Making the Case for Early Learning

Research Shows: The Benefits of High-Quality Early Learning


From economics to neuroscience, education to public policy, a vast body of research demonstrates that early education matters. Early childhood provides a window of opportunity to dramatically shape a child’s brain when it is rapidly developing. In early childhood, children develop the linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional building blocks for later development. [i] In early childhood, children develop the linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional building blocks for later development. [ii]

By the time they enter kindergarten, studies in several states show that children who attend preschool are already ahead in early reading and math skills. [iii] That educational boost continues through K-12 and into adulthood, researchers who have followed children for decades found. [iv] Economic analyses show high-quality preschool saves our schools and our state money, and provides long-term benefits to our children and communities. [v]

Eager Young Learners

  • Early experiences – particularly from the time children are born to the first day of kindergarten – shape whether a child’s brain develops a strong foundation for the learning, health and behavior that follow. [vi]
  • The principles of neuroscience indicate that early preventive intervention will be more efficient and produce more favorable outcomes than remediation later in life. [vii]
  • Babies’ brains require stable, caring, interactive relationships with adults – programs that foster these relationships benefit healthy brain development. [viii]

Learning Begins at Birth:
Educare and Abecedarian


Educare

  • Children in the Educare program, which provides high-quality early learning opportunities to very low-income children from birth to age 5 in Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Omaha and Tulsa,  exceed by eight points the national average on measures of school readiness. These include concepts such as letters, colors and sequence. [ix]
  • 88% of 5 year olds in the Chicago Educare program have social skills meeting or exceeding national averages. Such social and emotional skills, including the capacity to control one’s behavior, get along with peers and ask for and receive help, are critical to school success. [x]
North Carolina's Abecedarian Project

  • Children from low-income families who received early education in a high-quality setting in North Carolina’s Abecedarian Project from infancy through age 5 were better prepared for school compared to a control group who did not receive services, attaining: 
    • higher cognitive test scores from the toddler years to age 21; and
    • higher reading and math achievement test scores from the primary grades through young adulthood. [xi]


Ready for Kindergarten and Beyond


Results from Pre-k Programs in Five States

  • A study of five high-quality, state-funded pre-k programs in New Jersey, Oklahoma, Michigan, South Carolina and West Virginia, found children made important learning and development  gains beyond those that would naturally occur in one year. The programs resulted in improvements in areas that lay a foundation for school success, including gains of 31% in vocabulary; 44% in early math skills; and 85% in print awareness. [xii]
  • Research on New Jersey’s Abbott preschool program, which serves 44,000 children, shows gains in oral language, reading and math skills have persisted as they have progressed into the early elementary grades. Grade retention has been cut in half. [xiii]
  • Oklahoma’s high-quality, state-funded preschool program also showed gains in early reading and math skills. Low-income, Latino and African American children showed the greatest gains. [xiv]
Longitudinal Study: Chicago Child-Parent Centers

Children who attend high-quality preschool do significantly better in K-12 and beyond than children who do not, according to a 28-year study of more than 1,400 low-income African American children who attended Chicago Public School’s large-scale preschool program. [xv]

  • Preschool participants
    • Scored better on reading and math achievement tests;
    • were less likely placed in special education;
    • were less likely to be held back a grade; and
    • were more likely to graduate from high school. [xvi]

    Longitudinal Study: Perry Preschool Project

    • The benefits of high-quality preschool continue into adulthood, according to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study, which has followed participants in a high-quality program for more than 40 years.
    • Compared to a control group who did not attend preschool, Perry participants were:
      • less likely to be arrested more than five times;
      • more likely to hold a college degree;
      • more likely to own a home;
      • more likely to be employed. [xvii]



A Proven Investment That Pays Off

  • Early interventions for disadvantaged children are more economically efficient and produce higher returns than remedial programs to help teenagers and young adults catch up later on, according to James Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics. [xviii]
  • Economists have found that high-quality early childhood education offers one of the highest returns of any public investment – more than $7 for every dollar spent. [xix] It saves government spending on K-12 education, public assistance and the criminal justice system, and increases tax revenues as a result of higher earnings. [xx]

What is Happening in California?


RAND: Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California

  • Between 40 and 60 percent of California’s second and third graders are not achieving grade-level proficiency in core subjects, with even larger gaps for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, including Latinos and African-Americans, English learners, those whose parents have less than a postsecondary education and those with low family income. Moreover, these achievement differences have early roots: The same groups who are behind in third grades were behind when they entered kindergarten.Less than 40 percent of low-income 3 and 4 year old children who could attend publicly funded early learning programs are in them.  Just 5 percent of infants and toddlers who could attend publicly funded early childhood programs are in them. [xxi]
  • Less than 40 percent of low-income 3 and 4 year old children who could attend publicly funded early learning programs are in them.  [xxii] Just 5 percent of infants and toddlers who could attend publicly funded early childhood programs are in them.
  • Just 13 percent of low-income children are enrolled in high-quality early learning programs that promote higher-order thinking skills and language development. [xxiii]

Los Angeles Universal Preschool School Readiness Study

  • After a year of high-quality preschool, 72 percent of children were proficient in important school readiness skills such as social expression, self regulation, self-care and motor skills, compared to 22 percent when they started, according to a study by Los Angeles Universal Preschool. [xxiv]
  • The benefits were especially strong for English Language Learners, who started with significantly lower school readiness skills than their non English Language Learner peers. After a year of high-quality early learning, this gap had closed. [xxv]

    •  [i] National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2006). Early Influences on Brain Architecture: An Interview with Neuroscientist Eric Knudsen.

     [ii] Shonkoff, J. & Phillips, D. (Eds.) . (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Page 5.

     [iii] Gormley, W., Gayer, T., Phillips, D. & Dawson, B. (2004). The Effects of Oklahoma’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program on School Readiness. Retrieved from Georgetown University’s Center for Research on Children in the U.S. Web Site:  http://www.crocus.georgetown.edu/reports/executive_summary_11_04.pdf and Barnett, W., Jung, K., Wong, V., Cook, T., & Lamy, C. (2007). Effects of Five State Prekindergarten Programs on Early Learning. New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://nieer.org/docs/?DocID=129 and Frede, E., Jung, K., Barnett, W., & Figueras, A. (2009.) The APPLES Blossom: Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effects Study (APPLES): Preliminary Results through 2nd Grade Interim Report. New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://nieer.org/pdf/apples_second_grade_results.pdf and Yazejian, N., & Bryant, D.M. (2010). Promising early returns: Educare implementation study data, January 2010. Chapel Hill”: FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-CH. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~bounce/assets/pdf/FPG_Educare_Promising_Early_Returns_1-22-10.pdf and The Carolina Abecedarian Project. (1999). Age 21 Follow-up Executive Summary, Early Learning: Later Success: The Abecedarian Study.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Center. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/#summary_follow_up.

     [iv] Reynolds, A., Temple, J., Ou, S., Arteaga, I. & White, B.(2011). School-Based Early Childhood Education and Age-28 Well-Being: Effects by Timing, Dosage, and Subgroups. Science Magazine, 333 (6040), 360-64. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/360 and Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005). Lifetime effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool study through age 40. (Monographs of the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, 14). Ypsilanti, MI: HighScope Press and The Carolina Abecedarian Project. (1999). Age 21 Follow-up Executive Summary, Early Learning: Later Success: The Abecedarian Study.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Center. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/#summary_follow_up.

     [v] Committee for Economic Development. (2006). The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool: Using Early Education to Improve Economic Growth and the Fiscal Sustainability of States and the Nation. Washington, D.C.: Committee for Economic Development. Retrieved from http://www.ced.org/library/reports/41/203-the-economic-promise-of-investing-in-high-quality-preschool and The Heckman Equation. (2011). Presenting the Heckman Equation. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.heckmanequation.org/content/resource/presenting-heckman-equation.

     [vi] Harvard University Center on the Developing Child. In Brief: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Cambridge, Ma.: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/   and National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2007). The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture: Working Paper #5.Cambridge, Ma.: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.ecdgroup.com/docs/lib_005471954.pdf.

     [vii] Ibid

     [viii] Ibid.

     [ix] Yazejian, N., & Bryant, D.M. (2009). Promising early returns: Educare implementation study data, March 2009. Chapel Hill: FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-CH. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~bounce/assets/pdf/Promising_Early_Returns_4_14_09.pdf.

     [x] Ibid.

     [xi] The Carolina Abecedarian Project. (1999). Age 21 Follow-up Executive Summary, Early Learning: Later Success: The Abecedarian Study.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Center. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/#summary_follow_up.

     [xii] Barnett, W., Jung, K., Wong, V., Cook, T., & Lamy, C. (2007). Effects of Five State Prekindergarten Programs on Early Learning. New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://nieer.org/docs/?DocID=129.

     [xiii] Frede, E., Jung, K., Barnett, W., & Figueras, A. (2009.) The APPLES Blossom: Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effects Study (APPLES): Preliminary Results through 2nd Grade Interim Report. New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://nieer.org/pdf/apples_second_grade_results.pdf.

     [xiv] Gormley, W., Gayer, T., Phillips, D. & Dawson, B. (2004). The Effects of Oklahoma’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program on School Readiness. Retrieved from Georgetown University’s Center for Research on Children in the U.S. Web Site:  http://www.crocus.georgetown.edu/reports/executive_summary_11_04.pdf.

     [xv] Reynolds, A., Temple, J., Ou, S., Arteaga, I. & White, B.(2011). School-Based Early Childhood Education and Age-28 Well-Being: Effects by Timing, Dosage, and Subgroups. Science Magazine, 333 (6040), 360-64. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/360.

     [xvi] Reynolds, A.J. (1995). One Year of Preschool Intervention or Two: Does It Matter?  Early Childhood Quarterly, 10 (1), 1-31. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0885200695900241.

     [xvii] Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005). Lifetime effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool study through age 40. (Monographs of the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, 14). Ypsilanti, MI: HighScope Press.

     [xviii] Committee for Economic Development. (2006). The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool: Using Early Education to Improve Economic Growth and the Fiscal Sustainability of States and the Nation. Washington, D.C.: Committee for Economic Development. Retrieved from http://www.ced.org/library/reports/41/203-the-economic-promise-of-investing-in-high-quality-preschool.

     [xix] Committee for Economic Development. (2006). The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool: Using Early Education to Improve Economic Growth and the Fiscal Sustainability of States and the Nation. Washington, D.C.: Committee for Economic Development. Retrieved from http://www.ced.org/library/reports/41/203-the-economic-promise-of-investing-in-high-quality-preschool.

     [xx] Ibid.

     [xxi] Karoly, L. & Cannon, J. (2007). The Promise of Preschool for Narrowing Readiness and Achievement Gaps Among California Children Research Brief. Santa Monica, Ca.: RAND Corporation. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9306/index1.html.

     [xxii] Karoly, L. (2009). Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California: Issues, Policy Options and Recommendations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Page 51. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG889.html.

     [xxiii] Karoly, L. (2009). Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California: Issues, Policy Options and Recommendations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Page 51. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG889.html. Calculations by the author.

     [xxiv] Los Angeles Universal Preschool and Applied Survey Research. (2009). The Successful Kids in Pre-K Project (SKIPP) Phase II: An Assessment of Los Angeles Universal Preschool Students’ Progression Toward School Readiness. Los Angeles, Ca.: Los Angeles Universal Preschool. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/www/products/SKIPP_FINAL_REPORT-Phase2.pdf.

     [xxv] Ibid.

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