Taub Center releases two new studies on early childhood:
Attendance of Supervised Preschool Frameworks by Arab Israeli Children
For the full study >> (Password: taub1121)
Preschool Attendance through Age 3 and Its Impact on Academic Achievement in Grade 4
For the full study >> (Password: taub1121)
Israel is known as a country with a high fertility rate – an average of 3 children per woman, as opposed to 1.6 in the OECD countries. Due to this, the younger age groups are substantially larger in Israel than the older age groups. Today, more than half a million children in Israel are under the age of three, and the population of very young children two and under is expected to grow by some 20%–30% by the year 2040. Two new studies by the Taub Center examine the participation of young children from birth to age three in educational settings during their critical developmental years.
In the study by Shavit Madhala, Dr. Labib Shami, Prof. John Gal, and Elon Sela, factors affecting the low participation rates of Arab children in frameworks for early childhood education and care (ECEC) are examined. A decade after the social protests and the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee to increase accessibility and improve the quality of early childhood education and after the passing of legislation regarding supervision of daycare for very young children, it seems that the steps taken have not actually helped those most in need of the service. The participation rate of children in supervised early childhood educational frameworks in Arab society, which suffers from social exclusion and high rates of poverty, has remained exceptionally low. This study highlights systemic, bureaucratic, and economic obstacles, as well as barriers to accessibility, and policy alternatives to address these challenges are presented.
In the study by Hai Vaknin and Prof. Yossi Shavit the relationship between the participation of young children from birth to age three in education and care settings and their reading achievements in Grade 4 are examined for the first time. The study finds that, when controlling for family characteristics, the achievements of children who participated in early childhood education and care settings from birth to age 3 are the same as children who did not attend daycare. This is the case among Jewish and Arab children alike and no difference was found on the basis of social status. The researchers presume that this finding reflects the low average quality of such frameworks which until recently were, for the most part, not under government supervision.
Participation of Arab Israeli children in supervised early childhood education and care settings
In the 2018/2019 school year, 130,000 children participated in supervised educational frameworks – that is, about 24% of children ages birth to age three in Israel. Of these, about 113,000 are children of working parents. The Ministry of Economy offers subsidies to parents who are either working or learning, primarily based on their income and the number of work or study hours of the mother. The subsidy ranges between NIS 240 to NIS 2,200 per child per month, depending on their eligibility, while families with high incomes pay full tuition per child – something that may range between NIS 1,900 and NIS 2,850 per month per child. In the last decade, government expenditure on child subsidies for working parents has nearly doubled, from NIS 660 million to about NIS 1.3 billion. Children of working parents comprise about 85% of children in supervised frameworks. The remaining children – about 19,400 – are placed in frameworks through the Law for Young Children At-Risk run by the Child and Youth Service of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. These children are entitled to a higher subsidy, and the private payment for them ranges between NIS 460 and NIS 750 per month. In 2019, the total expenditure for subsidies for children at risk stood at about NIS 416 million.
In the last decade, there has been a rise of 34% in children participating in supervised frameworks, though over the years there remain large gaps between different population groups in Israel and primarily between Arab children and the rest of the population. In light of this, Taub Center researchers Shavit Madhala, Dr. Labib Shami, Prof. John Gal, and Elon Sela focused on the participation of children from Arab society in supervised ECEC frameworks. The study is based on data from various government ministries, an internet survey conducted by the Taub Center, as well as telephone interviews conducted by the researchers with professional Arab women and Arab mothers of young children.
“In the past, the primary aim of ECEC frameworks was to allow mothers to participate in the labor force, and so priority for subsidies was given to children of working mothers – something that persists until today. In the past twenty years, though, there is a growing understanding that high-quality early childhood education and care settings are critical beyond their use as a tool to encourage parents to join the labor market, and that all young children should be assured high-quality educational settings. Policy makers in this field attach great significance to ECEC frameworks, and they recognize their potential for addressing poverty and inequality. Despite steps that have been taken to implement this approach, Arab society, which has the greatest need for quality early childhood education, benefits the least,” says researcher Shavit Madhala.
Despite the need, only a handful of very young Arab children participated in supervised frameworks, and the majority of them are young children at-risk
Despite the fact that 58% of Arab children live in families that are poor, in 2019, only 18% of Arab children ages birth to three participated in subsidized, supervised ECEC frameworks – an especially low share relative to children in the Haredi and Jewish non-Haredi sectors (39% and 26%, respectively). In addition, a great number of those children in supervised ECEC frameworks in the Arab population are placed through the Law for Young Children At-Risk – about 45% in Arab authorities versus 11% in Jewish non-Haredi authorities and 8% in Haredi authorities. Important differences are observed in the types of supervised frameworks that young children participate in – daycare settings or family daycare settings. About half of Arab children (46%) are in family daycare settings versus some 6% in the non-Haredi Jewish sector and 21% in the Haredi sector.
A look at the individual characteristics of children of working parents in supervised settings (i.e., excluding those children participating under the Law for Young Children At-Risk) indicates even larger gaps – the share of Arab children of working parents in supervised settings is only about 8%, even though their share within the relevant age group across the population is about 22%.
The differences among population groups are also substantial in the level of subsidies to children of working parents: 89% of Haredi children to parents who work or are studying are eligible for high levels of subsidies, versus about 54% of Arabs and some 30% of non-Haredi Jews.
Some of the subsidy gaps can be explained by the fact that eligibility is based primarily on income per household member, and in Arab and Haredi households, incomes, for the most part, are quite low. The gap between Haredim and Arabs can be explained by the larger number of children per family, on average, in the Haredi sector. In addition, the more children from the same household that are registered in supervised settings, the larger is the subsidy. In the 2019/2020 school year, the share of Haredi families with more than one child registered in a supervised ECEC framework was 23% — almost double the share among Arab families.
It is harder for those with fewer resources: Arab municipalities encounter bureaucratic and systemic obstacles to establishing daycares, while families have difficulty exercising their rights for subsidies and accessing frameworks
In many cases, social investment programs ultimately serve groups other than the intended target population. This is the case with regard to early childhood education and care settings in Israel, as evidenced by the gap between Arab children in supervised ECEC frameworks and the share of children from the rest of the population in these frameworks. There are a number of possible explanations:
Systemic obstacles: In the 2019/2020 school year, the number of daycare settings for very young children of working parents in Arab towns was significantly lower relative to other towns. While Arab municipalities received the highest per child allocation for building such daycares, the implementation rate was particularly low – only 50% (versus 79% in the Haredi sector and 61% in Jewish non-Haredi towns).
The Taub Center research finds that various factors may explain the low utilization rates of the budget for establishing daycare centers, including the difficulty of obtaining building licenses due to the lack of proper town plans and a lack of provision of appropriate land for facilities; equipment for the daycares that is not included in the building budget which many Arab authorities find difficult to finance; problems in negotiating the complicated bureaucracy for government support of building daycares; and a shortage of professional manpower in the field of early childhood education to lead and support the planning and implementation process.
Accessibility difficulties: The low employment rates of Arab mothers narrows the chances that their young children will be accepted into supervised ECEC frameworks as well as their eligibility for subsidies. There are also physical barriers that have a high impact, such as the lack of public transportation infrastructure and mobility/transportation challenges for mothers that make it difficult for them to bring their young children to daycare. In a survey conducted by the Taub Center among parents of young children, many Arab parents expressed the fact that they did not register their young children in educational settings because they were unable to find an appropriate setting in their area. An additional accessibility issue is bureaucratic — daycare and family daycare directors say that a great deal of their time is spent assisting parents in completing the required forms to register their children and to exercise their rights for subsidies.
Financial obstacles: Even after subsidies, daycare fees are high relative to family incomes. The relative low earnings of Arab mothers prevents them from reaching the required tax level for eligibility for tax credits that lower the price of daycare. Almost two-thirds of Arab women who work are ineligible for these benefits. In addition, many parents in the Arab sector prefer to register their children in private settings, where the fees are lower relative to the Jewish sector and range between NIS 1,000 and NIS 1,700 per month for a full day — a fee that is lower than the cost in supervised daycare settings, even after subsidies.
Taub Center researchers recommend the following policy alternatives
The research data indicate a widening of the use of supervised ECEC frameworks among Arab society in the past decade, although the share of Arab children participating in these setting is low relative to other groups, and the targets are still far from being achieved. Taub Center researchers recommend a number of policy alternatives for dealing with the obstacles to participation:
- Adapting the planning and building regulations for daycares to the complex realities of Arab towns and raising the resources available for planning and licensing stages.
- Adding job positions and enlisting and training professional manpower in the field of early childhood development for local Arab authorities. It is advised to run a program for training and to even underwrite the positions in Arab towns. The program can be a government initiative in cooperation with organizations from the Third Sector. Estimated costs of this are about NIS 15 million per year.
- Renew examination of women’s employment as a condition for receipt of subsidies. Awarding subsidies without reference to the mother’s employment will increase accessibility and use of supervised settings and may even encourage the participation of Arab women in the labor market, as was the case in the past with the introduction of the Compulsory Education Law for children from age 3.
- A look at improving the registration process for daycare settings and uptake of rights which today involves filling out a multiplicity of forms within a short amount of time and online only, and with only a few sections of the forms in Arabic. Costs to the government for such a step are marginal.
- Developing a flexible public transport system including small busses to pass through narrow streets, in addition to widening the dispersion of supervised daycare settings in Arab towns.
- Increasing the amount of the subsidy for ECEC settings, such that participation costs will not be more than NIS 1,000, at an estimated cost to the state of NIS 4.5 billion per year.
- Allowing the option for a short day at supervised ECEC settings, which will suit the needs of many Arab mothers.
- Changing the eligibility for tax credits for parents of young children so that the unused portion can be used to increase the direct subsidy for childcare costs to working mothers who do not reach the income level required for the benefit. Estimated costs for this step are between NIS 151 and NIS 314 million per year.
- Tax benefits to employers who finance (in part or in full) their workers placing their children in supervised ECEC settings, as is done in certain countries and which further encourages women’s participation in the labor market. The expected decrease in government revenues for this tax benefit to employers is likely to be balanced by the rise in women’s labor market participation.
“Government efforts to widen the use of supervised ECEC frameworks in the Arab sector have been disappointing, and more than 80% of very young children in Arab towns are not in them despite their high levels of poverty. The Taub Center study shows the gaps and the obstacles causing them, and we hope that the government will adopt at least a few of the alternatives proposed here,” says researcher Dr. Labib Shami.
President of the Taub Center, Prof. Avi Weiss, adds: “The Taub Center has been leading research in the field of early childhood for a number of years now, and the more data collected, the clearer it is how much investment in this age group is necessary, particularly for a country blessed with many children, many of whom live in poverty. Investment in early childhood today is the key to economic growth in the coming decades.”
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Participation in early education and care settings for children from birth to age three and its impact on reading achievements in Grade 4
Available data on educational frameworks for children from birth to age 3 attest to their general poor quality. The participation rates in this age group in Israel are among the highest in the world. Only a quarter of those in these frameworks, though, are in settings that are under the supervision of the government, like those run by WIZO, Emunah, and other organizations. Most children under the age of 3 are in unsupervised settings with little data available about them. The TALIS study, which compares quality indices of supervised early education settings in Israel and other countries, testifies to their low quality – for example, the low education level of staff and the high number of children per class, as reported by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. Moreover, the government supervision that was in place until recently for these frameworks for children under age 3 did not include pedagogical supervision, and there were no uniform standards for learning programs.
In the Taub Center study, the researchers examine whether participation in ECEC frameworks from birth to age 3 contribute to educational achievement despite the low quality of these settings, whether the length of time of participation contributes to cognitive development as expressed in educational achievements, and whether there are differences between Jews and Arabs, as well as among individuals of various socioeconomic levels. The researchers used data from the PIRLS 2016 exam (the last conducted in Israel), that tests reading achievement levels in Grade 4 and included questionnaires completed by both students and their parents about their home environment. The data include more than 3,000 students born in Israel from 159 schools.
Participation rates of Jewish children ages 3 and under in ECEC frameworks is almost double that of Arab children
The study finds that while the participation rate of Jewish and Arab children ages 3‒6 are quite similar (98% and 96%, respectively), for children ages birth to 3, the difference is significant: 90% versus 46%, respectively. In addition, participation rates in ECEC frameworks for ages birth to 3 are extremely high for children from relatively high socioeconomic backgrounds (as measured by mother’s education level and father’s occupation), yet there are no discernible differences in participation rates for those ages 3‒6.
Despite their poor quality, participation in frameworks for ages birth to 3 does not harm future academic achievement, although it also does not improve them
The Taub Center study controlled for characteristics of the children — age, gender, and their parents’ characteristics — mother’s education level and father’s occupation as indicators of socioeconomic level. The data indicate a clear difference in average scores on the PIRLS exams between Jews and Arabs, which, in part, can be explained by socioeconomic level. The share of mothers with higher education among Jews is almost double their number among Arabs. The same is true for the share of Jewish fathers with a free professional or managerial occupation level.
Among Arabs, the share of children of mothers with an academic education who participated in ECEC frameworks from birth to age 3 is double the share of those whose mothers do not have higher education (67% versus 36%, respectively). Among Jews, this difference is smaller (93% versus 88%, respectively). On the other hand, for both population groups, mother’s education level had no influence on the participation rate of children ages 3‒6 in educational frameworks.
The study also shows that after controlling for characteristics of children and their parents, the contribution of participation in an ECEC framework for ages birth to 3 to reading achievements in Grade 4 is not significant. This is in contrast to the positive relationship found between participation in an educational setting at ages 3‒6 and later academic performance.
“Until now, the relationship between participation in early childhood settings for 3‒6-year-olds and academic achievement has been studied; the same has not been done for children ages birth to 3, the most significant developmental period for children. This study attempts to shed light on the relationship in this age group, and we found that participation in these frameworks does not contribute to reading achievements although it also does not harm them. The low quality of these frameworks is a possible explanation for this currently, and if the quality was higher we could expect to see that their participation contributed to higher levels of reading achievement as has been seen in other studies. This finding is important in light of the number of children who participate in daycare in Israel and their enrollment rates in these settings,” says researcher Hai Vaknin. “I hope that the introduction of the Supervision Daycare Law, which has recently been approved by the Knesset, for all settings for children ages birth to age 3, will bring about an improvement in the quality of these settings and, among other things, will contribute to advancing future achievements for these children.”
The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel is an independent, non-partisan socioeconomic research institute. The Center provides decision makers and the public with research and findings on some of the most critical issues facing Israel in the areas of education, health, welfare, labor markets and economic policy in order to impact the decision-making process in Israel and to advance the well-being of all Israelis.