How Choices and Constraints in Parents' Early Education Decisions Affect Children's School Readiness

The socioeconomic achievement gap begins at school entry and widens as children move through school. Many children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds do not have access to the material resources or environmental enrichment that would allow them to start school at the same academic level as their peers from high-SES backgrounds. However, a wealth of research supports the potential for high-quality early care and education programs to supplement the cognitive development of students from low-SES families. Low enrollment in high-quality programs and high absenteeism rates can render these children unable to gain cognitive benefits that will prepare them for school entry. This chapter highlights how low enrollment in high-quality early care and education programs and low attendance rates are two overlooked components of dosage that contribute to the small estimates of the efficacy of preschool and the early achievement gap. By understanding these two components of dosage as the outcomes of parents' constrained decision-making, early education policy could be improved.

Early Education Policy Alternatives: Comparing Quality and Outcomes of Head Start and State Prekindergarten

The debates over the 2003 reauthorization of Head Start highlighted a controversy about the devolution of federal early education policy. At the center of the debate is the concern that state control of early education programs will reduce the quality and effectiveness of federal support for children living in poverty, and their families. The current fragmentation of early education policy, with both federal Head Start programs and state-subsidized prekindergarten programs operating in close proximity, presents an opportunity to compare the programs’ quality and effectiveness within a region of common support. In this study, propensity score techniques were used to match a probability sample of Head Start participants in Georgia with a group of children who were eligible for Head Start but who attended the state prekindergarten program in Georgia. The two groups were statistically similar at the beginning of their preschool year on three of four direct assessments (p < .05), but by the beginning of kindergarten the children attending the state prekindergarten program posted higher developmental outcomes on five of six direct assessments (p < .05) and 14 of 17 ratings by kindergarten teachers (p < .05). This study indicates that economically disadvantaged children who attended Georgia’s universal prekindergarten entered kindergarten at least as well prepared as similar children who attended the Head Start program.