Alejandra Miranda

Does pre-school improve cognitive abilities among children with early-life stunting? A longitudinal study for Peru

Several studies in developing countries have found that children who experience growth faltering in the first years of life show lower cognitive abilities than their peers. In this study, we use the Young Lives longitudinal dataset in Peru to analyze if attending pre-school affects cognitive abilities at age five years, and if there is an interaction with HAZ at age one year. Using instrumental variables we found, for receptive vocabulary, a positive effect of attending Jardines (formal) pre-schools; the effect of attending PRONOEI (community-based) pre-schools was not significant. More years attending Jardines was more beneficial for children who were better nourished. We suggest working to improve the quality of PRONOEIs, and with teachers on targeting children of lower nutritional status.

Classroom composition and its association with students’ achievement and socioemotional characteristics in Peru

School composition is a topic that has gained increasing attention from researchers over the past few years, as it has been found that the socio-economic characteristics of students are associated with their achievement. However, most research has been cross-sectional and carried out in industrialised countries. In this study, we use parental education as a measure of classroom composition across schools in Peru, and find that there are high levels of segregation, especially at the extremes of the distribution. Using longitudinal data from the Young Lives Study, we find that classroom composition was positively associated with achievement in mathematics and sense of belonging of students, and not associated with reading achievement or perception of security at school. We discuss these results and suggest that school composition is a relevant variable to include in descriptions of national educational systems in Latin America and as a context variable for results of achievement among students.