Disadvantaged Children Benefit More From Additional Programs
While studies have shown that children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit from high-quality preschool programs, they would benefit even more if they had additional tutoring and mentoring during their elementary and high school years, according to research from the University of Chicago.
Systematic interventions throughout childhood and adolescence could sustain the early gains and build on them, according to the paper, “Investing in our Young People.”
“Childhood is a multistage process where early investments feed into later investments. Skill begets skill; learning begets learning,” says Dr. James Heckman, the author of the report.
The researchers studied data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth to estimate a model to predict the outcomes of children born to disadvantaged mothers when the children received a variety of extra learning assistance.
The study showed with early childhood intervention, high school graduation rates would increase to 65 percent and college enrollment to 12 percent. Participation in crime would decrease. Combining early childhood intervention with high school intervention would increase high-school graduation rates to 84 percent and college participation rates to 27 percent.
Although preschool can have an impact on improving cognitive skills, interventions later on can improve non-cognitive skills such as perseverance and self-control, the authors wrote.
