Preschool Is Essential to Success Many People

Preschool Is Essential to Success

Many people intuitively believe that preschool is not an essential prerequisite for children to be successful. It is often perceived as something that is nice for the parents and fun for the children. Often these perceptions will also include a socializing value to preschool but not necessarily an academic value. For example, a common perception is that children at this age will benefit from socializing with their peers but will receive less in academic benefits that will propel and young child's academic career. At this age the material covered is relatively simple material that is often viewed as non-essential or something that can easily be learned later in the child's education. Although this perception is quiet common, there are several studies that suggest that early education is in fact valuable to the child's development; both socially and academically.

One popular study that is often cited to illustrate the value of early education is the Abecedarian project. This project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for poor children. Four cohorts of individuals, born between 1972 and 1977, were randomly assigned as infants to either the early educational intervention group or the control group (The Carolina Abecedarian Project, N.d.). The children were randomly assigned to different groups that either received a quality preschool education or a groups that did not. The children's progress was then monitored over time with follow-up studies conducted at ages 12, 15, and 21. The study found that (The Carolina Abecedarian Project, N.d.):

Children who participated in the early intervention program had higher cognitive test scores from the toddler years to age 21.

Academic achievement in both reading and math was higher from the primary grades through young adulthood.

Intervention children completed more years of education and were more likely to attend a four-year college.

Intervention children were older, on average, when their first child was born.

The cognitive and academic benefits from this program are stronger than for most other early childhood programs.

Enhanced language development appears to have been instrumental in raising cognitive test scores.

Mothers whose children participated in the program achieved higher educational and employment status than mothers whose children were not in the program. These results were especially pronounced for teen mothers.

Another study was conducted from 1962 -- 1967, with 123 children at ages 3 and 4, the subjects were randomly divided into a program group that received a high-quality preschool program based on a participatory learning approach and a comparison group who received no preschool program (High Scope, 2005). In the study's most recent phase, 97% of the study participants still living were interviewed at age 40. The study found that adults at age 40 who had the preschool program had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool.

Figure 1 - Perry Preschool Findings