Study on Early Childhood Education Indicates Significant Long-Term Effects

Findings released Wednesday by the Penn State Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Healthy Development indicate that early childhood education has a significant and lasting impact. In a study conducted over the last decade, researchers followed 250 students in the Harrisburg Preschool Program for at-risk children and assessed their literacy and math scores over the subsequent years.

The report showed that:

• 35% of the program’s former students scored advanced or proficient in math, as opposed to 19% of their peers.
• 22% of the former preschool students scored advanced or proficient in reading achievement, while only 8% of their peers did.

Capital Area Head Start is now responsible for Harrisburg School District pre-kindergarten classes, but the classes are still held in city schools. The programs have two co-teachers for every 16 students, and stress parental involvement in addition to quality teaching.

The Harrisbugh Preschool Program Evaluation is ongoing; researchers plan to evaluate not only the effectiveness of this preschool programming model on children's test scores, but on their social competence as well. They also plan to analyze its effects on parents and educators, as well as school districts, community agencies and other stakeholders.

The article from The Patriot-News can be accessed here: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/study_touts_math...

Penn State's own site for the ongoing study is located here: http://www.prevention.psu.edu/projects/REACH.html

Have early childhood programs been cut in your district? Tell us about your experiences with early childhood programming here.