States Eye Research to Shape Pre-K Priorities

Science, Policy Viewed as Tightly Linked in Era of Shrinking Resources

After more than a decade of expansion in early-childhood services, states exploring how to best target their resources are looking more closely at child-development research for guidance.

The policy value of such research is the focus of an effort launched this summer to give leaders from 14 states a closer look at current findings in the field that may help shape their decisions at a time of tight budgets.

That effort, which kicked off at a two-day meeting late last month at Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child , is designed to help states tackle the challenges created by the “intersection of early-childhood science and policy,” Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, the director of the center,...