Exhibits 5.16 and 5.17 provide further insight into the relative effects of formal preprimary education and informal literacy and numeracy activities in the home on later achievement in mathematics and science, respectively. The results suggest that preprimary education cannot completely replace parental involvement in preparing children for later success in school. At each level of preprimary attendance, from three years or more down through one year or less, the students whose parents “often” engaged them in early literacy and numeracy activities had higher average mathematics and higher average science achievement than those engaged only “sometimes” or “never.”

For both mathematics and science, average achievement was highest (520 and 513, respectively) among the 26 percent of students that had three years or more of preprimary education and whose parents “often” engaged them in literacy and numeracy activities before beginning primary school. It was lowest (469 and 455, respectively) among the 18 percent that had one year or less of preprimary education and parents reporting only “sometimes” or “never” engaging them in literacy and numeracy activities. See About the Scale in Exhibit 5.11 for information about the Early Literacy and Numeracy Activities scale.