Evidence shows that early childhood education leads to the development of cognitive, social and emotional skills at a young age as well as to better school performance later on. It also creates conditions for lifelong learning and better future professional achievement. Furthermore, efforts to ensure quality early childhood education programmes…

This dissertation examines the relationship between teacher educational background, teacher experience, and student achievement in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. The first essay of this dissertation, "Effects of Teacher Degree Level, Coursework, and Certification on Student Achievement in Math and Reading in Kindergarten,"…

We consider the effects of daytime fasting by pregnant women during the lunar month of Ramadan on their children's test scores at age seven. Using English register data, we find that scores are 0.05 to 0.08 standard deviations lower for Pakistani and Bangladeshi students exposed to Ramadan in early pregnancy. These estimates are downward biased to…