In this pre-registered study, we explored the impacts of Boston Pre-K on children's educational trajectories, school progress/engagement, and academic achievement in late elementary and middle school using lotteries for oversubscribed schools in 2007-2011 (N=3,092 students; 24% of all applicants). Importantly, the program was unique nationally in…

The paper argues that in many developing countries there is a set of linked symptoms in education systems that cohere into what we call a weak foundations syndrome. Multi-source evidence is presented to illustrate how weak foundations through the early years of schooling lead to low primary school completion. Symptoms of the syndrome include (1)…

Around the world, 250 million children cannot read, write, or perform basic mathematics. They represent almost 40% of all primary school-aged children. This situation has come to be called the "global learning crisis" and it is one of the most critical challenges facing the world today. Work to address this situation depends on how it is…

Using longitudinal data, this study examined the enrolment status of individual children left behind in the global trend towards 'quality education'. The study identified common characteristics among dropouts as well as the existence of children who managed to complete primary education but could not progress smoothly. Among them, some children's…

This study analyzes the effect of age-based retention on school achievement at different stages of education. I estimate an instrumental variable model, using the predicted probability of retention given month of birth as an instrument, while simultaneously accounting for the effect of month of birth on maturity at the time of testing. The…

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly viewed as a means of emancipation and a transformative project for social mobility. Developing nations have pursued policies such as universal or free primary education to increase access to education and improve student outcomes. In this study, direct and indirect precursors to primary school…

As a result of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and reform efforts, primary school enrollment in Uganda doubled from 2.9 million in 1995 to 5.8 million by 1998. By 2016, enrollment had reached 8.3 million. Although enrollment gains have been dramatic, the completion rate has stalled for at least a decade, with only about 60% of learners…

This paper describes a 2016 pilot study undertaken in Uganda to document the real repetition rate in Primary 1 classes and to examine the relationship between repetition in Primary 1 and attendance in pre-primary education. The study explored knowledge and practice about the age of entry for children into pre-primary education and Primary 1. It…

Despite improvements, the primary education system in Haiti remains highly inefficient: children start primary school 2 years late on average, and fewer than 60% will reach the last grade of the cycle. While the official age for beginning primary school is 6, the average child enters first grade for the first time at 7.8 years old, after having…

Studies have investigated factors that impede enrolment in Honduras. However, they have not analysed individual factors as a whole or identified the relationships among them. This study used longitudinal data for 1971 children who entered primary schools from 1986 to 2000, and employed structural equation modelling to examine the factors…

"Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups" examines the educational progress and challenges students face in the United States by race/ethnicity. This report shows that, over time, students in the racial/ethnic groups of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska…

This longitudinal study investigates whether rural adolescents who transition to a new school in sixth grade have higher levels of risky behavior than adolescents who transition in seventh grade. Our findings indicate that later school transitions had little effect on problem behavior between sixth and ninth grades. Cross-sectional analyses found…

This study investigates the effects of repeating first grade on children's further academic growth, by tracking the actual performance and the teacher-rated performance of a cohort of Flemish first-graders until the end of elementary school. Two research questions are raised: (1) How do first-grade repeaters, at the cost of one extra year of…

In this study the authors employed a multilevel analysis procedure in order to examine the pupil and school levels factors that contributed to variation in reading achievement among Grade 6 primary school pupils in 14 southern African school systems (Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,…

Late entry into primary school is a widespread phenomenon in developing countries. Students who enter school late are more likely to repeat grades, drop out and perform more poorly. Yet the phenomenon has received little scholarly attention, and there is a dearth of cross-national data. In this paper, we draw on data from the Multiple Indicator…