What do children know upon entry to pre-school in Rio de Janeiro?

The paper discusses the need for studies with longitudinal design and a baseline for construction of value added models to assess the impact of policies and school practices in pre-school and in the first years of primary school. The objective was to identify family factors or previous experience in a crèche that are correlated with the starting point in pre-school. The multivariate regression models suggest that a) age is a key factor to explain children’s cognitive development when they start compulsory education; b) educational level of parents/guardians is the most significant factor for family characteristics; c) the home learning environment indicator suggests a positive association with the cognitive test, even after control of socio-economic level and age variables.

Early childhood education; Longitudinal studies; Educational opportunities; Educational inequality/disadvantage

Sample, school mobility and attrition	Number of cases	Percent
Children assessed in wave 1	2,716	100.0%
Children assessed in wave 2	2,848	-
Children not found in Rio de Janeiro´s system (other systems)	106	3.9%
Children that moved to other schools within Rio de Janeiro´s public system	164	6.0%
Children still enrolled in schools of Rio de Janeiro´s public system in October 2017	2,610	96.1%
Children still in the schools of the sample in October 2017	2,446	90.1%
Children that moved to 2nd year or preschool classrooms	56	2.1%
Total children with two measures	2,237	82.4%

Name	Type	Description	Source
		Dependent Variables
Language	Continuous	Language measurement Wave 1	Longitudinal Study (LS)
Mathematics	Continuous	Mathematics measurement Wave 1	Longitudinal Study (LS)
		Explicit Variables – Child
Gender	Dummy	Indicates child´s gender (0 = girl; 1 = boy)	SGA/SME
Age	Discrete	Indicates child’s age in months	SGA/SME
Primary education complete/incomplete	Dummy	Indicates whether at least one of the child’s parents/guardian(s) has completed primary education (0 = no; 1 = yes)	SGA/SME and LS
High school	Dummy	Indicates whether at least one parent/guardian has completed high school (0 = no; 1 = yes)	SGA/SME and LBB
Higher education	Dummy	Indicates whether at least one parent/guardian has completed Higher education (0 = no; 1 = yes)	SGA/SME and LS
Non White	Dummy	Indicates the child’s skin color (declared by the parent[s]/guardian[s]) (0 = white; 1 = not white)	SGA/SME
Poverty	Dummy	Indicates whether the child’s parent(s)/guardian(s) is/are benefited by cash transfer programs (0 = no; 1 = yes)	SGA/SME and LS
Home learning environment	Continuous	Indicator elaborated using the IRT (Item Response Theory), regarding items referring to a learning process and the physical environment at home⁸	Longitudinal Study (LS)
Possession of goods	Continuous	Indicator elaborated using the IRT, regarding items referring to possession of goods and access to services⁹	Longitudinal Study (LS)
Crèche	Dummy	Indicates whether the child attended crèche (0 = no; 1 = yes)	SGA/SME

	Mathematics		Language
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Girls	-1,565	1,381	-0,321	0,961
Boys	-1,597	1,341	-0,508	1,048
Incomplete/complete elementary education	-1,871	1,279	-0,592	0,944
High school	-1,405	0,286	-0,286	1,004
Higher education	-0,711	0,003	-0,003	1,104
White	-1,423	1,372	-0,347	1,024
Non white	-1,681	1,338	-0,455	1,004
Without cash transfer	-1,529	1,385	-0,391	1,022
With cash transfer	-1,756	1,260	-0,497	0,965
From 48 to 50 months	-2,173	1,333	-0,843	1,018
From 51 to 53 months	-1,773	1,271	-0,535	0,980
From 54 to 56 months	-1,472	1,253	-0,324	0,951
57 months or more	-1,116	1,339	-0,102	0,950
Has not attended crèche	-1,565	1,381	-0,388	1,011
Has attended crèche	-1,600	1,336	-0,448	1,008

	Mathematics		Language
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2
Gender	0,005	-0,053	-0,172***	-0,225***
Age	0,665***	0,747***	0,618***	0,719***
High School	0,385***	0,381***	0,339***	0,213***
Higher Education	0,823***	0,711***	0,563***	0,334**
Non White	-0,125**	-0,155**	-0,063	-0,051
Poverty	-0,117*	-0,067	-0,013	0,033
Home learning environment	-	0,243***	-	0,275***
Possession of Goods	-	0,130*	-	0,281***
Crèche	-0,049	-0,389	-0,097*	-0,008
R ²	0,155	0,198	0,126	0,176
N	2022	1182	2022	1182

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[1] Informações dos autores

Tiago Lisboa Bartholo: Professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Contato: tiagobartholo@ufrj.br

Mariane Campelo Koslinski: Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Contato: mckoslinski@gmail.com

Marcio da Costa: Professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Diretor da Escola de Formação de Professores Paulo Freire, Secretaria Municipal de Educação da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Contato: marcosta2803@gmail.com

Thais Barcellos: Mestre em Economia pela Universidade de São Paulo. Pesquisadora do IDados, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Contato: thais@idados.id