%0 Report
        %A Borghans, Lex
%A Golsteyn, Bart H.H.
%A Zölitz, Ulf
        %T School Quality and the Development of Cognitive Skills between Age Four and Six
        %D 2015
        %8 2015 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 9200
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp9200
        %X This paper studies the extent to which young children develop their cognitive ability in high and low quality schools. We use a representative panel data set containing cognitive test scores of 4-6 year olds in Dutch schools. School quality is measured by the school's average achievement test score at age 12. Our results indicate that children in high-quality schools develop their skills substantially faster than those in low-quality schools. The results remain robust to the inclusion of initial ability, parental background, and neighborhood controls. Moreover, using proximity to higher-achieving schools as an instrument for school choice corroborates the results. The robustness of the results points toward a causal interpretation, although it is not possible to erase all doubt about unobserved confounding factors.
        %K child development
%K cognitive skills
%K school quality