This chapter delves into the interplay between family, socioeconomic status (SES), early childhood education and care (ECEC), and educational outcomes in reading literacy, highlighting the importance of high-quality early education. Using data from PIRLS 2021 and PISA 2018, this research investigates the effect of early childhood education on reading literacy achievement among 4th graders and 15-year-old students around the world. Furthermore, we also investigated whether the ECEC and SES effects on reading literacy at later ages are conditional on countries’ human development. According to the results, there was a clear variation between the effects of ECEC on later reading literacy outcomes in the measured countries around the world. These differences underscore the importance of rethinking policies and practices, especially in those countries where the effect of early education seemed to be negative. There were also significant interactions between ECEC duration and SES when estimating reading literacy by regression on the plausible values for reading literacy for both PIRLS and PISA. The findings of this study are essential for policymakers as they highlight the nuanced relationship between ECEC, SES, and human development across different age groups and countries.

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• Psychology - Social Sciences
• Educational Sciences - Social Sciences
• Sociology - Social Sciences