Early Childhood in Israel: Selected Research Findings, 2022

academic development between students in Israel can be seen not only between children who grew up in a family under the poverty line and children who grew up in a middle class family, but also between children who grew up in a rich family and children who grew up in a middle class family. In comparison to other OECD countries, there are significant income gaps between socioeconomic groups in the population, primarily between high income earners and earners at the bottom of the distribution. In other words, there is a high-income group in Israel whose children show higher academic achievements. This group has the ability to nurture their children using their more abundant resources, which can be used to obtain a better nutrition levels for the mother and her newborn, higher quality medical care and diagnosis, participation in higher quality ECEC frameworks, etc. It may be that this explains the major disparities in academic achievement between the various socioeconomic levels in Israel.

Test score differences on the Meitzav exams in mathematics in Grade 5 and family income in the highest or lowest SES quintile (reltaive to the middle SES income level)

Note: Columns outlined in grey represent statistically significant differences in scores between children growing up in households with low or high family income and those from middle income families.

Source: Dana Shay and Yossi Shavit, Taub Center | Data: CBS