Variations in the availability and quality of early childhood education and care by socioeconomic status

 Inequality is pervasive and is associated with poorer developmental outcomes for children. There is a socioeconomic status (SES) gradient for health, education, intellectual, and social and emotional outcomes that begins in the earliest years of life and is maintained over time. It is regularly argued that participation in early childhood education and care programs (ECEC) is highly desirable for families from low SES backgrounds because ECEC programs can ameliorate disadvantage and close the gap between peers from more and less advantaged backgrounds. Higher quality ECEC programs have been found to be more effective at ameliorating disadvantage than lower quality programs. Many countries invest heavily in ECEC programs and yet differences between children from different SES backgrounds persist. This study looks at the availability of ECEC programs and the availability of high-quality programs in low SES areas as a potential mechanism to explain these persistent developmental differences. Data is drawn from two data sets. The first is government licencing data of a population of 6,937 ECEC services, and the second is a sample of 421 ECEC classrooms in a large Australian research study designed to answer questions about ECEC program quality. Descriptive and chi-square analysis of population data is reported. Regression models are used to report inferential statistics from the second dataset using robust estimates of standard errors to account for clustering. This study supports a hypothesis of inequality of availability: there are fewer programs available in low SES areas and they are, on average, of lower quality than those in higher SES areas. These findings are evidence that the ECEC market faces barriers to providing high quality ECEC programs in low SES areas. This has implications for policy that aims to deliver increased participation in ECEC programs for all children and to close the achievement gap between those from disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds.