On Monday and Tuesday, the court heard testimony on early childhood education and the positive impact that high-quality programs can have on students’ academic and life outcomes – particularly economically disadvantaged students.
Dr. Steven Barnett testified first. Barnett is the founder and co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. An economist by training, he studies the costs and benefits of early childhood education and the long-term effects of pre-K programs on child development.
Dr. Barnett testified that quality pre-K programs teach students not only the basics of counting and recognizing letters, but foundational skills and knowledge that they build on as they continue to learn throughout their lifetime: language skills, knowledge about the world, social skills, executive function, and more.
Barnett testified that poverty can have a negative impact on student achievement. Early learning, before students enter kindergarten, Barnett said, can make a difference.
“If we provide rich early learning opportunities to children who otherwise would not have them in those first five years, we can substantially alter that pattern of beginning school far behind and staying behind,” he said.
Quality is key in the effectiveness of pre-K programs, Barnett testified. The programs that show the strongest long-term results for children are intensive programs, with structured learning – including learning through play – led by teachers who are highly qualified and adequately paid, in small class sizes. Quality programs, Barnett testified, have strong leaders who align learning to a curriculum and monitor student results to improve instruction and coach teachers.
Barnett shared research on several high-quality intensive programs that have shown strong results. One program in New Jersey, known as the Abbott preschool program, was provided to students in districts serving many economically disadvantaged students. The program reduced the number of children who required special education services and who needed to repeat grades. A study he conducted of the program found that two years of pre-K closed one-third of the “achievement gap” between low-income and high-income students, he said.
Pennsylvania, Barnett said, has the beginnings of its own high-quality early education program in Pre-K Counts, which students from families with incomes up to 300% of the poverty line are eligible for. The results of the program have shown student improvement in language and mathematics, Barnett said.
However, the program does not meet all the criteria for quality early childhood education that Barnett has identified through decades of research, including full-day programs that provide sufficient coaching and support for teachers and competitive staff compensation.
Pennsylvania spends $8,211 on Pre-K Counts per student–compared to around $15,000 per student for the Abbott preschool program in New Jersey.
In addition to improving the quality of the Pre-K Counts program, Barnett said, the number of students served should be expanded. Currently, he said, 60% of economically disadvantaged students are not being served.
Effective early learning is an investment that pays off for states that implement it, Barnett testified. Barnett explained that the benefits of high-quality pre-K programs – in future academic success, earnings, and life success of participants – outweigh the cost of implementing the programs by a ratio in the neighborhood of 10 to 1.
“These interventions raise the achievement of the most economically disadvantaged children,” he said, “and they decrease the differential commonly referred to as the achievement gap between children from low- and high-income families.”
Tracey Campanini, the deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning, also testified Tuesday. Her office implements Pre-K Counts and other learning opportunities for children before they enter school. Campanini’s testimony will continue on Thursday morning; there is no court session Wednesday. We will have more to share about her testimony when it concludes.