Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes.

The extent to which early childhood programs produce long-term benefits in children’s cognitive development, socialization, and school success is a matter of some controversy. This article reviews 36 studies of both model demonstration projects and large-scale public programs to examine the long-term effects of these programs on children from low-income families. The review carefully considers issues related to research design. It includes studies of preschool education, Head Start, child care, and home visiting programs, and focuses primarily on the effects of program participation on children’s cognitive development. Results indicate that early childhood programs can produce large short-term benefits for children on intelligence quotient (IQ) and sizable long-term effects on school achievement, grade retention, placement in special education, and social adjustment. Not all programs produce these benefits, perhaps because of differences in quality and funding across programs. The article concludes with recommendations for future action.

[1]  S. Helburn.  Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers. Technical Report, Public Report, and Executive Summary. , 1995 .

[2]  Melissa Roderick.  Grade Retention and School Dropout: Investigating the Association , 1994 .

[3]  A. Reynolds.  Effects of a Preschool Plus Follow-On Intervention for Children at Risk , 1994 .

[4]  J. DiPietro,et al.  Day-care participation as a protective factor in the cognitive development of low-income children. , 1994, Child development.

[5]  Rebecca A. Marcon.  Early Learning and Early Identification Follow-Up Study: Transition from the Early to the Later Childhood Grades, 1990-93. , 1994 .

[6]  J. S. Fuerst,et al.  Chicago experience with an early childhood programme: the special case of the Child Parent Center Program , 1993 .

[7]  R. S. Pierre.  National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program. Report on Effectiveness. , 1993 .

[8]  W. Barnett,et al.  Benefit-cost analysis of preschool education: findings from a 25-year follow-up. , 1993, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[9]  Duncan C. Thomas,et al.  Does Head Start Make a Difference? , 1993 .

[10]  C. Ramey,et al.  Mid-Adolescent Outcomes for High Risk Students: An Examination of the Continuing Effects of Early Intervention. , 1993 .

[11]  D. Olds,et al.  Review of research on home visiting for pregnant women and parents of young children. , 1993 .

[12]  T. Husén,et al.  The Contribution of Formal Schooling to the Increase in Intellectual Capital , 1991 .

[13]  C. Locurto.  Beyond IQ in Preschool Programs , 1991 .

[14]  M. Zaslow.  Variation in Child Care Quality and Its Implications for Children , 1991 .

[15]  Ginger A. Eckroade.  An Analysis of the Long-Term Effect of the Extended Elementary Education Prekindergarten Program. , 1991 .

[16]  C. Ramey,et al.  A longitudinal study of two early intervention strategies: Project CARE. , 1990, Child development.

[17]  Rebecca A. Marcon.  Early Learning and Early Identification: Final Report of the Three Year Longitudinal Study. , 1990 .

[18]  K. J. Sternberg,et al.  Do we really know how day care affects children , 1990 .

[19]  J. Brooks-Gunn,et al.  Are Head Start effects sustained? A longitudinal follow-up comparison of disadvantaged children attending Head Start, no preschool, and other preschool programs. , 1990, Child development.

[20]  B. Kolb.  Brain development, plasticity, and behavior. , 1989, The American psychologist.

[21]  R. Haskins.  Beyond metaphor: The efficacy of early childhood education. , 1989 .

[22]  C. Ramey,et al.  Type of day-care and preschool intellectual development in disadvantaged children. , 1989, Child development.

[23]  H. Garber.  The Milwaukee Project Preventing Mental Retardation in Children at Risk , 1988 .

[24]  E. Frede,et al.  The Efficacy of Public Preschool Programs and the Relationship of Program Quality to Efficacy , 1988 .

[25]  C. Copple.  Path to the Future: Long-Term Effects of Head Start in the Philadelphia School District. , 1987 .

[26]  J. Lally.  The Syracuse University Family Development Research Program: Long-Range Impact of an Early Intervention with Low-Income Children and Their Families. , 1987 .

[27]  Deborah A. Phillips,et al.  Child-care quality and children's social development. , 1987 .

[28]  Kathleen Hebbeler.  An Old and a New Question on the Effects of Early Education for Children from Low Income Families , 1985 .

[29]  Joan E. Sprigle,et al.  Longitudinal Evaluation of the Effects of Two Compensatory Preschool Programs on Fourth- through Sixth-Grade Students. , 1985 .

[30]  R. Haskins.  Public school aggression among children with varying day-care experience. , 1985, Child development.

[31]  Ruth Hubbell McKey,et al.  The Impact of Head Start on Children, Families and Communities. Final Report of the Head Start Evaluation, Synthesis and Utilization Project. , 1985 .

[32]  V. Seitz,et al.  Effects of family support intervention: a ten-year follow-up. , 1985, Child development.

[33]  E. Evans.  Longitudinal Follow-Up Assessment of Differential Preschool Experience for Low Income Minority Group Children , 1985 .

[34]  Joseph F. Gastright,et al.  The Long Term Effects of ESEA Title I Preschool and All Day Kindergarten: An Eight Year Follow-Up Study. , 1981 .

[35]  David J. Irvine.  Evaluation of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program. , 1977 .

[36]  V. Shipman.  Stability and Change in Family Status, Situational, and Process Variables and Their Relationship to Children's Cognitive Performance. , 1977 .

[37]  H. A. Goodstein.  The Prediction of Elementary School Failure Among High Risk Children. , 1975 .

[38]  E. Zigler,et al.  Effects of a Four-Year Follow Through Program on Economically Disadvantaged Children. , 1974 .

[39]  V. Shipman.  Disadvantaged Children and Their First School Experiences: ETS-Head Start Longitudinal Study. Preliminary Description of the Initial Sample Prior to School Enrollment. Summary Report. , 1971 .

[40]  F. L. Girardeau.  What is intelligence? , 1969, Mental retardation.

[41]  Arthur J. Reynolds,et al.  One year of preschool intervention or two: Does it matter? , 1995 .

[42]  W. Barnett.  New Wine in Old Bottles: Increasing the Coherence of Early Childhood Care and Education Policy. , 1993 .

[43]  Enhancing the outcomes of low-birth-weight, premature infants. A multisite, randomized trial. The Infant Health and Development Program. , 1990, JAMA.

[44]  Karl R. White,et al.  An integrative review of early intervention efficacy studies with at-risk children: Implications for the handicapped , 1985 .

[45]  C. Ramey,et al.  Preschool compensatory education and the modifiability of intelligence: A critical review. , 1985 .

[46]  R. Darlington,et al.  Lasting Effects of Early Education: A Report from the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies. , 1982 .

[47]  R. Klaus,et al.  From 3 to 20: The early training project , 1982 .

[48]  D. L. Johnson,et al.  The skills of mothering: a study of parent child development centers. , 1982, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[49]  D. Weikart,et al.  The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project: Preschool Years and Longitudinal Results Through Fourth Grade. Monograph Number 3. , 1978 .

[50]  N. Pinkelton.  A Comparison of Referred Headstart, Non-Referred Headstart and Non-Headstart Groups of Primary Public School Children on Achievement, Language Processing and Classroom Behavior. , 1976 .