Chapter 3. Primary School Skill Development: from First to Sixth Grade among students with low-, middle-, and high-educated parents are mainly formed within schooling. While both OLS and IV estimates are displayed in Figure B.3, we primarily focus on the IV estimates. We examine the learning advancement differences between students with low and middle-educated parents, and those with high and middleeducated parents separately. We conclude from these analyses that no learning advancement differences between low and middle-educated parents exist for spelling. For reading and math, it seems that especially in the early years of primary education, low-educated students advance less than their middle-educated peers, meaning that especially these early years contribute to the sixth-grade achievement gap. Learning advancement differences between high and middle-educated parents arise rather gradually over time, meaning that every grade adds to the percentage of the sixth-grade achievement gap that arises during schooling. Sex Next, we examine the learning advancement differences between male and female students. Table 3.5 shows that female students advance more throughout primary education than their male peers in reading. Male students, contrarily, advance more throughout primary education than their female peers in spelling. OLS and IV estimates for reading and spelling differ but provide a similar conclusion. For math, however, the estimations provide contradictory findings. While the OLS estimates suggest that male students’ math skills improve more than those of female students within primary school, the IV estimates show the opposite. This is an important difference. Using the OLS estimates, we would conclude that male students extend their initial 70
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