

High-quality early learning experiences have the potential to improve a child’s life trajectory into adulthood. Broad, persistent effects have been found for learning, development, school success and educational attainment, social behavior, health, and even adult earnings. Early care and education (ECE) programs can provide experiences that enhance cognitive, social, and emotional development prior to kindergarten entry compared to outcomes for children who experience only home care or who attend low quality tending low-quality ECE. These benefits are particularly important for children from families with lower incomes and lower parental education levels, as by kindergarten entry their development lags significantly behind those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. High-quality ECE can narrow this gap. However, such benefits depend on sufficiently high quality as studies have found few lasting positive gains when ECE quality is not high, and low-quality ECE programs can even have persistent negative impacts on development.
In the United States ECE quality typically is not high. Public programs offered by local, state, and federal governments through public pre-K, subsidized childcare, and Head Start seek to increase access to ECE and to raise quality. Although such programs positively impact access to high quality, they do not yet reach even most children in poverty nor do they ensure that most public programs are high quality. Also, public provision varies greatly by age and location. In 2017-2018, 40% of the nation’s four-year-olds were enrolled in state-funded pre-K or Head Start compared to only 14% of three-year-olds. Enrollment dramatically differs by state in part because of differences in the level of state support for public programs. Quality standards vary greatly across states, though few set high standards. For example, only three states met all 10 of the NIEER benchmarks for minimal quality in 2017-2018¹. Enrollment at age four in any ECE and high-quality ECE by region is depicted in figure 1.
Decades of research finds that high-quality ECE programs have positive short-term and long-term outcomes for children. Three seminal studies provide evidence from preschool through adulthood: the HighScope Perry Preschool, the Chicago Child-Parent Center, and the Carolina Abecedarian studies. The Perry and Abecedarian studies are true randomized experiments, but with small samples and highly intensive programs. The Chicago study is large-scale and focused on a program similar to some public programs today. They found that children who attended had significantly higher cognitive abilities as measured by standardized tests from preschool through high school. These studies also found that children who attended were much less likely to be placed in special education and/or retained a grade in school. As adults, those who attended these ECE programs had higher levels of employment and income, and in two of the studies had lower rates of arrests. Many other studies add to and support these findings:
Children in middle-income families can benefit from high-quality ECE, not just children in low-income families, though economically disadvantaged children tend to benefit more. Moreover, children in families between poverty and the median income level have even less access to high-quality ECE than children in poverty.
When ECE programs are low-quality, children in middle-income families may experience negative consequences. Public policies that increase participation in low-quality ECE can be harmful.
Children from families where English is not the dominant home-language make particularly large gains in high-quality ECE.
The most successful way to promote equity in schools and improve outcomes for children is to invest in quality and start early. Mediocre or poor-quality programs do not produce the same results.
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Yoshikawa, H., Weiland, C., Brooks-Gunn, J., Burchinal, M.R., Espinosa, L.M., Gormley, W.T., Ludwig, J., Magnuson, K.A., Phillips, D. and Zaslow, M.J., 2013. Investing in our future: The evidence base on preschool education.
Barnett, W. S., Jung, K., Friedman-Krauss, A., Frede, E. C., Nores, M., Hustedt, J. T., Howes, C., & Daniel-Echols, M. (2018). State Prekindergarten Effects on Early Learning at Kindergarten Entry: An Analysis of Eight State Programs. AERA Open.
Camilli, G., Vargas, S., Ryan, S., & Barnett, W. S. (2010). Meta-analysis of the effects of early education interventions on cognitive and social development. Teachers College Record, 112(3), 579-620.
Ramon, I., Chattopadhyay, S. K., Barnett, W. S., & Hahn, R. A. (2018). Early childhood education to promote health equity: a community guide economic review. Journal of public health management and practice: JPHMP, 24(1), e8.
Creating a System of Quality ECE - Barnett, W. S., & Frede, E. C. (2017). Long-term effects of a system of high-quality universal preschool education in the United States. In H.-P. Blossfeld, N. Kulic, J. Skopek, & Triventi (Eds.), Childcare, early education and social inequality: An international perspective (pp. 152–172). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Preschool 2.0
High Quality PreK: The Road Less Traveled Growing and Learning in Preschool
Steven Barnett, Senior Co-Director
Andrea Kent, Research Project Coordinator
National Institute for Early Education Research
Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Barnett, S. B., Garver, K. A., Hodges, K. S., Weisenfeld, G.G., DiCrecchio,(2019). The state of preschool 2018: State preschool yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.
Barnett, S. W. & Frede, E. C. (2017). Long-term effects of a system of high-quality universal preschool education in the United States In H. Blossfeld, N. Kulic, J. Skopek & M. Triventi (Eds), Childcare, Early Education and Social Inequality: An International Perspective (pp. 152-172). Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Dodge, K. A., Bai, Y., Ladd, H. F., & Muschkin, C. G. (2016). Impact of North Carolina’s early childhood programs and policies on educational outcomes in elementary school. Child Development 88(3), 1–19.
Gormley, W. T., & Gayer, T. (2005). Promoting school readiness in Oklahoma an evaluation of Tulsa’s pre-k program. Journal of Human Resources, 40(3), 533-558.
Gormley, W. T., Phillips, D., & Anderson, S. (2018). The Effects of Tulsa’s Pre-K Program on Middle School Student Performance. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 37(1), 63-87.