Investing in early childhood development in preschool and at home

Duncan, Greg J.; Kalil, Ariel; Mogstad, Magne; Rege, Mari

doi:10.1016/bs.hesedu.2022.11.005

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 274 publications

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“…Children assigned to the Perry intervention had stronger school achievement and intelligence test scores at the end of the preschool intervention. By age 8, the impact on intelligence scores had faded to nonsignificance, though impacts on academic achievement measures persisted (Duncan et al, 2022). The children from the Perry Preschool study have been followed for decades, and evaluation analyses have indicated the program had crucial sustained impacts that were detected well into adulthood.…”

Section: Findings From Legacy Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The "bar" that an enhanced intervention program must exceed is higher today than it was 50 years ago. Moreover, Perry and Abecedarian were intensive and comprehensive programs tightly monitored by researchers, and population-level per-child funding allocations today are much lower than what would be required to implement these legacy programs now (Duncan et al, 2022). Large-scale pre-k programs may not employ uniform quality control measures of the level implemented in the legacy trials.…”

Section: Findings From Legacy Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Concerns about fadeout have become even more pronounced in recent years (Duncan et al, 2022). Duncan and Magnuson (2013) concluded, "most early childhood education studies that have tracked children beyond the end of the program treatment find that effects on test scores fade over time" (p. 120).…”

Section: Findings From Studies Of Scaled-up Public Pre-kmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be noted that our review of the literature is selective and primarily designed to motivate the theoretical approach and analyses that follow. Interested readers should turn to recent reviews by Duncan et al (2022) and Cascio (2021) to find more comprehensive assessments of this literature.…”

Section: Findings From Studies Of Scaled-up Public Pre-kmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spottiness of these findings implies that favorable outcomes were not always observed. Duncan et al (2022) provide a comprehensive review of preschool program impacts drawing from international studies. They find a similarly mixed set of findings for preschool program impacts both immediately following the program and later into childhood and adulthood.…”

Section: Global Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding Heterogeneity in the Impact of Public Preschool Programs

Watts

Jenkins

Dodge

et al. 2023

Monographs Society Res Child

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We examine the North Carolina Pre‐K (NC Pre‐K) program to test the hypothesis that observed variation in effects resulting from exposure to the program can be attributed to interactions with other environmental factors that occur before, during, or after the pre‐k year. We examine student outcomes in 5th grade and test interaction effects between NC's level of investment in public pre‐k and moderating factors. Our main sample includes the population of children born in North Carolina between 1987 and 2005 who later attended a public school in that state, had valid achievement data in 5th grade, and could be matched by administrative record review (n = 1,207,576; 58% White non‐Hispanic, 29% Black non‐Hispanic, 7% Hispanic, 6% multiracial and Other race/ethnicity). Analyses were based on a natural experiment leveraging variation in county‐level funding for NC Pre‐K across NC counties during each of the years the state scaled up the program. Exposure to NC Pre‐K funding was defined as the per‐4‐year‐old‐child state allocation of funds to a county in a year. Regression models included child‐level and county‐level covariates and county and year fixed effects. Estimates indicate that a child's exposure to higher NC Pre‐K funding was positively associated with that child's academic achievement 6 years later. We found no effect on special education placement or grade retention. NC Pre‐K funding effects on achievement were positive for all subgroups tested, and statistically significant for most. However, they were larger for children exposed to more disadvantaged environments either before or after the pre‐k experience, consistent with a compensatory model where pre‐k provides a buffer against the adverse effects of prior negative environmental experiences and protection against the effects of future adverse experiences. In addition, the effect of NC Pre‐K funding on achievement remained positive across most environments, supporting an additive effects model. In contrast, few findings supported a dynamic complementarity model. Instrumental variables analyses incorporating a child's NC Pre‐K enrollment status indicate that program attendance increased average 5th grade achievement by approximately 20% of a standard deviation, and impacts were largest for children who were Hispanic or whose mothers had less than a high school education. Implications for the future of pre‐k scale‐up and developmental theory are discussed.

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Section: Findings From Legacy Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings From Legacy Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings From Studies Of Scaled-up Public Pre-kmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings From Studies Of Scaled-up Public Pre-kmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Global Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding Heterogeneity in the Impact of Public Preschool Programs

Watts

Jenkins

Dodge

et al. 2023

Monographs Society Res Child

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Do means-tested childcare subsidies discourage work?

Vattø,

Østbakken

2024

J Popul Econ

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We examine how means-tested childcare subsidies affect parental labor supply. Using the introduction of reduced childcare prices for low-income families in Norway in 2015, we show that these subsidies may have the unintended effect of discouraging work rather than promoting employment. First, structural labor supply simulations suggest that a negative parental labor supply effect dominates, ex ante. Ex post, we find a small and insignificant effect of means-tested childcare subsidies on parental labor supply in the reform year. We find no statistically significant bunching around the income limits in subsequent years, but we do find negative labor supply effects in subsequent expansions of the reform. Our results suggest that in a context where both parental employment and participation in formal childcare are high, means-tested childcare subsidies may have unintended parental labor supply effects.

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