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What the studies say about early childhood education

MotherJones/04-03-2016/Por: Kristina Rizga

Resumen: Liberales de California y New York y conservadores de Oklahoma y
Florida apoyan la idea de una reforma educativa en la educación de la
primera infancia, así lo deja ver una encuesta realizada hace días, donde
se mostró que el 76 por ciento de los encuestados expreso estar de acuerdo
con gastar dinero federal para ampliar la educación pública de la primera
infancia. En el artículo David Kirp, uno de los principales expertos en
educación infantil y profesor de políticas públicas en la Universidad de
California-Berkeley, dijo que otorgar el acceso a los preescolares a los
niños más necesitados es una política que debe implementarse en el país,
debido a los beneficios que otorga a lo largo de la vida. Un estudio
realizado en la Universidad de California por dicho investigador, así lo
demuestra, en el que los niños que entran a los preescolares o reciben
educación en la primera infancia son mucho más propensos a tener mejores
calificaciones y resultados de exámenes y más probabilidades de ir a la
universidad. Otro estudio similar se inició en 1972, denominado Proyecto
Abecederian, dándose seguimiento a 111 recién nacidos en Carolina del Norte
hasta que éstos tuvieron los 35 años de edad; en este particular el
análisis lo propicio el economista Steve Barnett, quien calculo que cada $1
que el gobierno invierte en la educación de alta calidad puede llegar
ahorrar más de $7 más adelante al aumentar las tasas de graduación,
reducción de embarazos y la delincuencia. Por su parte, el profesor de
trabajo social de la Universidad de Columbia, Jane Waldfogel, evaluó
resultados de pruebas de 8000 estudiantes en los Estados Unidos y encontró
que había una enorme brecha en las habilidades de lectura en niños que
habían empezado la escuela a temprana edad antes de niños. Marjorie
Wechsler, otro investigador de educación de la primera infancia encontró
que los docentes de preescolar tienen estudios universitarios con
conocimientos especializados en el desarrollo del niño, utilizan el
currículo enfatizando más en el juego hacia la resolución de problemas y
saben cómo enseñar habilidades cognitivas, sociales, emocionales y físicas
en los niños. Sin embargo, pese a estos estudios, existe un grupo de
oponentes que apuntan a elementos que contravienen el impacto del
preescolar en la primera infancia, asociado a factores determinados por las
pruebas que miden las habilidades de alfabetización, lenguaje y
matemáticas, que en algunos estados como Tennessee no han dado buenos
resultados. No obstante, para los estados unidos la idea de destinar
recursos presupuestarios a la educación en la primera infancia responde a
estudiar las cifras de inversión, las cuales varían entre $8000 y $1000 por
estudiante, y en muchos casos responde a intereses de los gobernantes de
los estados.

It’s hard to think of another education reform idea that has garnered as
much support among advocates of various ideological stripes as early childhood education.
California and New York liberals support it, and so do conservatives in
Oklahoma and Florida. A 2015 national poll by First Five Years Fund showed that 76
percent of voters support the idea of spending federal money to expand
public preschool, and the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act includes more
funding for early childhood. Helping the idea along is decades of research
(which continues to pour in) that suggests effective preschools can benefit all
children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. «We have better
evidence that preschool works and has long-term effects than we do for any
other social policy,» David L. Kirp, one of our country’s leading experts on early childhood education and a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, told *Mother Jones*.

But can we identify what a good preschool looks like and make that
accessible to the kids most in need? That topic has been debated fiercely
by parents, preschool advocates, and policymakers all over the country.
This week, early childhood education experts and city chiefs of preschools came
together in Sacramento, California, to talk about the latest research.
As presenter Abbie Lieberman, an early-education policy analyst at New
America, put it: «When we step into a preschool, how can we tell what is
actually learning through play and what is true chaos?»

What the Studies Say:

The growing pile of evidence on the long-term benefits of high-quality
preschool stretches all the way back to a 1961 Perry Preschool Study. Researchers at the High
Scope Educational Research Foundation decided to follow 123
three- and four-year-olds from public housing projects in Ypsilanti,
Michigan. Fifty-eight toddlers were randomly placed in a preschool class
for two years; 65 kids from the neighborhood were left without preschool.
Researchers then collected data on the students until they turned 40—an
astonishingly long time in education research. They found that the kids in
preschool were much more likely to have better grades and test scores and
more likely to go to college, earn a higher income, and own a house. In
fact, their income and other assets pushed them well above the poverty
line, as Kirp documents in his book, *The Sandbox Investment*.

A similar study started in 1972, the Abecederian Project.
It followed 111 infants in North Carolina until
they turned 35. The results were similar, piquing the interest of
economists. Steven Barnett , a professor of economics and the executive director of the National Institute
on Early Childhood Research, eventually calculated that every $1 the government invests in high-quality early
education can save more than $7 later on by boosting graduation rates,
reducing teen pregnancies, and even reducing crime. Such arguments about
long-term savings made preschool appealing to conservatives and big
philanthropists in the business world.

More recently, other scholars were able to show the disparities between
students who had some form of early childhood education and those who
didn’t. Jane Waldfogel , a professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University and the
author of *Too Many Children Left Behind,* looked
at the test scores of 8,000 students in the United States and found there
was a huge gap in reading abilities before kids even arrived at first
grade. «If we are going to give teachers a fighting chance at narrowing our
achievement gaps later in school, our kids have to come in more equally
prepared,» Waldfogel told *Mother Jones*.

So What Does a Good Preschool Look Like?

Marjorie Wechsler, an early-childhood-education researcher at the Learning Policy Institute , recently
synthesized research from a number of preschool systems and identified 10 common foundational
building blocks among programs that demonstrated positive impacts on a
variety of measures. Wechsler, who presented her findings in Sacramento,
found that the best preschools have college-educated teachers with
specialized skills in child development; they also use curriculum that
emphasizes problem-solving rather than unstructured play or
«repeat-after-me» drills. Successful educators know how to teach cognitive,
social-emotional, and physical skills. Plus, high-quality preschools
support their teachers with experienced coaches, and classroom sizes don’t
get bigger than 10 kids for every teacher.

The Roadblocks:

While expanding preschool for low-income students might have garnered more
advocates than almost any other school reform idea in the country, there
are inevitable problems: Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, has pointed out that
studies like the Perry Preschool research have only looked at small school
programs that are difficult to replicate on a large scale. Other opponents
point to a recent large-scale study looking
at the impact of Tennessee’s state-funded preschool; the study found that
by second grade, students who attended preschool actually performed worse
on tests measuring literacy, language, and math skills. The researchers,
however, blamed in part repetitive, poorly structured teaching for these
results.

Steven Barnett, the director of the National Institute of Early Education
Research, argued in the *Hechinger Report* that
the Tennessee study mostly provides additional evidence that preschool on
the cheap doesn’t work. Perry and Abecedarian students had
highly trained and well-paid teachers, and these programs cost about $14,000 to
$20,000 per child in today’s dollars, compared with $4,611 that Tennessee
spends currently.

And unsurprisingly, the numbers and research bolster Barnett’s point: The
strongest preschools have been well funded—some estimates vary
between $8,000 and $10,000 per student. Barnett pointed to New Jersey,
Boston, and Tulsa, Oklahoma—places that spend energy and money on highly
trained teachers, coaching, and strong curriculum—as examples of where
governments are serving children well.

 

Image courtesy of the National Institute of Early Education Research

Is There Hope?

The dollar figures show the United States has a long way to go. While the
city of Boston spends $10,000 for each preschooler, in 2014 the average
expenditure, nationwide, was $4,125 of government spending per kid. That’s not much more
than the government was spending a decade earlier.

The good news is that after years of dismal cuts following the recession, a
movement to increase funding and enrollment for preschool is regaining its
momentum—driven mostly by local and state policymakers. What’s more, both
the federal Every Children Succeeds Act and California’s state budget
include more funding to increase the number of low-income kids in high-quality
preschools.

Getting the United States all the way to universal preschool, of course, is
a long road. The nation ranks 30th out of 44 for preschool enrollment among developed nations; 66 percent
of American four-year-olds went to preschool in 2012. Of those, only 13
percent of low-income children were enrolled in high-quality early
childhood programs, according to a study by RAND Corp.

«Six years ago, we started talking about what does quality look like? How
does it work?» Camille Maben, the executive director of First 5 California,
a state agency, said at the end of the Sacramento
gathering. «We know now that quality works in all kinds of different ways.
One size truly does not fit all. But when there are so many of us, changes
are like turning an elephant in the bathtub. It’s an enormous challenge.»

Fuente:
www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/preschool-early-childhood-education-
funding