Early Skills as Predictors for Later Educational Outcome in Mathematics and Science in Finland and Sweden : A Further Analysis on TIMSS 2015 Data

Abstract

Family-related factors, like parent’s educational level, expectations and socio-economic variables have a significant impact on students’ educational outcomes. In this study our aim is to examine how parental attitudes and the socioeconomic status of student’s family are related to student’s early literacy and numeracy skills and, further, to student’s performance in mathematics and science in the TIMSS assessment. As data we use the latest TIMSS 2015 data collected from parents and students in Finland and Sweden and further as method we use path analysis. According to the results, all considered variables have a highly significant and positive direct effect on the 4th grade student performance. However, some differences between the countries emerged. The results of this study highlight the importance of high-quality early childhood environments on students later educational outcome.