Emerging Early Childhood Inequality: On the Relationship Between Poverty, Sensory Stimulation, Child Development, and Achievement

Funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, this literature review illuminates how economic inequality affects educational achievement – in general and specifically in Israel, where economic and academic inequalities are among the world’s highest. It advances the thesis that low socioeconomic status in early childhood may lead to stress that affects brain development, and identifies policies that could reduce the incidence of such stress in the Israeli context.