Making the Grade: Why early education
matters
Findings and implications of the
Alliance for Children longitudinal study
Bruce Yelton, BYC
Consulting
Abstract
The Alliance for Children located in Union
County, North Carolina conducted an eight year longitudinal study to
investigate the effects of early childhood education (ECE) experiences on
children’s school performance. Several
variables were considered in this study including program participation,
program quality, instructional quality, kindergarten transition and student
ethnicity. The results of the study show
continued positive impacts for student’s academic performance as a result of
program participation including at or above on-grade-level performance in
reading through the fourth grade. This
effect of participation is larger for Hispanic and African-American children
than for white students but all students benefitted from participation in
ECE. The data also indicate positive
effects of higher levels of ECE teacher education, positive kindergarten
transitions and higher levels of parent participation in school transitions on
grade level achievement in reading.
These outcomes support previous research
findings that indicate ECE participation, especially ECE of high quality,
provides long-term cost effective benefits.
It also encourages the Alliance to continue to seek innovative ways to
provide high quality services that reach across all communities to address the
interests and needs of families, children, schools, communities and business.
Just wanting to know
Beginning
in 2006 and continuing through 2014, one small organization undertook a very
large task. The leadership of the Alliance
for Children in Union County, North Carolina, wanted to know if their work was
making a difference. Since most of their
work consists of supporting and enhancing early childhood care and education
they wanted to know if that care and education made a difference in the way
children who participated in it performed once they reached public school. Did they learn to read? Did they get promoted to the next grade? Did they get along with their fellow
students? Through a happy combination of
agreeable circumstances (funding, available research expertise, cooperative
public school officials) they supported a longitudinal study of children from a
variety of backgrounds and experiences prior to entering school. From 2006 through 2012 five different cohorts
of kindergarten students have been examined to trace the relationship between
their early educational experiences and their school performance. These students were identified through the
participation of their families as they enrolled in the Union County Public
Schools and represent a broad demographic sample of the county’s population
including both affluent and economically challenged populations. Information about student early education and
experiences were collected directly from families by questionnaire and information
about school performance was provided by through public school records. Over seven years, a sample of 1,944 students
was included in the study.
Some
of the information that was included in the study deserves particular attention
to better understand the findings.
·
The study was very concerned about “making a
difference” and the Alliance’s primary means of making a difference is through
the support of early childhood education (ECE).
The study was especially interested in ECE at the age of four, just
prior to kindergarten entry, due to the existence of local programs
specifically targeting this age group for support. Students in this study were characterized
both by attending or not attending ECE and for those who did attend by the type
of program attended (ex. NC PreK, Title 1, Head Start, Public, GS110).
·
The study also examined the “quality” of care
provided by ECE programs. Quality
measures investigated in relationship to school achievement included the number
of interactions with the Alliance, NC Division of Child Development center
awarded “stars”, and the qualifications of the teaching staff.
·
School academic achievement can be measured
in many ways and the study looked at many school outcome measures including
promotion, attendance, NC K-2 Assessment, teacher ratings, standardized test
scores and others. Many of these
variables showed significant positive relationships to ECE experiences. However, the most consistent and easily
understood academic measure in the data provided by the schools was that
provided by the NC End-of-Grade Testing in Reading and Mathematics for Grades
3-8. These tests provide an assessment
of a student’s grade level status.
Students can be rated as “significantly below” or “below” grade level or
“at” or “significantly above” grade level.
·
Previous research in early childhood
education has suggested that support for children and families during the
transition from ECE to Kindergarten can make a significant difference in
carrying over the benefits of ECE into school.
The study asked parents about their transition experiences and how well
their children adjusted to public school kindergarten socially, academically,
and behaviorally.
·
Research findings in similar settings also
suggested that some children may benefit more from ECE programs than
others. For this reason the study
collected demographic information about the students and their families. This included ethnicity, English proficiency,
gender, family income, and other related information.
Where it fits
This
is not the first time a study like this has been done in North Carolina. Indeed, one of the most important long term
studies of early education, the Abecedarian Project, was conducted in North
Carolina. This study however was
different from the Union study in many ways including a focus on a particular
approach to intensive quality early education.
Other, more similar studies have been conducted by the NC Partnership
for Children and by local partnerships including Region A, Mecklenburg and
Randolph counties looking at participation in early education primarily at age
four.
The
findings from the Alliance study align with the findings of Steven Barnett of
Rutgers University and the National Institute for Early Education Research 2008
meta-analysis of the lasting effects of preschool education. In this work he finds that early education
does make a difference in children’s learning and, as we might expect, the size
and persistence of that difference is effected by the type of program the child
attends. High quality programs produce long-term
differences in school success. There is
also evidence that the children of the poor may benefit differentially from
attending preschool but all children benefit regardless of economic condition.
What we learned
The
Alliance study found persistent advantages for children who attended
four-year-old programs in on-grade-level performance from kindergarten through
5th grade. Kindergarten
through second grade students who attended four-year-old programs consistently
performed better on kindergarten screening measures and measures of reading and
mathematics skills at the end of kindergarten.
In 3rd grade 61% of all students in the study who had
attended four-year-old programs were performing “at or above” grade level in
reading compared to 54% of those who had not.
When sub-groups are analyzed the findings are striking. In Title 1 schools the difference in on-grade
level status between those who attended and those who did not attend four-year
old programs is 1.5% for white students, 7% for African-American students, and 12%
for Hispanic students. These differences
are consistent across cohorts, include mathematics performance, and remain through
at least the 5th grade. Over
time the effect size does become smaller but it persists. At 5th grade there remains a 6%
advantage in on-grade-level performance for Hispanic children who attended
preschool at age four compared to their peers who did not. As we might predict from Barnett’s work, in a
broad sample of early education programs of varying quality, the benefits of
early education persist at varying rates but show the greatest benefits for
minority/poor children. Another
phenomenon may also be at work here as explored by a longitudinal study
completed on children who had participated in the state sponsored Arkansas preK
program. This study also observed
diminished effects of the intervention by the end of 3rd grade and
posited:
One
explanation for estimated effects falling off at the end of third grade is
provided
by
another important finding from this study: children who attended ABC were less
likely to be retained in grade. This is a key indication that schools are
expending extra effort to help those most behind catch up, which
disproportionately helps children who did not attend the ABC program. While
effective, these efforts are expensive, and may include extra teacher time in
the classroom, remedial programs, and even special education. These efforts may
gradually reduce the test score advantages for ABC children in later years, but
at a substantial cost (p. 4, Jung, Barnett, Hustedt, & Francis, 2013).
The
results of the Alliance study also demonstrated significant “on-grade-level”
advantages for children whose families were actively involved in ECE to
kindergarten transition and where that transition, particularly in literacy
skill development, was a described as a “smooth” one from the child’s previous
educational setting. In addition, a
third factor was found to be statistically significantly related to 3rd
and 4th grade performance: preK teacher educational level.
Economics, politics and
children
Since
the beginning of the longitudinal study in 2006, several events that are
relevant to the study have occurred. On
the national scale there was the now named “great recession” of 2008-09
resulting in a large increase in unemployment in the country as a whole as well
as in the state and Union County. This
development was reflected in a drop in our data for enrollment of
four-year-olds in all county ECE programs by over 10% from 2006-07 (73.3%) to
2007-08 (62.1%) with enrollment rates not reaching 2006 levels again until
2010-11. The economic downturn has been
accompanied by changes in the political structure of the state government and
related spending for state sponsored preK education. In 2006 state spending per four-year
participant was $4,840. This figure rose
to $5,797 per student in 2009 but in 2013 was back at 2006 levels at $4,960 per
student (all figures in 2013 equivalent dollars) (NIEER, 2014). On the positive side, both North Carolina as a
state and Union County have established high standards for early care. The state met 10 of 10 quality benchmarks
established by NIEER for preK quality in 2013.
The state ranked 20th in access to public preK across the
nation in 2009 and again in 2013. This
is after ranking as low as 19th in 2010-2011 and rising to 23rd
in 2012. In Union County progress in
developing quality care in child care centers has been more consistent with
average county-wide center “star ratings” rising from 3.29 in 2006 to 4.16 in
2012 (5 stars are the maximum rating).
There is evidence in the county data to show that the improvement in the
quality of available of programs for four-year olds may have impacted the
overall performance of children as they both arrived at kindergarten and
through their three years of school (Yelton, Stranges & Richardson, 2013). Data for students in the study from
kindergarten through grade 2 show cohort to cohort increases in average scores
on both screening assessments and end-of-grade skills assessments. In other words, as the available quality of
preK goes up the academic performance of those who participate in those
programs rises proportionately. These
improvements were not observed for children who did not participate in
preK.
The
Alliance Longitudinal Study benefitted greatly from the collaboration of the
Union County Public Schools throughout its implementation. During the eight years of the study the
schools themselves have been under tremendous governmental and public pressure
to address issues of rapid growth, equity, accountability and changes in
federal and state educational policy. To
see how such pressures drive and impact early education it is only required to
look at one example, the current drive towards implementation of the “common
core curriculum”. The “common core” sets
national standards in English and mathematics and the hope is that adherence to
these standards will make American students better prepared for the workplace
and college after graduation. This is a “hope”
because as critics as diverse as Diane Ravitch, formerly of the G. W. Bush
administration, and Tom Loveless of the Brookings institute have stated that
there is no evidence to support the fact that they will (McSpadden, 2014,
Resmovits, 2013) . What we have been assured
of is that the common core has driven increased assessment; focus on “core”
subjects and diversion of public, corporate, and foundation funding from areas
sorely in need of help like child nutrition, literacy programs, reading
coaches, dental clinics and early education.
Other examples could be cited regarding policy impacts on early education
including changes in teacher accountability, STEM content, school re-segregation,
and others.
Where
from here
In
the spring of 2013 five mothers of children who were in the final cohort of the
longitudinal study were asked to be part of a focus group to discuss
kindergarten transition and to share their impressions of the impact of ECE on
school achievement. At the time their
children were midway through the 1st grade. The mothers in the group
included both non-English speaking recent arrivals to Union County and more
affluent long term residents. The moms
conversed for more than an hour about their children’s’ experiences in ECE,
kindergarten and first grade. They also
talked about their own experiences in interacting with teachers,
administrators, and other education professionals. Several things became clear from the mothers
comments. All the participants have
gotten early educators’ message that they have a role to play in the literacy
development of their children (i.e., having books in the home, talking and
reading to their children) and they strongly believe that ECE made a
significant difference in their child’s preparation and success in school. In
addition, they recognize the academic and social benefits provided to their
children by their experiences in ECE prior to starting school. Some of their comments included:
“I mean, it’s amazing what they have to know as soon
as they start kindergarten, and there are some in the class that you can tell
that they just never really got that chance, and they’re a little behind, and
it’s not really fair for them, you know?
It’s kind of sad. “
“That if possible, they
really need to (attend
ECE), and I know it’s hard, I know every family and every situation is
different, but if there’s a way their child can fit into a preschool or some kind of learning center or something, that it’s really good for them. I mean, it is good for the child all the way
around. They learn to interact with
other kids, and they learn a whole lot, and nowadays it seems like every year they
step it up a reading level.”
What
is also clear from these comments is that the parents were strongly aware of
the academic demands placed on their children beginning with their enrollment
in public school.
Quality
early education makes a long-term difference in academic achievement. We have seen it here, we see it across the
country, and we see it across the world.
We see it for disadvantaged children and we see it for middle-class
children. We know that early education
is cost effective, dollars invested are paid back and more in savings through increased
high school graduation, increased earnings, decreased crime and delinquency,
and better mental health (Barnett & Frede, 2010). High quality preK programs have demonstrated
benefits ratios of from 2.5 to 16 times the investments costs (Barnett, 2013).
So,
what?
The
story runs something like this. Two
people are walking along a swiftly flowing river. They look out into the current and they see a
child drowning. They immediately jump
into the water and after a mighty struggle manage to pull the child to safety. As soon as they pull the child from the water
they see another child just upstream going under. Again with great effort they jump in and
barely succeed in saving the child. Then
there is another child and another.
After pulling many children from the river one rescuer begins to walk
away. “Where are you going? There are
children drowning here,” her friend shouts!
“I’m
going upstream to stop these children from falling in the water,” she replies (Alvarez,
Berlin, Glasgow, McMahon, & Nerheim (2014).
Stopping
the children from falling in the water is clearly not an easy task. Well intentioned efforts and many dollars
have been directed at ending academic failure and other ills for quite some
time with only incomplete or temporary victories. Universal quality early care as recommended
by Dr. Barnett would indubitably help reduce rates of school failure,
delinquency, unemployment and so forth.
However, it is undoubted that even the full application of all his
recommendation would result in successful school outcomes for all children. It is perhaps still only a better way to save
more children from the river rather than going “upstream”.
The
“river” that creates children who fail in school and in life is poverty. Any approach to solving a manifestation of
poverty, like school failure, that does not recognize this fact and the
complexity of addressing it is doomed to only partial success or complete
failure.
The
lead researcher of this paper in one of his first jobs was assigned the task of
finding employment for inner city teenagers.
From the rural South and largely ignorant of city conditions he
interviewed kids, matched them up with jobs on index cards and sent them out on
interviews. The kids were enthusiastic
about the jobs and the opportunity to make a few dollars during the summer. However
many of the kids weren’t showing up for interviews and even some that were
hired weren’t showing up for work. When asked
about this they sometimes had flimsy reasons why they didn’t show and other
times none at all beyond a shrug. A
colleague from the city finally clued him in “You can’t send kids from one
neighborhood into another when they have to cross gang territories. They can die.” His Southern, middle class, college learning
was simply inadequate for the task of finding these kids work. Crime, unemployment, lack of primary health
care, family dysfunction, drug abuse, inaccessibility of economic/political
resources are all factors in preventing many programs designed by
well-intentioned individuals from working as well as they should and in taking
advantage of the huge reservoirs of energy, creativity, intelligence and
endurance that exist in communities where persons with few assets reside.
This
reality being accepted is not an excuse for giving up. Indeed, it is a rallying cry for
ingenuity. Programs and policy makers
who believe that any single solution is a panacea are foolish; those who blame
any single solution for failing are not examining all of the data. Complex problems call for complex responses
and the understanding that they will not be “fixed” in a 2-, 3- or even 10-year
grant cycle.
Some
programs do address the complexities of poverty in their operations and do seem
to have a lasting impact on children and their families. These approaches are different in that they
not only are inclusive but they are also holistic and long-term. Three of the more promising of these are the
Nurse Family Partnership, The Abecedarian Project and the Harlem Children’s
Zone’s Promise Neighborhoods.
The
nurse family partnership maternal health program provides first-time parents
maternal and child health nurses. The
nurses support first time mothers through a healthy pregnancy and help them become
knowledgeable parents. The mothers and
the nurses establish an ongoing relationship that persists for the child’s
first three years. The long-term
outcomes from this program show that the mother’s benefit from improved
prenatal health, fewer subsequent pregnancies, increased intervals between
births, and increased employment. The
child participants demonstrate increased school readiness and a decreased
likelihood of adult incarceration (Nurse Family Partnership, 2014; Eckenrode, Campa, Luckey, Henderson, Cole, Kitzman, Anson,
Sidora-Arcoleo, Powers, & Olds, 2010.
The Harlem Children’s Zone mission is to help kids as early in
their lives as possible and to provide them with caring adults who understand
their needs and can help them succeed. The
Zone’s original area of concentration focused on providing holistic services to
a 100 block area of Harlem with a history of poverty, violence, and low
academic achievement. Out of the success
of this project came the Promise
Neighborhoods program, a project that is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education which
provides federal funding help communities create integrated health, social,
education and other community development services. While not enough time has
passed judge the Harlem Children’s Zone achievement of its goal of ending
intergenerational poverty, there are data that indicate that the effort is having
an impact on student’s reading and mathematics achievement (Harlem Children’s
Zone, 2014).
The Abecedarian
project was carried in North Carolina with four groups of children born between
1972 and 1977. The study provided
full-time, high-quality ECE from birth through age five. This well-designed research study found that
there were significant benefits that could be directly associated too
participation in the Abecedarian ECE program. For children in the program these included:
- Higher cognitive test scores
from the toddler years to age 21.
- Higher achievement in both
reading and math from the primary grades through young adulthood.
- More years of education and a
greater likelihood of attending a four-year college.
- Delay in having their first
child.
Early education programs that can use the existing knowledge
about what works in the long-term for young children’s academic achievement, apply the lessons learned from the efforts listed above; adapted to
their own circumstances will be on their way to making a
difference for the children of their communities.
With the local knowledge developed by the Alliance for Children
in Union County, clear national data supporting those findings and new ideas lighting the way the future may be bright for children in our care if
we can be as creative as they already are.
References
Alvarez, Berlin, Glasgow,
McMahon, Nerheim (2014). Early
intervention helps at-risk Illinois kids succeed later in life. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6/27/14 from
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-01/opinion/ct-perspec-childhood-0501-20140501_1_more-children-early-intervention-child-development-and-parenting.
Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool
education and its lasting effects: Research and policy
implications.
Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center &
Education
Barnett, W. S. & Frede, E. (2010). The Promise of Preschool: Why we need early
education for all. American Educator
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Barnett, W. S. (2013). Should the United States have preK for all. Presentation at Duke University. October 22, 2013.
Eckenrode, J., Campa, M.,
Luckey, D., Henderson, C., Cole, R., Kitzman, H., Anson, E., Sidora-Arcoleo,
K., Powers, J., & Olds, D. (2010). Long-term Effects of Prenatal and Infancy Nurse Home Visitation on
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from http://hcz.org/spreading-the-model/
Jung, K., Barnett, W.S., Hustedt, J., & Francis, J. (2013).
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Nurse Family Partnership
(2014). Proven effective through
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Resmovits, J. (August 30, 2013) David Coleman, Common Core writer, gears up for SAT rewrite. Retrieved
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Yelton, B., Stranges, D. & Richardson, M. (May, 2013)
And
the children in the apple tree: Further
poetic findings from the Union County Longitudinal Study 2007-2013.
Paper presented at the Annual Smart Start Conference, Greensboro, NC.
