Early childhood education yields benefits for children once they enter elementary school, but longer-term benefits are more uncertain, a recent analysis published in the journal Science confirms.
As a result, more research is needed to understand how to design effective early education programs to support the skills children need for success in school and beyond, according to the study published this month on the impact of early childhood education.
Like the new study, previous research had concluded that center-based preschool programs gave young children an academic advantage early in their elementary school years. But the new study's analysis of recent rigorous studies found that in some locations, those gains were null or dissipated over time.
“It’s settled that early childhood education is an essential component of any nation’s public policy; children are learning well before kindergarten, and parents are working. What is less settled, however, is how much we should expect preschool to be shaping achievement and well-being later in life,” said study co-author Jade Jenkins, an associate professor of education at the University of California, Irvine, in a statement.
The study's analysis did find that for children entering Boston’s public pre-K program between 1997 and 2003, there were positive impacts on high school graduation, some standardized college admission test scores and college enrollment. The study also showed reduced disciplinary problems in high school for this cohort.
"Interestingly," however, neither this study nor a subsequent one on the Boston program from 2007 to 2011 "reported positive impacts on academic skills before high school," the authors said.
To better understand preschool's effectiveness into a student's adulthood, follow-up evaluations of existing pre-K studies are needed, they said. The authors also recommend more research into the components that distinguish successful from less successful preschool programs.
Early educators positive about job
In a separate study released Wednesday, a survey of 2,200 early childhood educators nationwide found nearly all — 97% — report a passion for working with young children. In addition, 87% said they take pride in their job, and three-fourths say they are satisfied with their work, according to the report from Teaching Strategies, an early education resource provider.
But when asked about students' early literacy skills, just 28% of early education teachers said they were "very prepared" to teach early literacy. Most — 83% — said they were either not familiar or just somewhat familiar with the science of reading approach.
Several states have recently expanded instruction and professional development in science of reading practices that emphasizes phonics and the decoding of letters and sounds to learn words.
"In order to build a strong foundation for literacy, we must start in early childhood education, particularly in the critical year before kindergarten,” said Nicol Russell, vice president of implementation research at Teaching Strategies, in a statement on the report.
