Effects of Higher Quality Pre-Kindergarten-to-Grade 3 Education for At-Risk Children on Long-Term Development

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Evaluation Studies in Early Childhood Education: Methods Used and Challenges Encountered

Abstract

Authors investigated long-term effects of higher-quality pre-Kindergarten - grade 3 education on children's cognitive, academic, and behavioral development using the longitudinal data collected in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Multiple imputation was used to handle missing data, and propensity score matching implemented to minimize selection bias. There were three main conclusions. First, pre-Kindergarten - grade 3 education was effective in promoting child long-term development. Second, no convincing evidence was found that at-risk children harvested more benefits from higher-quality early education than their more advantaged peers. Third, while good pre-Kindergarten - grade 3 education was found to support healthy child development, its positive effects could not fully compensate for the negative influences of risk factors.

Authors

• Yi Pan, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Qiu Wang, Syracuse University

• Matthew McBee, East Tennessee State University