Inequalities in the Experience of Early Education in England: Access, Peer Groups and Transitions
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Inequalities in the experience of early education in England: Access, peer groups and transitions Tammy Campbell, Ludovica Gambaro and Kitty Stewart CASE/214 Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion June 2019 London School of Economics Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE CASE enquiries – tel: 020 7955 6679 CONTENTS 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 2. Policy background ............................................................................................. 4 3. Methodology ........................................................................................................ 5 4. Results: Access to and take-up of the full duration of the free entitlement by autumn-born children ........................................................... 8 5. Results: Peer group clustering in early education – patterns, drivers, outcomes ................................................................................................. 16 5.1 Patterns of clustering by low-income ........................................................................ 16 5.2 Patterns of clustering by EAL ........................................................................................ 18 5.3 What drives differences in clustering between local authorities? ................... 20 5.4 Outcomes: is pre-school peer group associated with teacher-assessed performance in early primary school? ............................................................................... 22 6. Results: Inequalities in the transition to reception class ............. 28 6.1 Continuity of setting ......................................................................................................... 28 6.2 Continuity of peers ............................................................................................................ 32 7. Implications for policy, practice and future research ..................... 35 7.1 Access to and take-up of the free entitlement ....................................................... 35 7.2 Peer clustering and peer effects .................................................................................. 36 7.3 Transitions to reception class ....................................................................................... 37 7.4 Limitations ............................................................................................................................ 38 8. References .......................................................................................................... 39 ii TABLES Table 1: Non-take-up of the free entitlement in January 2010 among autumn-born three-year-olds (descriptive statistics) .. 9 Table 2: Percentage difference in the odds of not taking up the full duration of the free entitlement associated with the size of the sector in the local authority ................................................... 13 Table 3: Percentage of reception peers who also attended a child’s pre-school ............................................................................. 34 FIGURES Figure 1: Non-take-up of the free entitlement among autumn-born three-year-olds in January 2010 by FSM status and English as an Additional Language ......................................................... 11 Figure 2: Non-take-up of the free entitlement among autumn-born three-year-olds in January 2010 by FSM status and ethnicity (selected groups) .................................................................. 12 Figure 3: Predicted probability of non-attendance by the share of provision in the local authority in particular sectors .............. 15 Figure 4: Number of sample children (n=551,713) with each level of peers low-income, across ECEC settings in 2011 and primary schools at Year 1, in 2013 ..................................................... 17 Figure 5: Number of sample children (n=551,173) with each level of peers EAL, across ECEC settings in 2011 and primary schools at Year 1, in 2013 .................................................................. 19 Figure 6: Distribution of sample children across ECEC and Year 1 settings with each level of EAL peers, by child’s own language background ........................................................................... 19 Figure 7: Distribution of sample children across ECEC settings with each level of low-income peers, by child’s own income level, split by setting type ............................................................... 20 Figure 8: Distribution of sample children across ECEC settings with each level of EAL peers, by child’s own language background, split by setting type ............................................................... 20 Figure 9: Model estimated mean Foundation Stage Profile total scores, for children who are themselves low-income, according to proportion of low-income peers in their early education centre .................................................................................... 25 Figure 10: Percentage of all cohort children following each transition pathway ................................................................ 29 Figure 11: Percentage of cohort children following each transition pathway by income group ..................................................... 30 Figure 12: Percentage of cohort children who attended a school nursery who go on to follow each transition pathway ........... 32 iii GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS DfE Department for Education EAL English as an Additional Language ECEC Early Childhood Education and Care EPPE Effective Provision of Pre-School Education EYFS Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum FSM Free School Meals FSP Foundation Stage Profile GLD Good Level of Development IDACI Index of Deprivation Affecting Children LA Local Authority LSOA Lower Super Outer Area NPD National Pupil Database PVI Private, Voluntary and Independent sectors SEED Study of Early Education and Development SEN Special Educational Needs SEND Special Educational Needs and Disabilities iv Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) is a multi-disciplinary research centre based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), within the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD). Our focus is on exploration of different dimensions of social disadvantage, particularly from longitudinal and neighbourhood perspectives, and examination of the impact of public policy. In addition to our discussion paper series (CASEpapers), we produce occasional summaries of our research in CASEbriefs, and reports from various conferences and activities in CASEreports. All these publications are available to download free from our website. For further information on the work of the Centre, please contact the Centre Manager, Jane Dickson, on: Telephone: UK+20 7955 6679 Fax: UK+20 7955 6951 Email: [email protected] Web site: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case Tammy Campbell Ludovica Gambaro Kitty Stewart All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including notice, is given to the source. v Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for the funding that made this research possible under grant EYP42338 (‘Segregation in Early Years Settings: Patterns, Drivers and Outcomes'). The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being. It funds research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare, and Justice. It also funds student programmes that provide opportunities for young people to develop skills in quantitative and qualitative methods. The Nuffield Foundation is the founder and co-funder of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Ada Lovelace Institute. The Foundation has funded this project, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. Visit www.nuffieldfoundation.org. We also thank all members of our Advisory Group for giving up their time to comment on project outputs, in meetings or in writing or both: Jo Blanden, Heather Joshi, Sandra Mathers, Ivana La Valle, Simon Burgess, Helen Jenner, Siobhan McKenna, Jo Hutchinson, Neil Leitch, Roslyn Xavier, and Max Stanford. Responsibility for analysis and interpretation remains with the project team. Some of the analysis presented has already been published elsewhere. See (1) T. Campbell, L. Gambaro and K. Stewart (2018) ‘“Universal” early education: Who benefits? Patterns in take-up of the entitlement to free early education among three-year-olds in England,’ British Educational Research Journal, 44(3), pp 515-538, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/berj.3445; and (2) K. Stewart, T. Campbell and L. Gambaro (2019) ‘The peer composition of pre- school settings in England and early recorded attainment among low- income children,’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, online first, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01425692.2019.1583549 vi Editorial note Kitty Stewart was the Principal Investigator on this project and the main author of this report. Ludovica Gambaro was the Co-Investigator, and Tammy Campbell contributed to the project as Research Officer / Research Fellow. All analysis of the National Pupil Database was carried out by Tammy Campbell. All three members of the team contributed throughout to conception, planning, interpretation and writing. vii Abstract This