPMENT
Development difference
between disadvantaged
and advantaged
children

18. Disadvantaged children face risks in addition to
socio-economic disadvantage
Home language that is
different from the child’s
ECEC centre/school
Learning difficulties
Low birth weight
Social-emotional
difficulties

19. Disadvantaged children are more likely to face additional risks
The percentage of
disadvantaged and
advantaged children who
experience risk factors
associated with poorer
learning outcomes
0
5 5
10
15
Advantaged children Disadvantaged children
6.7% 15.8%
4.3% 8.6%
10.5%
8.9%
6.6% 14.8%
Home language that is
different from the child’s
ECEC centre/school
10 15
Learning difficulties
Social-emotional difficulties
Low birth weight

20. Some children experience multiple risks
Percentage of children
who experience
all of the risk
factors
7% of
disadvantaged
children
2% of
advantaged
children
73% of those
are boys
75% of those
are boys
Home language that is
different from the child’s
ECEC centre/school
Learning difficulties
Low birth weight
Social-emotional difficulties

21. Multiple risk factors compound disadvantage
Emergent literacy
scores by multiple
risk factor
The relationship between
these risk factors and
children’s learning in
other early learning
domains is similar,
including for numeracy,
mental flexibility, working
memory and social-
emotional skills.
All
Disadvantaged
children
EMERGENT
LITERACY
500
450
400
350
300
All
Disadvantaged children
Low birth weight
Social-emotional
difficulties
Learning difficulties
A different home
language
Social-emotional
difficulties and low birth weight
Learning difficulties and
low birth weight
500
464
438
433
419
409
404
398

22. Starting behind means staying behind for many
disadvantaged children
Children’s early learning and well-being have a direct and
enduring impact on their later educational attainment, socio-
economic status, health, well-being and civic engagement.
Longitudinal studies consistently show that strong early
learning is associated with:
• lower grade retention and drop-out
• higher academic achievement
• healthier lifestyles
• improved parenting behaviours.
The proportion of
children who have poor
early development
constrains the extent
to which any education
system can achieve
success for these
children and perform well
as a whole.

23. The five-year-olds in IELS
2018 are not the same
students as those in PISA
2018, although they
are from the same
countries.
80
SCORE POINT DIFFERENCE
Score point difference between disadvantaged and
advantaged children in IELS (2018) and in PISA (2018)
5-year-olds 15-year-olds
60
80
82
81
76
82
Reading
Emergent literacy
Emergent numeracy Mathematics
60 40 20 0 20 40
Equity gaps are strikingly similar at five and
15 years-of-age

24. What impact do schooling systems really have on equity?
Understanding equity within education systems requires
education leaders and policy makers to know whether
their systems:
The comparison of
IELS and PISA cohorts
raises questions on
whether education
systems are continuing
existing early inequities
rather than reducing
them.
Continue existing
inequities?
Exacerbate the
disadvantages that
young children face?
Ameliorate
the effects of
disadvantage?

25. A minority of disadvantaged five-year-olds are resilient
0 15
10
5 20
2
1 3 Emergent numeracy
Emergent literacy 14%
19%
Mental flexibility
Working memory
Social-emotional skills 19%
14%
21%
2 4 6
3 5
A minority of
disadvantaged five-
year-olds experience
strong learning and
well-being outcomes
8

26. The proportion of resilient 15-year-old students is similar
to that of five-year-olds
Percentage of resilient children/students in IELS (2018) and in PISA (2018)
5-year-olds 15-year-olds
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
PERCENTAGES
1 2
3
14% 11%
14% 13%
Emergent literacy Reading
Mathematics
Emergent numeracy

27. Although there are some gender differences
Percentage of girls in resilient
students in literacy
Percentage of girls in resilient
students in numeracy
58%
in PISA
62%
in IELS
44%
in PISA
59%
in IELS

28. Building resilience and early equity
Advantaged children
All Disadvantaged children
Back-and-forth
conversations
Parents Reading by Socio- High Strong home Socio- Socio-emotional
involved parents emotional number learning emotional skills with high
at ECEC/ skills of books environments skills with number of books
school (conversation, high number and parents
reading and of books involved at
number of books) at ECEC/school
400
350
300
450
500
550
540
500
464 467 472
484
502 508
528 534
540
EMERGENT LITERACY

29. Building resilience and early equity
Education leaders and policy makers can
improve early equity through:
• Providing access to ECEC
• Taking measures to ensure ECEC is of
high quality
• Supporting strong links between teachers
and parents
• Improving the quality of children’s home
learning environments.

30. Improving the quality of children’s home learning environments
?
• parents and caregivers
regularly reading books with
their children
• having children’s books at home
• parents and caregivers regularly having
back-and-forth conversations with children.
Elements of children’s home learning environments
that are strongly associated with children’s
learning include:

31. Reading with children
Score point difference of disadvantaged children who are read to five days or more a week
compared with disadvantaged children who are read to less than once a week or not at all
Reading to
children five days
a week or more is
linked to significant
early learning gains
for disadvantaged
children.
40 50
SCORE POINT DIFFERENCE
10
0
1
2
3 Emergent numeracy
Mental
Working memory
skills
Emergent literacy 52
45
flexibility 12
27
Social-emotional
18
30
20

32. Access to children’s books
Score point difference of disadvantaged children who have more than 50 children’s
books at home compared to disadvantaged children with fewer than 10 books at home
80
60
0 70
10 20 30 40 50
SCORE POINT DIFFERENCE
78
81
23
Emergent numeracy
Social-
emotional skills
Emergent literacy
1
2
3
Working memory 52
46
Mental flexibility
Access to children’s
books at home makes
a positive difference
for disadvantaged
children.

33. Back-and-forth conversations
Score point difference of disadvantaged children who have back-and-forth conversations five
or more times a week compared to less than once a week or never
Regular back-and-
forth conversations support
disadvantaged children’s
emergent literacy skills.
35 40 45
5 10
0 15 20 25 30
SCORE POINT DIFFERENCE
45
32
25
22
Emergent numeracy
Mental flexibility
memory
Social-emotional skills
Emergent literacy
Working 12
3
1
2
?

34. Disadvantaged children experience less positive home
learning environments than advantaged children
Percentage of children with positive home learning environments
Advantaged children Disadvantaged children
0
20 20
40 40
60
24%
64% 5+
69% 19%
50+
58% 47%
5+
Read to 5+
days a week
More than 50
books at home
Back & forth
conversations 5+
days a week

35. Access to high quality ECEC accelerates cognitive development
Attending ECEC
is linked to stronger
cognitive development
among disadvantaged
children.
Score point difference between children who did and who
did not attend ECEC
Advantaged children Disadvantaged children
35
3
12
23 39
8 27
Emergent numeracy
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
SCORE POINT DIFFERENCE
Emergent literacy

36. Strong links between ECEC teachers and parents
Score point difference for disadvantaged children whose
parents are involved in their ECEC centre or school
5
0 10 15 20
Emergent numeracy 18
1
2
3
Emergent literacy 16
Social-
emotional skills 7
Parents’ involvement
in their child’s ECEC
centre or school is
positively linked to their
child’s development.
10
Mental flexibility
Working memory 18

37. Strong links between ECEC teachers and parents
PERCENTAGE OF PARENTS INVOLVED WITH THEIR CHILD’S ECEC CENTRE OR SCHOOL
63% of disadvantaged
children’s parents
86% of advantaged
children’s parents

38. Social-emotional skills support stronger cognitive development
EMERGENT LITERACY
Confidence
Curiosity
Empathy
Non-disruptive
behaviour
Sociability
Trust
0.30 0.20 0.10 0.10 0.20 0.30
0.00
0.17 0.22
0.29 0.26
0.23 0.20
0.24 0.28
0.11 0.07
0.19 0.26
Advantaged children Disadvantaged children

39. Disadvantaged children have lower levels of social-emotional
development than advantaged children
Differences in social-emotional development between
disadvantaged and advantaged children
-0.25
-0.30 -0.20 -0.15 0.00
-0.05
-0.10
-0.19
-0.28
-0.23
-0.10
-0.15
-0.20
Confidence
Curiosity
Sociability
Trust
Empathy
Non-disruptive
behaviour

40. Applying child-centred, empowering pedagogies
Point score difference of disadvantaged children who state they
enjoy learning compared to the mean for disadvantaged children
0
26
Emergent literacy
34
1 2
3 Emergent numeracy
Mental flexibility 22
Working memory 18
3 Social-emotional skills
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Disadvantaged
children’s early
attitudes to learning
are mirrored by
their levels of
development.

41. Applying child-centred, empowering pedagogies
Play is a natural, in-built mechanism for
learning and well-being
• Playing is more popular than any other activity
identified by the children in this study.
• Play is equally popular among low and high SES
five-year-olds and among girls and boys.
• Ensuring children have ample opportunities to play
supports positive attitudes to learning and to later
schooling, as well as supporting children’s overall
development and well-being.

42. Applying child-centred, empowering pedagogies
Point score difference of disadvantaged children who state they
enjoy choosing compared to the mean for disadvantaged children
0
-10 40 50
34
Emergent literacy
50
1
2
3
29
-5
Emergent numeracy
12 Mental flexibility
Working memory 29
Social-emotional skills
10 20 30
Disadvantaged
children who like having
some choice over
their activities have
significantly higher
learning outcomes in
emergent literacy and
emergent numeracy
than other children.

43. What does this mean for education leaders and policy makers?
MEAN FOR
DISADVANTAGED
CHILDREN
MEAN FOR
ADVANTAGED
CHILDREN
OVERALL MEAN
Strong home/
teacher links
Access to
children’s
books
Encourage
parents to:
• read to their
children
• have back-
and-forth
conversations
Provide ECEC
Ensure ECEC is high
quality
• whole child approach
• empowering
pedagogies

44. Find out more
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHILDREN’S COGNITIVE
AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Go to the International Early Learning and Child
Well-being Study website: http://www.oecd.org/
education/school/early-learning-and-child-well-
being-study/