“…Though many studies have shown that social and behavioral skills are associated with academic achievement and attainment (Alexander et al, 2003;Ladd, Birch, and Buhs, 1999;Nor-3 mandeau and Guay, 1998;Raver et al, 2005;Trzesniewski et al, 2006), scholars continue to debate the specific skills that matter, the size of their effects, and the extent to which they explain gaps in educational achievement by race, class, and gender (Bowles, Gintis, and Osborne, 2001;Borghans et al, 2008;Murnane, Willett, and Levy, 1995). In a series of papers, Heckman and colleagues argue that parents influence the development of social and behavioral as well as cognitive skills, and that interventions such as enriched child-care centers (e.g., the Perry preschool program) boosted social and behavioral skills of children, and improved academic performance through this vehicle (Heckman and Rubenstein, 2001;Cawley, Heckman, and Vytlacil, 2001;Carneiro and Heckman, 2003;Cunha et al, 2006;Heckman and Masterov, 2007;Heckman, Stixrud, and Urzua, 2006;Urzua, 2006).…”