Too Much Evidence to Ignore

When policymakers and stakeholders talk about the need for more public investment in high-quality pre-kindergarten, they often refer to research based on the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs. These are high-quality preschool programs that show evidence of improving long-term outcomes for children and being wise economic investments. They are also sometimes criticized for being small, resource-intensive programs, making them difficult to replicate and scale-up. And they were implemented decades ago. But over the past several years, evidence of the impact of pre-K programs (including Head Start) has been emerging from many quarters -- providing a wealth of new evidence too important to ignore.

 

Join us for discussion of a forthcoming report that presents a synthesis of findings on high quality preschool education from an array of recent studies, including research focusing on large-scale preschool systems in major cities. We will talk with the authors of the report published by the Foundation for Child Development and the Society for Research in Child Development, “Investing in Our Children: The Evidence Base on Preschool Education,” and examine what it will take to bring high-quality preschool to more children.