The statistical results presented in this paper are based on data from alongitudinal survey of elementary school children in the Dijon area. They provide strong support for the hypothesis \textemdash whichstresses the cumulative aspect of learning, predicting that better mastery of concepts and higher levels of initial learning areinputs which aid in further acquisition of learning \textemdash indicating that differences in learning in grade 1 that are attributable topedagogical inputs exert a large and statistically significant effect on learning in grades 2 and 3.