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One: Three Studies Find Quality Child Care Helps Kids
The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study, which began in 1993, examined children's experiences in typical child care settings and how these experiences influence the development of children into the elementary school years. The study followed four-year-olds, enrolled in child care for at least one year before entering kindergarten, from a sample of 401 community-based child care centers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and North Carolina. To assess quality, researchers looked at classroom practices including the care environment, teacher sensitivity and responsiveness, and teaching style. The study found that staff-child ratios, the teacher's level of education, and wages were all related to the quality of the care provided. Results reveal that children who received higher quality care had gains in language and math skills that remained into the elementary school years. They also rated higher in their classroom skills (e.g. high thinking/attention skills and sociability and low levels of problem behaviors) from preschool through the second grade. These results were even more significant for children at risk of low educational achievement. The Abecedarian Project began more than twenty years ago and has followed over one hundred low-income children from infancy to young adulthood. Of the 111 infants originally involved in the study, 57 were assigned to an early intervention child care program and 54 received care in some other setting. Each child in the early intervention program had an individualized program of educational activities which was designed to enhance social, emotional, and cognitive development. Children in the program received at least five years of this specialized care until they left the program for kindergarten. Children who participated in the intervention program had higher cognitive test scores from the toddler years through the age of 21, as well as higher academic achievement in reading and math from the primary grades through young adulthood. In addition, the children from the intervention program completed more years of education and were more likely to attend a four-year college than the children who did not participate in the intervention program. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care followed 1,364 children from ten child care centers located in diverse communities throughout the country. The study assessed the influence of child care using indicators such as the quality of care and setting quality guidelines like staff-child ratios, group sizes, teacher training, and teacher education. Results have shown that the higher the quality of care, the greater the child's language abilities at 15, 24, and 36 months of age, the better the child's cognitive development at the age of two years, and the greater the degree of school readiness the child showed at the age of three years. In addition, the study also found that quality was the greatest predictor of children's behavior - that children in high quality care had fewer caregiver-reported problems. Follow-up research has shown that children enrolled in centers that met a higher number of the guidelines had better language comprehension and school readiness levels, as well as fewer problem behaviors at 24 and 36 months of age. Children enrolled in centers meeting none of the guidelines fell below average on tests of these areas. Each
of these studies plans to report follow-up findings on these children
throughout their schooling, but already we have strong evidence
of the benefits of quality early childhood education for children.
The early years of a child's life can be critical in shaping that
child's future success in school. Quality early care has benefits
for all children, but particularly for low-income children who are
often at risk of school failure. It is important that the policymakers
shaping our education policy for the future are aware of the importance
that quality care plays in a child's early years.
Source: For
more information:
Source: For
more information:
Source: For
more information:
Facts in Action, March 2000 |
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With increasing evidence of the benefits of early childhood
education, it is important that we share this information
with our legislators and other policymakers. Call or write
your local leaders and ask if they have read about any of
these studies. If they haven't, offer to share with them a
brief summary of the findings (see 