What does this research mean for the field?

Despite standardized early childhood education inputs, children's foundational learning and executive function remain strongly driven by family socioeconomic status and home literacy practices. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONFIRMATORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.SUPPORTS_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine why substantial developmental disparities persist among children despite standardized institutional inputs across early childhood education and care centres.

August 22, 2026Education SciencesOpen Access

When Schools Are Equal but Children Are Not: A Multilevel Analysis of Home-Driven Variance and Cumulative Disadvantage in Early Childhood

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

OHOrhan Hanbay

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Cross-sectional study finds home literacy and socioeconomic status drive learning disparities in preschool-aged children, indicating that standardized preschools cannot fully bridge early gaps.

Key Points

To examine why substantial developmental disparities persist among children despite standardized institutional inputs across early childhood education and care centres.
Analyzed OECD International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS 2025) data from 2,363 five-year-olds across 200 early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in the Flemish Community of Belgium.
Measured children's cognitive and executive functions using direct tablet-based assessments and gathered home environment metrics via parent reports, handling missing data with 20 multiply imputed datasets.
Estimated two-level hierarchical linear models using 92 balanced repeated replication (BRR) weights pooled across five plausible values to assess direct and indirect associations.
Between-centre variation was comparatively low, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of approximately 23% for foundational learning and 11% for executive function.
Within centres, foundational learning was significantly associated with family socioeconomic status (B = 25.11, p < 0.001) and the print-focused home literacy index (B = 16.60, p < 0.001), with centre socioeconomic composition also showing a strong association (B = 36.38, p < 0.001).
Executive function mediated the within-centre association between home literacy and foundational learning (indirect effect = 3.60, 95% Monte Carlo CI [1.83, 5.40]), alongside an exploratory between-centre indirect effect (8.40, 95% CI [1.16, 15.65]).

Cite This Study

Orhan Hanbay (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a895fd3ca7ade938187ebbb https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16081335

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

August 22, 2026Education SciencesOpen Access

When Schools Are Equal but Children Are Not: A Multilevel Analysis of Home-Driven Variance and Cumulative Disadvantage in Early Childhood

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

OHOrhan Hanbay

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Cross-sectional study finds home literacy and socioeconomic status drive learning disparities in preschool-aged children, indicating that standardized preschools cannot fully bridge early gaps.

Key Points

To examine why substantial developmental disparities persist among children despite standardized institutional inputs across early childhood education and care centres.
Analyzed OECD International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS 2025) data from 2,363 five-year-olds across 200 early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in the Flemish Community of Belgium.
Measured children's cognitive and executive functions using direct tablet-based assessments and gathered home environment metrics via parent reports, handling missing data with 20 multiply imputed datasets.
Estimated two-level hierarchical linear models using 92 balanced repeated replication (BRR) weights pooled across five plausible values to assess direct and indirect associations.
Between-centre variation was comparatively low, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of approximately 23% for foundational learning and 11% for executive function.
Within centres, foundational learning was significantly associated with family socioeconomic status (B = 25.11, p < 0.001) and the print-focused home literacy index (B = 16.60, p < 0.001), with centre socioeconomic composition also showing a strong association (B = 36.38, p < 0.001).
Executive function mediated the within-centre association between home literacy and foundational learning (indirect effect = 3.60, 95% Monte Carlo CI [1.83, 5.40]), alongside an exploratory between-centre indirect effect (8.40, 95% CI [1.16, 15.65]).

Cite This Study

Orhan Hanbay (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a895fd3ca7ade938187ebbb https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16081335

Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark