TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Zhao, Yuejun
AU  - Markussen, Simen
AU  - Røed, Knut
        TI  - School Starting Age and the Social Gradient in Educational Outcomes
        PY  - 2024/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16851
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16851
        AB  - Can lowering school starting age promote equality of opportunities and reduce the achievement gaps between pupils? We provide evidence on the heterogeneous (positional) effects on early school performance of two mandatory schooling reforms in Norway specifically aimed at reducing achievement gaps based on family background and immigrant status. Whereas the first reform reduced the school starting age from seven to six, the second changed the first-year curriculum from a play-oriented kindergarten pedagogy to a learning-oriented school pedagogy. We apply repeated simple difference models to evaluate the two reforms based on high-quality administrative register data, using children's grade point average (GPA) rank at age 15 to 16 and high school completion at age 21 as the main outcomes. We find no evidence that any of the reforms had the intended effect of reducing socioeconomic achievement gaps or immigrant-native differentials. Both reforms left educational inequalities more or less unchanged.
        KW  - relative age
KW  - immigrant children
KW  - parental earnings
KW  - socioeconomic status
KW  - school performance
KW  - social mobility
        ER  -