What policy makers should know about
Pre-K effectiveness
Steve Barnett, PhD
848-932-4350
[email protected]
Potential Gains from Pre-K Investments
Educational , Social and Economic Success
 Achievement test scores
 Special education and grade repetition
 High school graduation
 Behavior problems, delinquency, and crime
 Employment, earnings, and welfare dependency
 Smoking, drug use, and even health
Decreased Costs to Government
 Schooling costs
 Social services costs
 Crime costs
 Health care costs (teen pregnancy and smoking)
Looking at all the evidence: Cognitive gains from ECE
in the US (123 studies since 1960)
Effects (sd)
All Designs
HQ Designs
HQ Programs
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Treatment End
Ages 5-10
Age >10
Age at Follow-Up
Note: 1 sd = achievement gap, so high quality preschool could
close nearly half the achievement gap
What do we learn from research?
1. High quality early care and education can has longterm academic, social, and economic benefits
2. Cognitive effects are positive and on average persist
through the school years
3. High quality programs emphasizing education have
larger effects:
–
–
–
Intentional teaching
Individualization & small groups
Requires strong teachers adequately supported
4. Large short-term gains needed for long-term gains
5. Every year matters: quality early care and education
are the leading edge of school reform
Few children and families have access to
high-quality early care and education
• Only 1/3 of centers serving 4 -year-olds are good
or better
• Quality of care is lower for younger children
• Private programs have lower observed quality
than public--parents cannot discern quality and
poor quality drives out good from the market
• The child care subsidy system may actually harm
children because standards for quality are so low
Good pre-K least available to most disadvantaged
Little high quality infant-toddler center care in
NJ (511 classrooms statewide)
NJ has a proven Pre-K approach
• Abbott reforms with high standards and adequate
funding shifted the entire distribution of quality upward
• Quality improved in public and private providers
• Test scores increased through at least 5th grade
• 2 years starting at age 3 doubled test score gains
• Grade repetition and special education cut by 1/3
• State legislature’s plan to offer this model statewide,
was never implemented
• High quality pre-K for all children <200% FPL in NJ would
decrease costs of education by $850 million per year
NJ Effects on Retention & Special Education
at Grade 5
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
19%
17%
12%
Retention
Abbott pre-K
12%
Special edcuation
no Abbott pre-K
Takeaway Lessons
1. High quality early care and education (ECE) benefits
childen, families, and taxpayers
2. Most children do not attend good programs and some
are in harmful ECE
3. We know how to do better and NJ has a successful
model for producing high quality
4. In the long-term the state will pay less each year for
education if it invests in quality pre-K
5. Expanding quality pre-K will lower state costs of
education in the long-term while improving outcomes
6. Every year matters for learning and development
–
–
K-12 reform and realignment can be driven by pre-K
Build infant and toddler care quality together with pre-K