Preschool can benefit children’s learning and development, but the quality of existing preschool initiatives across the country varies tremendously, says a report from the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University in Tempe.
High-quality preschool programs can raise achievement scores, reduce grade retention, and reduce the likelihood that students will be referred to special education, author W. Steven Barnett, the director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., writes in the Sept. 10 policy brief.
But because of the uneven quality of programs, he recommends that policymakers avoid handing out more child-care subsidies for preschool and instead focus on expanding effective preschool with high standards.
