Steve Barnett, Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, has written a very useful brief report about what research shows about pre-K programs.
This report, which is 15 pages long, is entitled “Getting the Facts Right on Pre-K and the President’s Pre-K Proposal”. The report considers four questions:
“1. Does high-quality pre-K have lasting benefits?
2. What is the evidence for the $7 to $1 return on investment in pre-K?
3. Do non-disadvantaged children benefit from pre-K, and is a targeted or a
universal approach to pre-K more effective?
4. Are large-scale public programs, including Head Start, effective?”
There’s a lot of overlap between what Barnett says and my recent posts responding to various critics of large-scale pre-K. I think we largely agree on how we see the research evidence. I would hope that both my specific responses to individual articles, as well as Barnett’s overview of the research, would be useful to a variety of readers.
investinginkids 
Reblogged this on Megan Carolan and commented:
This is my boss writing at my organization, so I am perhaps a bit partial to it. But there’s been a TON of misinformation on what pre-K research does and doesn’t indicate about outcomes, so this is an important piece. And I’m thrilled that Tim Bartik shared it – he’s really been bringing his A game at debunking myths at his blog and you should check him out.