Category Archives: Early childhood programs

Whitehurst’s latest comments on pre-K

Posted on April 7, 2014 by timbartik

Russ Whitehurst has some more recent comments on pre-K, this time arguing against a more recent study of Georgia pre-K. This more recent study found pre-K effects on cognitive skills which, averaged across all tests used, had an average “effect … Continue reading →

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The importance of education, and a pre-K experiment to watch

Posted on March 13, 2014 by timbartik

Two articles recently came to my attention that are of considerable relevance to early childhood education. First, New York Times reporter Eduardo Porter has an article and interview with economist Thomas Piketty on growing economic inequality. Piketty is the author … Continue reading →

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Grading the Pre-K Evidence

Posted on February 28, 2014 by timbartik

Russ Whitehurst of Brookings has a new blog post that outlines his views on pre-K research in more detail.  The title is “Does Pre-K Work? It Depends How Picky You Are”. Whitehurst reaches the following conclusion: “I conclude that the … Continue reading →

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The appeal of universal programs rests in part on simplicity

Posted on February 20, 2014 by timbartik

A summary of my paper with my colleague Marta Lachowska on the Kalamazoo Promise recently was published in Education Next. (The summary even received a tweet from Arne Duncan!) The Kalamazoo Promise is a program begun in 2005, under which … Continue reading →

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Dealing with uncertainty in research on pre-K

Posted on February 18, 2014 by timbartik

Jason Richwine, in a recent blog post at “The Corner” blog of National Review, expressed surprise at my interpretation of the estimated effects in the Head Start randomized control trial. I had pointed out that the impact estimates, while not … Continue reading →

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More on weighing the evidence on pre-K

Posted on February 12, 2014 by timbartik

Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute has a blog post commenting on the debate between me and Russ Whitehurst over what evidence to believe about the effects of pre-K programs. Coulson’s argument is that the only reliable evidence for ascertaining … Continue reading →

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Weighing the preschool research evidence

Posted on February 11, 2014 by timbartik

Professor Bruce Fuller had an op-ed on preschool in the Washington Post on February 9. Professor Fuller’s interpretations of preschool research omit some important research. Specifically, Professor Fuller argues that “youngsters from middle-class and well-off homes benefit little from preschool”.  … Continue reading →

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Does early childhood education solve all problems? No, but it is a catalytic investment

Posted on January 24, 2014 by timbartik

David Brooks’s New York Times column of January 24, 2014 reflects a common misunderstanding about how to approach difficult policy issues. In discussing how to “expand opportunity for underprivileged children”, he says that we’ve made the following mistake: “We’ve probably … Continue reading →

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The case for pre-K depends not just on empirical details of studies, but on what you view as plausible given what we know about child development, and on how urgently you view the problem of inequality versus the problem of taxes and deficits

Posted on January 8, 2014 by timbartik

The Cato Institute, a well-known libertarian think tank, sponsored a discussion of research on pre-K on January 7, 2014.  I watched a live stream of the event. The discussion featured George Mason professor David Armor, Brookings Institution researcher Russ Whitehurst, … Continue reading →

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The reliability of estimates of effects of state and local pre-K programs on kindergarten test scores

Posted on January 4, 2014 by timbartik

A recent article on pre-K that has gained some public attention (for example, in columns by Mona Charen and Reihan Salam) is “The Dubious Promise of Universal Preschool”, by George Mason professors David Armor and Sonia Sousa, published in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs | 3 Comments