Abstract
Modern ECCE research began with the birth of the U.S. Head Start program in the 1960s; however, policy makers and the public paid little attention to it until several studies that had random assignment or wide representativeness received wide but targeted dissemination to them. In fact, policy makers required repeated dissemination to dispel misinterpretations of the findings, such as the belief of some that the value of ECCE has been disproved or that ECCE could have long-term effects and return on investment regardless of its quality. Toward this goal, we published six research monographs, held news conferences, wrote 87 articles, and made many presentations to groups that were influential in ECCE policy making. We draw three conclusions from this experience: (1) it was worthwhile; (2) there are too few studies of ECCE; (3) researchers and policy makers should work together more closely.
Highlights
Modern ECCE research began with the birth of the U.S Head Start program in the 1960s; policy makers and the public paid little attention to it until several studies that had random assignment or wide representativeness received wide but targeted dissemination to them
Because national spending on such research has been light—compared to national spending on medical research and national spending on ECCE itself, for example—most studies are small-scale, lacking both random assignment of children and wide representativeness, and attention has concentrated on those few studies that have at least random assignment—such as the HighScope Perry Preschool Study (Schweinhart et al 2005) and the Abecedarian Child Care Study (Campbell et al 2014); or wide representativeness— such as the Chicago Longitudinal Study (Reynolds et al 2011)
The third is that early childhood researchers and policy makers should work more closely together
Summary
Modern ECCE research began with the birth of the U.S Head Start program in the 1960s; policy makers and the public paid little attention to it until several studies that had random assignment or wide representativeness received wide but targeted dissemination to them. These studies found that high-quality early childhood programs have long-term effects on participants’ lives in categories like arrest and employment and strong economic return on investment that transcend categories like cognitive and socioemotional. Childhood researchers and advocates made a substantial effort to convey the long-term results to policy makers.
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