Further, chapter 3 formulates an answer on the following question: Do significant disparities in achievement exist among students during the early years and at the end of primary education? This dissertation finds significant achievement gaps regarding parental education, sex, and migration background in the beginning and at the end of primary education. Students of high-educated parents on average outperform their peers in all skills throughout the whole primary school period. With respect to sex differences, our results indicate that male students tend to be better in math, whereas female students tend to be better in language. Last, our data suggest that students with a migration background are behind their peers in the early years of primary education. Achievement gaps are not static. This dissertation suggests that some of these gaps observed at the end of primary education can be traced back to the early years of primary education. Disparities among students with high- and low-educated parents widen throughout primary education, though around half to two-thirds of the disparities at the end of primary education have their roots in the early years of primary education. Sex differences become more apparent for reading throughout primary education. Last, our data suggest that students with a migration background perform significantly different than natives but that there is no specific group that consistently outperforms others throughout the whole primary school period. Our findings regarding the development of the achievement gaps on differences on parental education among students, align with a cumulative model of skill development over time, in which initial disparities among students in the early years of primary education enlarge throughout the primary school period. In contrast with the widening 141
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