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We present experimental evidence on an early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform under active consideration by the Finnish government. The experiment included about 35,000 children in more than 1,000 daycare centers, with 40% randomly assigned to start pre-primary education one year earlier than in the existing system. For 95% of participants, this replaced standard ECEC with a program featuring greater exposure to university-educated early childhood teachers, same-age rather than mixed-age groups, and somewhat more structured instruction; for the remaining 5%, the counterfactual was home care. Impacts are measured using newly collected assessments of academic skills and teacher-reported socioemotional development at ages 5, 6, and 7, along with time-use surveys in daycare centers and detailed administrative records on the backgrounds of children, their parents, and their teachers.

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As you see, I have left the results out of the abstract. I will reveal them during the seminar, but before that, I would like to invite you to help us pilot a survey that elicits expert priors on expected effect sizes. If you would like to help us with this — or simply give in to your competitive urge to see if you can get it right — please take about five minutes to complete the survey here: