3.1 Introduction Basic skills lay the foundation of future learning and performance (see, e.g., Cunha and Heckman (2007)). Varying skill levels at school entrance can, therefore, be expected to have important consequences for later performance. On the other hand, schools and other factors that children encounter early in life may mitigate or counteract such developments. The question, consequently, arises to what extent initial skill differences persist throughout the schooling period. This chapter aims to investigate the extent to which skill levels at the beginning of primary education are associated with skill levels at the end of primary education. First, we explore the relationship between students’ initial skill levels at the beginning of primary education and their skill levels at the end of primary education. We consider reading, spelling, and math skill scores. Second, we investigate to what extent skill disparities between SES, sex, and country of origin persist across the primary school period. We use Student Administration System (LVS) and Netherlands Cohort Study on Education (NCO) data between 2014 and 2022. The data contain scores of standardized tests, register data on students’ backgrounds, and information at the school level of 31,830 Dutch primary school students in grades one to six. We use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions, which we complement with an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach to reduce attenuation bias caused by measurement error. In our models, we include a control for parental education, other student controls, and school fixed effects. 41
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw