Kindergarten Attendance and Educational Success - An Analysis Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)

Kindergarten Attendance and Educational Success - An Analysis Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)

This project analyzed the effect of kindergarten attendance on school attainment in Germany. School attainment was measured as secondary school track choice and school grades at age 16. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) 1984-2005, we assemble a panel of 1,322 14-year-olds for which we found information for at least 12 consecutive years. We responded to the selectivity of the kindergarten decision by controlling for the socio-economic status of the parents and family structure during early childhood. 76 percent of the children in our sample attended kindergarten for two or three years, mostly parttime. 20 percent of the children in the sample attended kindergarten fulltime, and four percent never visited a kindergarten. According to the econometric results children who attended the kindergarten parttime had a higher probability (plus 18 percent) for entering high school ("Gymnasium") compared to the children who attended a kindergarten fulltime. So the results suggests that staying in kindergarten fulltime had no positive influence of entering high school in Germany.

Project members

Friedhelm Pfeiffer

Friedhelm Pfeiffer

Project Coordinator
Deputy

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Grit Mühler

Grit Mühler

Senior Researcher

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