Childhood Development Expert Discusses Benefits Of Early Education In Funding Dispute

As a scholar, researcher, and teacher educator in early childhood education, I have 16 years of experience working with preservice and inservice educators around issues of anti-bias education and curriculum development for young children.

The benefits of quality early childhood education are unequivocal. The High Scope/Perry Preschool project out of Chicago randomly assigned 123 low-income children to either receive pre-k education or not between 1962-1967. Forty years later in 2005, the researchers published some incredible results that they had collected over those forty years. They found that of the children who had received a pre-k education, 67% had an IQ over 90 at age 5 (compared to 28% of those without pre-k); 49% received basic achievement or better at age 14 (compared to 15%); 65% graduated high school (compared to 45%); 27% owned a home at age 27 (compared to 5%); 60% earned over 20K at age 40 compared to 40%; and 36% had been arrested 5 or more times by age 40, whereas 55% of their non-pre-k counterparts had been arrested 5 or more times.

School districts benefit from quality early childhood education programs by being able to welcome kindergarten and elementary school students who are better prepared for school. Several states have documented significant cognitive gains for children who attended pre-k, including Georgia and Oklahoma. Children who attended pre-k were shown to have better standardized test scores, better pre-reading and pre-writing scores, and better skills in letter-word identification, spelling, and applied problems. Children of all racial groups also experienced significantly more academic gains–that is to say, their academics improved as a result of participating in pre-k. Other benefits to school districts include saving costs due to reduced use of special education services, reduced grade retention, less delinquency, and less dependence on public assistance.