Early childhood education
Peer Victimization Among English Learners: Examining the Role of Dual-Language and English-Only Programs
Topics: Student Well-BeingThis study examines the relationship between English Learner (EL) classification, language program type, and peer victimization using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten Class of 2011. Leveraging a sample of 9,562 children, this study… more →
Creating Short Forms of Early Childhood Development Measures: A Framework for Quantifying Statistical, Conceptual, and Practical Tradeoffs in Direct Assessment
Direct assessments of early childhood development (ECD) are a cornerstone of research in developmental psychology and are increasingly used to evaluate programs and policies in lower- and middle-income countries. Despite strong psychometric properties, these assessments are too expensive and… more →
Variations in Pre-Primary Education Infrastructure Within and Across Administrative Sectors in Rwanda
Topics: Families and CommunitiesThis study investigates disparities in the quality of pre-primary education settings in Rwanda, focusing on differences across setting types—centre-based, community-based, and home-based—and examining the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) at the sector level. Using a dataset of 4,875… more →
Does Early Childhood Education mitigate the birthdate effect? A regression discontinuity analysis of administrative data
Pablo Araya Cortés, Cristian Macías Domínguez, Luis Pires Jiménez, Rosa Santero Sánchez, Ismael Sanz Labrador.Topics: Student Well-BeingThis article examines the impact of within-class age differences on educational outcomes, using students' birth months in Madrid's primary schools as a natural experiment. Employing a regression discontinuity design, we analyze third-grade students to investigate these age-related effects.… more →
Early Childhood Education and Maltreated Children’s Behavioral and Cognitive Outcomes: Quasi-experimental Evidence from the National Survey of Childhood and Adolescent Well-Being II
Topics: Student Well-BeingPrior evidence shows that early childhood education (ECE) can serve as a protective factor that boosts maltreated children’s school readiness outcomes. Yet, less is known about ECE’s relationship to other developmental domains critical to their wellbeing including their adaptive behaviors and… more →
Policy Impacts of Reimbursement Rate Reform: Evidence from the Child Care and Development Fund
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThe Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidizes child care costs to help low- income families afford care. Reimbursements for cost-subsidized care are paid to child care providers; however, per-child reimbursements are extremely low compared with market rates and actual cost of care. We… more →
Leveraging Modern Machine Learning to Improve Early Warning Systems and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Early Childhood
Topics: MethodsChronic absenteeism is a critical issue that has been linked to many adverse student outcomes. The current study focuses on improving a key system already in place in many school districts—early warning systems (EWSs)—in order to decrease chronic absenteeism in students’ earliest schooling years… more →
Using Meta-Analytic Data to Examine Fadeout and Persistence of Intervention Impacts on Constrained and Unconstrained Skills
Mindy L. Rosengarten, Emma R. Hart, Drew H. Bailey, Meghan P. McCormick, Benjamin J. Lovett, Tyler W. Watts.Topics: MethodsRecent reviews of the educational intervention literature have noted patterns of intervention impact fadeout on cognitive skills, whereby skill trajectories between children in the intervention and control group converge in the years following the end of the intervention. Some early childhood… more →
Human Capital at Home: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in the Philippines
Topics: Families and CommunitiesChildren spend most of their time at home in their early years, yet efforts to promote human capital at home in many low- and middle-income settings remain limited. We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an intervention which encourages parents and caregivers to foster human… more →
Changes in Kindergarten Redshirting During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Student Well-BeingThis study examined the impact of COVID-19 on academic "redshirting" in kindergarten, the practice of holding a child back for a year and enrolling them in kindergarten at age 6, using student-level data on all Delaware kindergarten students from fall 2014 through fall 2022. The rate of… more →
The Effects of Public Pre-K for 3-year-olds on Early Elementary School Outcomes: Evidence from the DC Centralized Lottery
Topics: Student LearningThis study examines the effects of universal public pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds (Pre-K3) on later public education outcomes, including enrollment, school mobility, special education status, and in-grade retention from kindergarten through second grade. While universal pre-kindergarten… more →
A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families’ Constraints
Topics: Families and CommunitiesAs women increasingly entered the labor force throughout the late 20th century, the challenges of balancing work and family came to the forefront. We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children—through duration expansions to the kindergarten day—to… more →
Is Authorized Capacity a Good Measure of Child Care Providers’ Current Capacity? New evidence from Virginia
Demand for child care in the United States outpaces supply. Understanding access issues is critical for addressing them and supporting children, families, and the economy. However, the most widely available proxy for child care supply—authorized capacity—likely overestimates care availability.… more →
Exploring Multidimensional Approaches to Learning During Early Childhood in Ghana
Topics: Student LearningChildren's approaches to learning (AtL) are widely recognized as a critical predictor of educational outcomes, especially in early childhood. Nevertheless, there remains a dearth of understanding regarding the dimensionality of AtL, the reciprocal dynamics between AtL and learning outcomes, and… more →
Transitional Kindergarten: The New Kid on the Early Learning Block
Jordan S. Berne, Katia Cordoba Garcia, Brian A. Jacob, Tareena Musaddiq, Samuel Owusu, Anna Shapiro, Christina Weiland.Topics: Student LearningTags: Early childhood education, EquityIn recent years, several states have expanded a new publicly funded learning option: Transitional Kindergarten (TK). TK programs bridge prekindergarten and kindergarten in their eligibility, requirements, and design. We use Michigan’s TK program as a case study on the fit of this new entrant in… more →
The Effect of Early Childhood Programs on Third-Grade Test Scores: Evidence from Transitional Kindergarten in Michigan
Topics: Student LearningTransitional Kindergarten (TK) is a relatively recent entrant into the U.S. early education landscape, combining features of public pre-K and regular kindergarten. We provide the first estimates of the impact of Michigan’s TK program on 3rd grade test scores. Using an augmented regression… more →
The Ups and Downs of Classroom Quality Over the Preschool Year and Relations to Children’s School Readiness
Topics: Student LearningDespite considerable evidence on the links between average classroom quality and children’s learning, the importance of variation in quality is not well understood. We examined whether three measures of variation in observed classroom quality over the school year – overall variation in quality,… more →
A Scalable Approach to High-Impact Tutoring for Young Readers: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial
Topics: Student LearningThis paper presents the results from a randomized controlled trial of Chapter One, an early elementary reading tutoring program that embeds part-time tutors into the classroom to provide short bursts of 1:1 instruction. Eligible kindergarten students were randomly assigned to receive… more →
Are Preschool Programs Becoming Less Effective?
Anamarie A. Whitaker, Margaret Burchinal, Jade M. Jenkins, Drew H. Bailey, Tyler W. Watts, Greg J. Duncan, Emma R. Hart, Ellen S. Peisner-Feinberg.Topics: Student LearningHigh-quality preschool programs are heralded as an effective policy tool to promote the development and life-long wellbeing of children from low-income families. Yet evaluations of recent preschool programs produce puzzling findings, including negative impacts, and divergent, weaker results than… more →
Assessing the Benefits of Education in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Pre-K Lottery in Georgia
Topics: Student LearningNumerous studies have demonstrated a strong link between participation in pre-K programs and both short-term student achievement and positive later-life outcomes. Existing evidence primarily stems from experimental studies of small-scale, high-quality programs conducted in the 1960s and… more →