Documenting the Value of Preschool Education

11/19/2004

Documenting the Value of Preschool Education

"What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?" - Logan Pearsall Smith in Afterthoughts

Documenting the Value of Preschool Education

In the 1960s the High/Scope Foundation began tracking two groups of low-income, mainly African American, young children. One group received high quality early care and learning from a curriculum supervised by the Foundation. Another mirror group of young children from the same neighborhood in Ypsilanti received no such program in their younger years before entering public school. This type of study is scientific because it contrasts the outcomes of individuals randomly assigned to either a treatment group that attended the early childhood program or a no-treatment group that did not attend the program.

The Foundation has now tracked the lives of both sets of children up until age 40. Most of the findings fall into three important areas:

* Education. Children receiving quality early learning before entering school had higher achievement test scores, less need of treatment for mental impairment, a stronger commitment to education, a higher rate of graduation from high school, and a lower rate of high school dropout.

* Crime. Children receiving high quality care were less likely to be involved in crime in their youth and throughout their entire adulthood.

* Economy. Children receiving high quality care are averaging thousands of dollars more in annual earnings than their counterparts who did not receive early care in their younger years.

To view the complete results of the High/Scope research through age 40, go to the High/Scope web site at: www.highscope.org

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