Preschool Programs: What Are We Getting? What Should We Expect?

1. Preschool Programs:What Are We Getting?What Should We Expect? Ron Haskins The Brookings Institution December 15, 2008

2. Strategies to Reduce Poverty and Increase Economic Opportunity • Education: Preschool; K-12; Postsecondary • Employment and training programs • Work and work support • Family (Nonmarital births, marriage, divorce) • Parenting • Neighborhoods • Personal Accounts • Welfare (Cash, housing, food stamps, others)

3. Percentage of Married, Single, and Never-Married Mothers Working, 1985 - 2005 Source: Gary Burtless, The Brookings Institution, unpublished calculations using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

4. Earnings Increase, Welfare Income Falls for Bottom Two Fifths of Female-Headed Families, 1990-2006 Source: Richard Bavier with U.S. Census Bureau data (Welfare income is cash, school lunch, food stamps, and housing; constant 2004 dollars).

5. Poverty Rates for Black Children, All Children, and Female-Headed Households, 1974 -2007 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007

6. Effectiveness of Five Factors in Reducing Poverty Rates Based on Adam Thomas and Isabel V. Sawhill, “For Richer or for Poorer: Marriage as an Antipoverty Strategy,” Journal of Policy Analysis Management 21, no. 4 (October 2002): 587-599; Ron Haskins and Isabel V. Sawhill, “Work and Marriage: The Way to End Poverty and Welfare,” Welfare Reform and Beyond Policy Brief, The Brookings Institution (September 2003).

7. The Education Strategy:The Problem

8. Vocabulary Scores for Black and White Three- and Four-Year-Olds, 1986-1994 Standardized Vocabulary Score Source: Jencks and Philips,1998.

9. Math and Reading Achievement for Four Groups at Kindergarten Entry Source: Lee & Burkam, 2002. Based on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort

10. NAEP Reading Scores for Thirteen Year-olds by Performance Level and Race, 1980 and 2004 Note: The NAEP long-term trend reading scale ranges from 0 to 500, though only three performance levels are discussed for each age (200, 250, and 300 respectively for 13 yr-olds). Level 200 indicates partially developed skills and understanding, 250 indicates the ability to interrelate ideas and make generalizations, and level 300 indicates the ability to understand complicated information. For more information on performance levels see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/performance-levels.asp. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1971-2004 Long-Term Trend Reading Assessments.

11. NAEP Average Scale Reading Score for 13 Year-olds by Race, 1980 to 2004 Note: The NAEP long-term trend reading scale ranges from 0 to 500. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1971-2004 Long-Term Trend Reading Assessments.

12. Poor Kids Less Likely to Enroll in College; Even Less Likely to Graduate Source: Brookings tabulations using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.

13. Preschool As Solution

14. Average Quality of Child Care Facilities in the U.S. Poor Mediocre Good Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

15. Comparison of Selected Effect Sizes from Preschool Programs Idealized Preschool: Empirical Effect Sizes Note. For sources contact Ron Haskins at rhaskins@brookings.edu.

16. Effects of Selected Early Childhood Programs on Adolescent and Adult Behaviors Note: Table entries are percentages unless otherwise noted. Source: W. Steven Barnett and Clive Belfield, "Early Childhood Development and Social Mobility," Future of Children 16, no. 2 (Fall 2006): 85.

17. Building a National Preschool Program

18. Effect Size of Five State Pre-K Programs on Children's Test Scores at School Entry Receptive Vocabulary Print Awareness Math Source: Barnett, Larry, and Jung, 2005

19. Impacts of Tulsa Programs Source: William T. Gormley, et al, “Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness,” in Science 320 (2008): 1723. available at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/data/320/5884/1723/DC1/2

20. Federal and State Spending, 2005 Sources: U.S. Budget, Fiscal Year 2005; W. Steven Barnett and Others. 2003. The State of Preschool: 2003 State Preschool Yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University; W. Steven Barnett and others. 2006. The State of Preschool: State Preschool Yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University.

21. The Preschool Program We NeedGoal: All Groups Enter School Performing at Average Level on Socioemotional and Intellectual Measures • Components: • Home visiting • Early education; 0-3 • Preschool program; 4 • School age follow-up • Day Care • Local Coordinating Group • Integration of current funding streams • Local standards/Federal standards • Competition and parent choice • Teacher Quality • Testing; Especially at school entry