I have been working with Detroit Public Television and Michigan’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation on preparing short videos about early childhood programs, including preschool. The project was initiated and financed by ECIC; I prepared the scripts; Detroit Public TV did an excellent job of creating the animation and professionally editing each video.
Three videos are available for viewing now. They are at an alternative website about some of my research, at http://www.investinginkids.info/ .
Each video is about a minute-and-a-half long. Each video considers a different topic. Here are the short summaries of each video and a specific link to each video:
Video 1: “Why Preschool Matters”. “How is it even possible that just one year of preschool can produce such large, long-run benefits? Dr. Bartik explains how just one year of preschool lays the foundation for a child’s lifelong learning and directly impacts their productivity and earnings as an adult.”
Video 2: “Research on Preschool”. “Why should I believe that early childhood programs work? There have been many studies researching the impact of early childhood programs comparing those who attend and those who don’t. Dr. Bartik takes a close look at the two groups and explains the surprisingly large differences between the two groups.”
Video 3: “Your Taxes and Preschool”. “Why should I pay higher taxes for other people’s children to attend preschool? No one wants to pay higher taxes, but Dr. Bartik explains how everyone in today’s society is interdependent. Watch to find out why children attending preschool will benefit the local economy and how this has a direct and prosperous effect on you as well.”
These videos are intended to be disseminated as widely as possible. Feel free to send links to videos whenever you think it might be helpful. Please also feel free to use these videos at conferences. If possible, if you could let me know that you’re using the videos at a conference, that would be helpful. You can do so at the comments at this blog post, or by emailing me at bartik@upjohn.org.
A few more videos are still in production, and I will announce these new videos as they become available.
I hope these videos are helpful in providing short, clear, and entertaining answers to some of the questions about the benefits of preschool.
investinginkids 
Some additional information. There are some plans afoot to put the videos in iTunes, which should make them easier to download for conferences. I’ll try to inform people when that is available, and provide links.
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