{"id":37205,"date":"2016-12-16T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging2.threadalaska.org\/thread-blog\/nobel-prize-winner-james-heckman-releases-new-research-on-impact-of-high-quality-early-learning-2-3\/"},"modified":"2023-06-13T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T21:21:15","slug":"nobel-prize-winner-james-heckman-releases-new-research-on-impact-of-high-quality-early-learning-2-3","status":"publish","type":"thread-blog","link":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/thread-blog\/nobel-prize-winner-james-heckman-releases-new-research-on-impact-of-high-quality-early-learning-2-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize Winner James Heckman Releases New Research on Impact of High-Quality Early Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\t(SOURCE<\/a>: The Washington Post, December 12, 2016)<\/p>\n

\n\tA Nobel Prize winner says public preschool programs should start at birth<\/h1>\n

\n\tby Emma Brown<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNobel Prize winner James Heckman\u2019s research has played an important role in establishing that high-quality public preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds can more than pay for itself over the long term, as low-income children who attend are more likely to live productive lives. It\u2019s an economic argument that has persuaded lawmakers from both parties to support early education initiatives.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow Heckman has released new research showing that the return on investment is even higher for high-quality programs that care for low-income children from infancy to age 5. Children in such zero-to-five programs are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be incarcerated than their counterparts who stayed home or enrolled in low-quality programs, had higher IQs and were healthier during the course of their lives, according to the study released Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of that taken together leads to a significant savings to society, the study found.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rate of return on the public investment in zero-to-five programs is 13 percent per year, Heckman and his colleagues estimate, up from an estimate of 7 percent to 10 percent per year for preschool programs that start at age 3.<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/div>\n

\n\tThe more comprehensive zero-to-five programs cost about $18,500 per year for each child enrolled \u2014 more than the average public school district spends per pupil in grades K through 12. But for every dollar invested, the program generated a societal benefit of $6.30, according to Heckman.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said the findings suggest that policymakers could make a bigger difference in the lives of poor children with early-childhood education programs that begin far earlier in their lives, when children are just eight weeks old.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs an economist, I always find it very odd that people only focus on the costs of a program rather than the benefits,\u201d Heckman said. \u201cThis is very strong evidence for supporting this kind of program going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSome analysts have challenged the notion that modern public policy should be built around studies of the effects of small, costly programs that cared for children four decades ago, pointing to studies of Head Start and other early education initiatives that have found no lasting impact.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd not everyone is on board with extending taxpayer-provided education to children younger than kindergarten. Speaking earlier this month in the District, Bill Bennett, former U.S. education secretary under Ronald Reagan, said he\u2019s inclined to focus on fixing K-12 education first.<\/p>\n

\n\tPresident-elect Donald Trump has proposed tax credits to help working parents pay for day care, but his program is focused on easing families\u2019 financial burden rather than on providing high-quality education for babies and toddlers. He has said little about early childhood initiatives, other than to express skepticism about the cost to taxpayers of the universal preschool programs his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton favored.<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tHeckman\u2019s new research is based on results from two North Carolina programs that began in the 1970s and then tracked their graduates\u2019 lives through age 35. The two programs \u2014 the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education \u2014 were very similar, enrolling low-income African American infants when they were eight weeks old and caring for them five days a week, 50 weeks a year, until age 5.<\/p>\n

\n\tChildren enrolled in the programs got regular medical checkups, giving their families a better chance of addressing problems early. And because the children were cared for full-time, their mothers \u2014 most of whom were single parents \u2014 were more likely to get further education and advance at work, boosting their income.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt has two generations\u2019 impact,\u201d Heckman said.<\/p>\n

\n\tGraduates of the zero-to-five programs also had higher IQs than their counterparts who did not enroll, Heckman said. Preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds have not been shown to have any such effect on IQ.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two programs initially enrolled about 200 children, a number that diminished as some moved or dropped out for other reasons. Their lives and outcomes were compared to the lives and outcomes of a control group of children, including some who stayed home with their mothers and others who attended low-quality day care.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow to define and measure \u201cquality\u201d has been a matter of debate among early childhood educators. Heckman said the defining characteristic of a high-quality program, more than a certain staffing ratio or training regimen, is empathetic adults who engage meaningfully with their young charges, giving them personalized attention as they grow and develop.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoys who received low-quality care had significantly worse life outcomes, including in health, than boys who stayed home with their mothers, according to the study. Girls did not suffer in the same way from spending time in low-quality arrangements.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeckman said that might be due to the fact that young boys are, in general, slower than girls to develop skills such as self-control, making them more vulnerable to chaotic environments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cQuality is probably more of an issue for boys than for girls,\u201d Heckman said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question about it that certain kinds of warehouse activity for children \u2014 not locking them up in a closet or putting them into Romanian orphanages, but putting them into large groups of children, not even interacting \u2014 can lead to harmful consequences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said that boys and girls could benefit from early-childhood policies tailored to their differences, but acknowledged that might be a hard sell: \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to talk about these gender differences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new research has not yet been submitted to a journal for peer review. It received funding from the Buffett Early Childhood Fund; the Pritzker Children\u2019s Initiative; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics; the National Institutes of Health; the Hymen Milgrom Supporting Organization; the Institute for New Economic Thinking; and the American Bar Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","news_tags":[],"event_category":[],"news_categories":[],"class_list":["post-37205","thread-blog","type-thread-blog","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNobel Prize Winner James Heckman Releases New Research on Impact of High-Quality Early Learning - Thread<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/thread-blog\/nobel-prize-winner-james-heckman-releases-new-research-on-impact-of-high-quality-early-learning-2-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nobel Prize Winner James Heckman Releases New Research on Impact of High-Quality Early Learning - Thread\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(SOURCE: The Washington Post, December 12, 2016) A Nobel Prize winner says public preschool programs should start at birth by Emma Brown Nobel Prize winner James Heckman\u2019s research has played... 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