Abbott Longitudinal Effect Study

Christina J. Groark, Stephanie K. McCarthy, Afton R. Kirk. (2014). Early Child Development: From Theory to Practice. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Based on this policy analysis, the recommended alternative is for the federal government to educate states on recognizing the importance of and participating in the quality early education programs. Some states have already started making progress in modeling and developing early learning systems for children zero to age five. According to the Whitehouse (2011), “The President’s 2012 budget calls upon Congress to establish a new, competitive Early Learning Challenge Fund, administered by the Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS), for states that are ready to take dramatic steps to improve the quality of their early childhood programs. The Early Learning Challenge Fund will be complemented by investments in Head Start

Statement of Issue: Many minority children and children from low-income families enter kindergarten without the academic skills they need to succeed. Math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success. Research shows kids who start school already behind are unlikely to ever get caught up to standards. Hispanic and African American children are anywhere from 7 to 12 months behind in reading and 9 to 10 months behind on math when they enter kindergarten. Access remains extremely low to high-quality early education do to a couple of problems. First, rates of access to early education vary widely as a function of children’s socioeconomic backgrounds. Secondly, the quality of most early education programs is not high enough to substantially improve academic readiness. Considering the tremendous potential for high-quality preschool to improve children’s outcomes, this policy brief will consider how a universal publicly funded pre-kindergarten program in the United States could decrease both disparities in access to early learning and achievement gaps at kindergarten entry.

In order to implement this policy, responsibility will be bestowed upon the “Foundation School Program” and the Texas state Legislature (Grusendorf, 2015, pg.2). These two groups play the most vital role in changing and implementing the new “state formulas” (Grusendorf, 2015, pg.3). Both will work together in creating and agreeing to the new state formulas. We will review the formulas every year and decide if funding is truly being distributed with equity. Only if they are not then will both organizations have to re-write the formulas to improve upon them.

In a long time since its initiation, Head Start has enhanced the lives of more than 32 million youngsters and their families. Notwithstanding life and school readiness, Head Start is likewise the country's research center for early learning development. Head Start offers an exceptional children and family program configuration combined with a conveyance framework that incorporates nearby projects, national models, observing, proficient improvement, and family interactions. This has been the reason for some resulting statewide and group

On February 12th, 2012, in his State of the Union address, President Obama discussed the long-term benefits a universal preschool would have on today’s society. “In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children…studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own. We know this works. So let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.” (Obama) Unfortunately, an overwhelming number of children, from low-poverty areas, are unable to access high-quality early childhood programs for their preschool aged children. Consequently,

Recent studies on early childhood education have shown that children who have access to quality pre-kindergarten education tend to have higher educational attainment than those who do not have the opportunity. While the literature is by no means uniform on this, the bulk of current evidence suggests that such policies will likely be helpful, especially for students in low - income and minority school districts. Only time will tell, of course, if such programs can help to make inroads into the seemly intractable achievement gaps, but based on current evidence, it is a policy worth

The answers to academic success for disadvantaged children may not be smaller class sizes, better-prepared teachers, tougher standards, more accountability, or greater choice as admirable as these goals may be. They may instead center on a single factor: preschool. Lyndon Johnson in 1965 wanted to “break the cycle of poverty” by raising poor children’s levels of competence with the Head Start program. Since it began, the Head Start program has been the most widely applied and most heavily researched prevention effort in the US.

2012). When the program was initially tested, a sample of preschool aged (3-4) African- American children participated in a social and cognitive development program which encouraged

Despite the evidence advocating for the effectiveness of these programs, some people still have some misgivings of the benefits. In “Pre-K’s Promise vs. the Actual Evidence” by David J. Armor, it is said that early education is unimpactful

Roughly 23% of students in New Jersey originate from a home where a dialect other than English is talked. Roughly 5 out of 6 New Jersey school areas have English language learners (ELLs) in their schools. In 2013, there were 63,739 ELLs in New Jersey schools which were almost 1 out of each 21 state funded school students. Starting 2013, the main 5 dialects talked by ELLs in New Jersey were Spanish, 41,943; Arabic, 2,137; Chinese, 1,368; Haitian/Haitian Creole, 1,262; and Korean, 1,155 understudies. In New Jersey, ELLs are enlisted in a scope of projects including full-time bilingual, double dialect, bilingual instructional exercise, bilingual asset, protected guideline, ESL, and ELS (Bilingual/ESL Education, 2014, p.1).

The true long-term effectiveness of early intervention programs such as Head Start is difficult to measure. The “Early Children Education Program” paper by Janet Currie provides various studies to which all present either weak statistical significance or some other potential factors that may have influenced the long-term outcomes. This is mainly due to poorly designed studies such as non-randomization. Inconclusive evidence of a true long-term effect of early intervention hinders well-supported arguments for public policy to fund these programs.

Several years ago Pennsylvania was only one of nice states that did not invest in a pre-kindergarten program however with the policies and programs for pre-kindergarten programs that are currently in place throughout the state educational communities are beginning to see differences in their students’ academic and reduction in at risk behaviors (Pre-K for PA, 2015). Pre-K Today states in their “Tools for the Campaign” article that due to increased funding by the state of Pennsylvania for pre-school programming and for policies such as the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts there has been a reduction in grade retention and special education placement in elementary school, improvement in standardized test scores, reduction in juvenile crime, and higher

Universal preschool is an initiative being discussed and the United States government has been trying to allocate money to put this practice into place in states across the country. It would give access to quality preschool education to all families for free or a very low cost. Because of its free or low cost, it would be extremely beneficial for those families who are at risk or in the lower class. These families generally cannot afford to send their

It is a clear and worthy investment. The question lies in which preschool program is the most effective. Previous reviews of programs have focused on if they contributed to later success, but a few of them compared the programs on their effectiveness. A number of programs showed positive results continuing to the end of kindergarten and beyond, signifying that the preschool involvement had impacts aside from early exposure to academic content. (Johns Hopkins University, 37). Also, several programs had effects on oral language skills, which are emphasized in most preschools.