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For Kids who were not enrolled in preschool before entering kindergarten and who subsequently attended large classes and received low reading instruction, the skills gap appears to grow.
What is particularly interesting, however, is that estimated benefits of preschool seem to increase between spring of the first and third grades, suggesting that the benefits found in the third grade may continue into later school years and even raise the possibility of time capsule effects that increase in size in later grades.
When considering the benefits of funding preschool programs or subsidizing parents to teach their children it is determined that preschool is better for kids than giving money to their parents.
Many studies have been conducted not by early childhood advocates but by right-leaning groups of pragmatism like the U.S. based Business Roundtable, the Economic Policy Institute and the Rand Corporation. In fact, the bibliography attached to the Business Roundtable report Early Childhood Education: A Call to Action from the Business Community reads like a who’s who of Wall Street. All these reports say basically the same thing: Well-designed and appropriately designed early childhood intervention programs have shown to yield benefits in academic achievement, social behaviour, educational progression and attainment, diminished likelihood of delinquency and crime, and labour market success.
The Rand research goes so far as to suggest that well-designed early childhood intervention programs have been found to generate a return to society ranging from $1.80 to $17.07 for every dollar spent.
None of these reportssupport handing over a monthly $100 check to the parents of preschool children. The same notion of expenditure without accountability, which seems to provide comfort to legislators, would likely create outrage in the boardroom.
Probably the most frequently quoted study of Early Childhood Development Programs is the High/Scope Study of the Perry Preschool in Ypsilanti, Mich. Starting in 1962 (this is not new stuff), researchers tracked the performance of kids from low-income families who completed the Perry preschool program daily 2 1/2-hour sessions for three- to four-year-olds and a 1 1/2-hour visit to each mother and child on weekday afternoons and compared the results to a control group of children who did not participate.
At age 27, 117 of the original 123 subjects were found and interviewed. During elementary and secondary school, Perry School participants were less inclined to have been placed in special education classes, had significantly higher achievement scores at age 14 and by age 27 four times as many participants as non-participants were earning self-sustaining incomes.
The Rand Corporation broadened the scope by studying 19 different early intervention programs, all of which demonstrated significant benefits in at least one of the following domains: Cognition and academic achievement, behavioural and emotional competencies, educational progression and attainment, health and labour market success.
The logical conclusion would be that it is better to send your child to an institutionalized learning program prior to entering kindergarten. However, if you choose to school your child at home prior to his/her entering the formal education arena, be sure to procure the correct tools and set aside sufficient time without interruptions. Avoid the temtation to use the television aas a learning tool.
Don Buhrmeister
www.theplacetolearn.com
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