Research on preschool: Setting the record straight

[JIM CURRAN]

Research on preschool: Setting the record straight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ans ... -straight/

[palisadesk]

If you haven't seen it before, this article is a must-read on the topic:

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_4_pre-k.html

Preschool programs can be powerfully effective and change children's life trajectories. The "graduates" of the original preschool program here went on to successful, mostly middle-class, lives and post-secondary education, despite coming from one of the worst slum tenements in Chicago and attending very poor quality public schools. Others have replicated the results. The issue is not, Can Preschool Be Effective? But, Are We Willing to do What Works?

Susan S.

[geraldinecarter]

Thank you very much, Susan, for bringing this to our attention. I think we are missing a lot by not having DI in the UK and not opening up the debate. The massively expensive 'Sure Start' project here doesn't seem to have produced the expected results, even though it.s a godsend for many families.

I'm surprised that no one has grasped the nettle on the RRF - or begun to ponder the implications. BRI was also part of President Johnson's Big Society and when the long-term follow-up results were published many years later in Reading Research Quarterly - ithe counter-productive findings that students from poorer backgrounds with an early start with BRI had significant long-term advantages, were ignored.