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Op-ed by Deborah Stipek: Benefits of preschool are clearly documented

August 6, 2013
San Jose Mercury News
The evidence is overwhelming, regardless of some criticism of the findings, that access to quality preschool can have a life-changing effect on children.
By 
Deborah Stipek

Opponents of President Barack Obama's plan to increase access to quality preschool can criticize studies to support their political agenda, but science is on the side of advocates. Research demonstrating the benefits of preschool is strong and consistent.

Critics select a few studies out of the more than 100 conducted in the U.S. and find something wrong. For example, they reject the findings from Perry Preschool, the best known study of the long-term effects of preschool, because it was conducted a half-century ago. True enough, but its longevity has allowed researchers to compare participants to nonparticipants well into adulthood and document long-term effects.

Other studies are criticized because they did not use an ideal control group. Ideal experimental research designs -- what some in social science refer to as the "gold standard" -- require random assignment of children to preschool or not. It is very expensive and, given the strength of the evidence on the value of preschool, raises ethical concerns. The "regression discontinuity" design that they criticize -- in which children who just miss the age cutoff for eligibility are compared to children who just made it (adjusting for the month age difference) but are alike in all other relevant ways -- is a powerful and ethical research design that allows researchers to assess the effect of a year of preschool on children's readiness for kindergarten.

We can nitpick the research design of any one study, but all have pros and cons. Collectively research provides solid support for the value of preschool. A recent meta-analysis of more than 80 studies showed that children who had participated in an early childhood education program were about four months ahead in learning at the end of it. Studies showing significant positive effects include large-scale state preschool programs — the kind the Obama plan would expand — in such varied states as Arkansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Georgia and Michigan.

Read the entire op-ed.

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