ECCE effect on boys and girls The ECCE effect on all three tests was higher for boys than for girls (see Table 6). The similarities and differences between ECCE participants and non-participants by gender are similar to the ones described earlier for the whole sample (see Table 2).When estimating the effect of ECCE among boys (N = 42,895) for the matched sample, we found that boys who attended ECCE scored an average of 11.5 points (0.2 SD) in math, 6.3 points (0.11 SD)in reading, and 7.5 points (0.11 SD) in social sciences, higher than those who did not attend any ECCE program. In the case of girls(N = 43,633), those who attended ECCE scored an average of 4.9points (0.08 SD) in math, 4.4 points (0.08 SD) in reading, and 3.9