Education's Essential Truths (Part III) – We know High Quality Preschool is Worth it; everything else “Depends”

THE NEXT TIME you’re getting ready to blow some explosives, don’t forget to tamp the charge! A single brick, a sand bag – even a mound of mud – placed tightly against your charge (and opposite from your target) will send virtually all of your blast force towards the target... IT’S MAGIC!

The physics behind it have to do with the vacuum that’s created during the first few microseconds of a blast (away from the tamping), and how explosive forces “want to escape” through the weakest spot.  I saw this phenomenon first-hand as an Army Engineer officer during Maryland National Guard demolitions training. I was amazed by how much less explosive we needed to destroy a given target if we first tamped the charge…

And so it is in education:  fun and engaging high quality preschool programs are “tamping materials” that channel our children’s energies down more constructive pathways and help them attain higher levels of success later on – not only as older students but also as adults.

6.) High Quality Preschool is Worth it.  Multiple studies around the world have shown how much high quality – and it has to be “high quality,” not just daycare – preschool benefits kids.  The results from 2011’s “Chicago” study are typical.  It tracked 1,400 inner-city Chicago youth for 25 years after they received high-quality public preschool.  The ones who began their schooling with “preschool at age three or four, especially males and children of high-school dropouts, had by age 28 significantly higher educational levels, incomes, socioeconomic status, and rates of health insurance coverage, along with lower rates of substance abuse and legal problems” than those who began their schooling in kindergarten as five year olds.

Results from another large “longitudinal” study showed that “every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood education produces a six to ten percent per annum return on investment” from higher tax collections and lower social services costs.

But here’s the most interesting thing about preschool’s benefits:  the dividends don’t arise from what the children learn as much as from what they become. Almost always, the “knowledge premium” that pre-schoolers take into kindergarten with them will “fade out.” Their less prepared peers catch up once they receive the curricula that the pre-schoolers have already seen (and get to see again). Others catch up with tutoring, special education, or even by being held back a grade. One way or the other, the educational attainment levels of both cohorts tend to converge as the kids approach third grade. Opponents of preschool often cite this “fade out” as “proof” of preschool’s irrelevance.

But here’s the Rest of the Story:  The advantages of high quality pre-school fade back in when kids reach middle school…when the going gets a little tougher – when check marks are fully replaced by letter grades. This “fade in” occurs because the real value of early education seems to come from the particular set of life skills it provides known as Executive Functions – non-cognitive attributes such as sociability, self-motivation, attentiveness, patience, memorization, “emotional intelligence,” and task persistence. Think of a teenager who pays attention in class, keeps good notes, and effectively manages his emotions compared to one with smudged papers shuffled into his backpack, a pattern of disruptive behavior, and no recollection of tomorrow’s Spanish test…

Head Start.  The $7.9 billion Head Start Program is the means by which our federal government attempts to extend the advantages of high quality preschool to America’s poorest children. It’s also designed to reach out to parents – especially mothers (see Part I) – to help them become better educators and nurturers.

In 2010, a major Health and Human Services (HHS) study put Head Start’s cost effectiveness in doubt. Its conclusion stemmed from three factors: 1) The high number of low quality preschool programs receiving Head Start grants; 2) Achievement level comparisons that stopped at third grade – right when “fade out” peaks; and 3) The high percentage of children in the control group who attended state-supported or private pre-school programs instead of Head Start programs… Ultimately, the HHS study was a wake-up call for Head Start administrators, but it couldn’t offer any conclusions about high quality preschool – it wasn’t designed to.

5.) Everything else “Depends.”  The successfulness of any particular education reform depends upon a number of factors: mode of action, how and where it will be applied, to whom, for how long, and why the status quo is insufficient, etc. A reform or approach that works in one place at one time, might not work in another place or at another time. For example, no two independently managed, government-funded “charter schools” are the alike: some are cutting-edge and well-managed…others are not. And the same can be said for any two “home-schools.” As for vouchers, they are only as good (or as bad) as the educational “products” they can help parents purchase in their local "market."

Bottom Line:  whenever we identify a failing school (or school system), we owe it to our kids (and to ourselves) to put every single possible alternative “on the table” – every single one. And then follow through…

Part II (link) 

(4) Select Colleges and Majors based upon Sound Business Plans.  Graduates ultimately rise or fall to levels of success (or failure) that match the totality of their talents. So as long as a student is continually challenged, i.e. doesn’t (easily) score straight A’s, any college is fine.  A diploma’s “return on investment” will vary widely however depending upon the area of study that the student chose.

(3) A Fair System to Reward Great Teachers.  We should use historical average test score improvement metrics (over at least 8 years) to promote our best veteran teachers to the “rank” of Senior Teacher or Principal, reward them handsomely, and then have them evaluate our “junior” teachers, coaching the ones that can be helped, and equitably removing the incompetent ones that cannot. 

Part I (link)

(2) We already know the Answer. Learning only happens after we expend some effort. Learning is a “menace” we must work through – not around. But if we apply the right approaches, our kids will feel the addictive sensation of learning often enough to want to keep going.

(1) Mothers Matter Most. Involved, educated mothers matter more than teacher quality, school quality, more than socio-economic status, you name it – mothers matter most.