UC PhD student Asaad Ali and Associate Professor Andrea Menclova with Stats NZ Chief Methodologist Vince Galvin.
Associate Professor听Andrea Menclova听and PhD student Asaad Ali from the UC Business School were awarded the prize at the 60th听Annual Conference of the New 麻豆传媒团队Association of Economists听(NZAE) this month.
The paper,听, found that the date of birth affects the amount of time spent in primary school and may further impact educational outcomes.
鈥淭he finding is unique to New 麻豆传媒团队where primary school attendance typically starts as soon as a child turns five years old,鈥 Associate Professor Menclova says. 鈥淒epending on the timing of the fifth birthday, children either go to Year 0 or Year 1. They then proceed to the next grade in February the following year, regardless of how much time they have spent in the previous grade.鈥
鈥淢ore specifically, if a child鈥檚 birth date is between January and May, that child will often spend the year he or she turns five in Year 1 and the next year in Year 2. However, if a child鈥檚 birth date is between June and December, the student will usually spend the year he or she turns five in Year 0 and the next year in Year 1, which means they effectively get more time in the early formal education setting.鈥
Using confidentialised microdata accessed via a Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa data lab at UC鈥檚 Business School, the researchers found that students with an additional month of early schooling are on average 5% more likely to meet UE, when all other aspects are equal.
鈥淐ontrolling for demographic and socio-economic characteristics, we found that an additional month spent in Years 0/1 increases the probability of achieving NCEA level 1 by 2%, NCEA level 2 by 4%, NCEA level 3 by 6%, and UE by 5%.鈥
In most other developed countries, all children turning a specific age in a certain academic year begin school on the same date and receive the same amount of primary education in total.
