Preschool Policy Summary

Standards of the Head Start program are to deliver comprehensive, healthy development of low income families, and individualized services to support school readiness. The new change within the Head Start program was made according to research for what has been known to work in Early Education to help develop children’s healthy development and schools readiness. The new standards are to maintain and help strengthen child safety, family engagements which are meant to help children to succeed. Head Start has 1,400 performance standards. Head start has become an outcome focus group within the head start program. The Head Start program has updated, removed, and reorganized standards to make it easier on providers. The last time the standards was advised was

In the best of cases, the returns on a preschool education compared to the cost of enrollment is nearly seventeen times, an enormous benefit for a relatively low cost. (Schweinhart) This number comes from the results of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, a 40 year long, completely comprehensive look into how the addition of a preschool education positively impacts students from low income, urban families. The findings included, among other things, a 14 percent employment rate increase and $5,000 average annual wage increase in children who were able to attend a preschool compared to their less educated peers. Other benefits included included an 11 percent increase in homeownership, 17 percent increase in the ability to own two or more automobiles, 26 percent higher likelihood to own a savings account, 35 percent decrease in violent crime, and a 27 percent increase in likelihood to have the custody of children. (Schweinhart) These numbers would seem to indicate that preschool enrollment is an incredible value for the health and stability of a community, however all of these benefits may take decades to fully

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.

The Abbott Preschool Program is administered through New Jersey’s Department of Education and the Department of Human Services. It was designed to provide all of New Jersey’s children an opportunity to succeed. The Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effect Study (APPLES), published in 2013, investigated the impact of the Abbott program on children’s learning through the end of kindergarten. The findings of this study demonstrated that children who attend the Abbott Preschool Program, whether in public schools, private settings or Head Start, improve in language, literacy, and math at least through the end of their kindergarten year.

The Heritage Foundation report noted that 45 early childhood education programs already existed, costing an estimated $45 million each year, and that many of the programs are “duplicative and ineffective, failing to serve the needs of children from low-income families” (Burke and Sheffield, 2013). In addition, the evidence showing that the public sector is a good provider of early childhood education is lacking. The 2001 Gilliam study reviewed state-run preschool programs and found that “less than half of the current state-funded preschool programs have, or are currently conducting, impact evaluations of the effectiveness of their programs” and that “of these

“Research shows that young children’s earliest learning experiences can have powerful long-term effects on their cognitive and emotional development, school achievement, and later life outcomes” (Mead, 2012). The literature reveals that a strong collection of research exists that indicates children who attend high-quality preschool programs have better health, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes than those who do not

Preschool programs are designed specifically to make sure that children are ready for kindergarten and will be able to succeed in school by third grade. All preschool programs have three characteristics in common. They are governed by high program standards, are open to 3 and 4 year–olds, and focus on school readiness. The term universal preschool means that preschool programs are available to any child in a given state, regardless of family income, children’s abilities, or any other factors (Colker). Like Kindergarten in most states, the concept of the Universal Preschool Movement is to have a voluntary program, unlike compulsory elementary.

It is a well-known fact that low-income children are falling behind their high-income counterparts due to restricted access to high-quality preschools and education. "Researchers estimate that half of the achievement gap in high school can be attributed to children’s experiences before age 5” (Olinsky, 2014). Having access to high-quality preschools increases the likelihood that a low-income student will graduate from high school, attend college, and earn higher wages as an adult. Although forty states have already adopted federally funded preschools, this should be mandatory in all 50 states and be available to all children “regardless of their background, start on a more level playing field, thereby combat inequality for the next generation of Americans” and “will give all children more of a fair shot to realize the American Dream by working hard and playing by the rules” (Olinsky, 2014; Pazzanese,

Family structures have become more diverse in recent years; the two parent family is vanishing among families living in poverty. Therefore, early childhood intervention programs are needed to provide structure and guidance to children like Author who live in single parent homes. Policy makers must figure out how to expand these programs while preserving their quality. Early childhood programs will help to address economic disparities that arise from disadvantaged families. An early childhood program is the most promising social policy for combating this educational gap before children reach high school like Author. Policy expansions of these programs will allow neighborhood

Head Start has played a major role in fixating the attention of the Nation on the importance of early childhood development. Through a range of quality of services offered to young children, Head Start programs have had a dramatic impact on child development. Each child receives a variety of learning experiences to stimulate intellectual, social, and emotional development

If we had a tool that would improve our children's performance in school and social settings, lower the crime rate, lower teenage pregnancy, and save taxpayers' money, who wouldn't want to use it? Preschool is that tool, but few people pay attention to or care about preschool's potential benefits. For many parents, preschool is a valuable asset, providing their children with social play, fun, and an experience within a school-like setting. Children in preschool learn social skills like respect for authority, listening, and sharing; they also benefit from interaction with peers, which results in improved language and relational skills. Unfortunately, many parents simply cannot afford the expensive cost

Successful primary education attainment is imperative for entering college, embarking on a career and participating in civil society (Garcia & Weiss, 2015). To be sure, there are studies which suggest that successful outcomes for children depend on their readiness for entry into primary school – therefore, mandating early childhood education is paramount to addressing the inequality within the United States public education system.

Early education plays a key role in preventing educational deficits, not only among children from disadvantaged backgrounds but also for all children (Kornblun 2016). Research indicates

Ensuring that the most vulnerable children and families are served by Head Start and Early Head Start must be a given.  There is too much at stake. (p.1).”

America greatly under-invest in early childhood education and, like so many political battles these days, the disparity between bipartisan support for preschool education programs and cutting thousands of kids from programs, such as, Head Start, Early Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant programs (CCDBG) defies reason and common sense. There are those within our current political leadership that feel it should be left up to each individual state, as to how they want to distribute educational subsidies, leaving lower socioeconomic communities concerned with budget cuts and where they will be getting their funding from to educate their children; sending these neighborhoods in panic to find financial support elsewhere and without delay. These programs and other programs similar are in jeopardy of not receiving adequate backing as it will be left to each state to decide the importance of early childhood education and early intervention.