Category Archives: Early childhood program design issues

Moving the U.S. towards a more universal, high-quality early education system

Posted on May 20, 2013 by timbartik

Lane Kenworthy, a well-known comparative sociologist of inequality issues at the University of Arizona, has a thought-provoking blog post on why the U.S. should more towards a high-quality early education system. Based on his own extensive knowledge of Scandinavian social … Continue reading →

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Helping child development and long-run economic development by helping low-income parents

Posted on May 15, 2013 by timbartik

Pediatrician Perri Klass wrote an article in the New York Times on May 13, 2013, that focused on the growing interest by pediatricians and other medical professionals in child poverty as a national problem. She argues that evidence suggests that … Continue reading →

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What would it cost to transform “The Hell of American Day Care”?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by timbartik

Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor for The New Republic, wrote an outstanding article there a few weeks ago, entitled “The Hell of American Day Care: An investigation into the barely regulated, unsafe business of looking after our children”. The entire … Continue reading →

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Expanded pre-K is fiscally sustainable

Posted on April 11, 2013 by timbartik

The popular Washington Post blog “Wonkblog” had a post on April 11 2013 from Brad Plumer that got my attention with this headline:  “Funding preschool with a cigarette tax is unsustainable”. The gist of the article is as follows: Although … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs, Timing of benefits | 8 Comments

My presentation at the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar

Posted on April 8, 2013 by timbartik

I made a presentation on early childhood programs and state economic development in Madison, Wisconsin, as part of a program for state legislators and state policymakers sponsored by the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar, on February 13, 2013. This presentation included … Continue reading →

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Recent research on how educational benefits of high-quality child care vary by income

Posted on March 25, 2013 by timbartik

An excellent recent paper by Greg Duncan and Aaron Sojourner has important implications for understanding the effects of different types of early childhood programs for different income groups. Duncan and Sojourner look at the effects of the Infant Health and … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs | 2 Comments

What does research say about the proposed expansion of Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by timbartik

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently proposed a major expansion of the state’s pre-K program, called the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP).  From reports in Gongwer News Service, legislators and others have expressed various doubts about the proposed expansion. This blog … Continue reading →

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What do we know about Head Start’s effectiveness?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by timbartik

An ongoing policy dispute is about how effective Head Start is as a preschool program. Head Start has other goals, for example improving public health. However, an important issue is how Head Start’s effects on kindergarten readiness, K-12 test scores, … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs | 2 Comments

Fact-checking FactCheck on preschool

Posted on February 21, 2013 by timbartik

FactCheck’s recent column criticizing President Obama’s claims about his preschool program gave a misleading description of the overall research evidence on preschool. FactCheck describes itself as “a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania”, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs | 1 Comment

NPR’s spin on universal preschool is unduly negative

Posted on February 18, 2013 by timbartik

NPR’s Morning Edition on February 18, 2013 had an interview by NPR host Linda Wertheimer with NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam that gave an unduly negative spin to what research shows about the effectiveness of universal preschool. The program began … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs | 1 Comment