Early Childhood Education and
Closing the Achievement Gap
Ajay Chaudry
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
STEINHARDT SCHOOL FOR CULTURE, EDUCATION,
AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION POLICY BREAKFAST SERIES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2014
NEW YORK, NY
Presentation Outline & Five Main Points
1
1.
The Achievement Gap is Wide, It Begins Early and It
Deprives Us All
2.
High-quality early childhood education is a direct,
effective, and necessary response to reduce achievement
gaps and give all children a fair shot.
3.
There are pronounced gaps in access to early learning and
preschool education and the quality of much early
education contribute to growing gaps in school readiness.
4.
Target Needs within a Goal of Universality
5.
Address Access and Quality Gaps Together
The Educational Achievement Gap
by income is Large & Growing
2
The Gap Begins Early
3
Income (90/10, 90/50, 50/10) School Readiness Gaps at Kindergarten Entry, firsttime kindergartners
Acbievement Gap (standard deviations)
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
Math
0.6
Reading
0.4
0.2
0
90/10
Reardon & Portilla (2014, unpublished) tablulations from ECLS-K 2010
90/50
50/10
The Gap spans a wide socio-economic gradient
4
Source: Reardon (2011)
5
Much of the gap measured across primary schooling
are present at school-entry
6
High-Quality Early Education is a Basic Building Block
for Children’s School Success and Reduces the Gap
7
 Average impact of 1 year of preschool at end of the 4 year old year is
one-third of a year of additional learning (Yoshikawa et. al. 2013)
 At-scale, high quality universal public preschool programs in Tulsa
& Boston show even more substantial impacts on early learning
(Gormley et. al. 2008; Weiland and Yoshikawa 2013)
 Best known preschool programs (Perry Preschool, Chicago Parent-
Child Centers, Abecedarian) studied over long-time show preschool
has long-term benefits for participants and society. (Heckman; Karoly;
Reynolds; Schweinhart)
 Early education benefits to all children, with larger benefits to
more disadvantaged children (Magnuson et al., 2007)
Early Learning provides developmental equity when
educational investments have greatest benefit
8
 Public investments in children are lowest in developmental
and learning period when they matter most: before children
enter universal publicly supported schooling (birth to age 4)
(Aber and Chaudry, 2010; Heckman, et. al. 2010, 2014)
Federal and State/Local Spending on Children
in 2008, by age
Federal
State
$10,719
$10,140
$4,579
$1,277
$4,138
$4,023
Age 0-2
Age 3-5
Source: Edelstein et. al. 2013
$3,922
$3,523
Age 6-11
Age 12-18
Enrollment in Early Education, children under age five
with employed mothers by income, selected years
9
55
Rates of center-based care
50
45
Middle- to HigherIncome
Percent
40
Moderate Income
35
Low-Income
30
Very Low-Income
25
20
15
1997
2005
Year
Analysis of 1996, 2004, 2008 SIPP Panel Data
2011
Disparities in access to and use of early learning
programs are large, especially for younger children
10
Rates of center-based ECE for infants and toddlers, by income and age
35.0%
32.8%
29.0%
30.0%
25.0%
23.3%
0-99
20.9%
20.0%
18.4%
18.1%
18.1%
100-199
200-299
15.3%
15.0%
11.5%
10.9%
10.0%
5.0%
14.8%
7.3%
8.4%
7.0%
11.7%
400-499
9.2%
500+
7.0%
4.8%
0.0%
Age 0
Age 1
300-399
Age 2
Source: Chaudry & Wolf (2014, Unpublished) Analysis of 2004 & 2008 SIPP Data (Combined)
Preschool Education is norm for families can afford it,
widening gaps for children whose families cannot
11
Rates of center-based care for 3 and 4 year olds
by income level and age, 2011
90%
<200% FPL
200%-400% FPL
>400% FPL
79%
80%
Children Ages 3 and 4 in Public and Private
Preschool, by income, 2011
80%
70%
private preschool
public preschool
70%
61%
60%
56%
56%
50%
50%
39%
40%
30%
11%
60%
40%
30%
30%
30%
56%
34%
20%
20%
10%
10%
20%
8%
0%
Age 3
Age 4
0%
<200% FPL
200%-400% FPL
Tabulations from CPS 2011
Tabulations from CPS 2011
>400% FPL
Quality matters across Birth-to-Five Continuum
12
 Overall quality across Pre-K, Head Start, Child Care, Infant-
Toddler programs ranges from low to moderate with only a
small share very poor or very high quality
 Child outcomes are greater and more robust when quality is
higher
 Responsive teacher-child interactions and intentional
activities to foster learning are quality ingredients
 Stability, continuity, and “dosage” of early childhood services
are important components of quality
Challenges and Opportunities Moving Forward
13
 Starting Early Learning Services Early
 Targeting Needs within a Goal of Universality
 Addressing Access and Quality Gaps Together
 Establishing alignment/infrastructure across systems
(both public and private)
 Finding the Political Will and Public Financing for Early
Learning is Difficult, but Difficult is not Impossible, as
NYC’s advances show…
 And as the song says if you can make it work there…you
can make it work anywhere… New York, New York!