Roots and development of achievement gaps. A longitudinal assessment in selected European countries

This report presents a comprehensive longitudinal study of social, economic and migration gaps in educational achievement in a European-wide comparative perspective. The authors analyse the evolution of achievement gaps in children from infancy and preschool age up to the end of compulsory schooling in five country cases: Germany, Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

The authors found that children from high-income, highly educated families perform better than children from less affluent families and whose parents have fewer educational resources. Importantly, these socio-economically determined gaps are already visible in the very early years of life, tend to increase steadily over infancy, and are well established even before children enter primary school. After transition to school, socio-economically determined gaps in achievement increase only slightly throughout years of primary and secondary education. Considerable similarities in the evolution of socio-economically determined achievement gaps were found across countries.

Authors also found that children with a migration background enter school with a substantial disadvantage, but enjoy over-proportional achievement gains in school in general. Yet these findings vary between countries and ethnicity groups.

The authors conclude that preschool-age interventions that facilitate a more equalized start into school life hold the promise of reducing a large part of socio-economically determined and migration-related achievement gaps in later school career. These interventions may include policies expanding Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services or improving the quality of ECEC services or schools, and also policies targeting the families homes or neighbourhoods through appropriate financial and social support.