Grover Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution has become
the GOP’s go-to guy for proclamations against universal
pre-kindergarten. Whitehurst was education research director for
the George W. Bush administration, and he provides the ammunition
for those who say that pre-kindergarten has no lasting benefits and
“doesn’t work.” His arguments are useful for those who don’t want
to pay the price of supplying early childhood education for
families that can’t afford it.
However, W. Steven Barnett, one of
the nation’s leading experts on early childhood education, refuted
Whitehurst’s arguments in the Washington
Post at Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet. Barnett went
through Whitehurst’s arguments, one by one, and explodes every one
of them. He describes them as wrong, and even “shockingly
inaccurate.”
Barnett writes: Whitehurst claims that “Not
one of the studies that has suggested long-term positive impacts of
center-based early childhood programs has been based on a
well-implemented and appropriately analyzed randomized
trial.” This claim is false based even on the studies
he does cite. His own statements in the blog regarding the
Perry Preschool study and
its re-analyses by Jim Heckman contradict this claim, as
do older analyses
demonstrating that minor departures from random assignment in the
Perry study had no substantive effects on the results.[1] No
study is perfect, so it is seems odd that Perry receives an A- for
an inconsequential fault when other less than perfect studies get
an A. Then there is the Infant Health and Development program
(IHDP) study, which Whitehurst assigns higher grades than Perry,
but which he seems to forget when making his “not one” study
claim. Yet Whitehurst’s credibility problem is
far more serious when one turns to the studies that
are missing from his analysis. In
fact, a number of other well-implemented and appropriately analyzed
randomized trials find lasting effects from preschool
education. For example, a study of
long-term effects conducted by the Institute for Developmental
Studies (IDS) included 402 children randomly assigned to a public
school pre-K program or to a control group at age 4 for one
year.[2] A
teacher and an aide staffed each preschool classroom of 17
children. Positive effects were found through at least third grade.
Even longer term follow-up indicates adult gains in
achievement, educational attainment, and employment, but suffers
from severe attrition. So while we can have strong confidence in
the results through third grade, we have less confidence in the
very long-term results. However, the findings for adults are
consistent with the earlier results in the elementary grades and
with findings in Perry and other studies. Another
randomizedtrial of
preschool education is noteworthy because it was conducted with
relatively advantaged children, and it also found evidence of
lasting effects on achievement into the early elementary
grades.[3]
Inexplicably, Whitehurst fails to recognize a large
number of studies (once again including well-implemented randomized
trials) that compare one form of preschool education to another to
study the effects of curriculum, length of day, and other
features. When such studies find lasting differences due to
the type of preschool program, from the end of kindergarten to the
end of high school, they add to the evidence that high-quality
preschool education per se has long-term effects.
This literature includes studies (here, here,
and here)
over many years, some begun decades ago with very long-term
follow-ups and some very recent with much shorter follow-ups.[4]
These studies also add to the evidence for successful scale up in
large-scale public programs. As preschool
research is conducted in other countries, not just the United
States, there is a broad range of research Whitehurst
omits that finds lasting benefits from quality preschool education,
including rigorous studies in countries with universal programs and
additional well-implemented, appropriately analyzed randomized
trials.[5]
When similar outcomes from quality pre-K are found with different
populations in different contexts, such studies are
confirmatory—not irrelevant.
Taken together, they indicate
that the relationships between quality preschool education and
long-term outcomes are quite robust with respect to variations in
the children and families served.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m pretty sure that Whitehurst’s employment and compensation have nothing to do with “rigor” or sophistication of analysis of data but rather with reaching conclusions favored by those with power/money.
Kevin Drum isn’t (strictly) an ed policy person but he sometimes writes on public ed.
I don’t know if you-all read him but he’s outside “education” so might be worthwhile because he has a broader view. Here’s his piece on Head Start:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/03/conservatives-are-big-roadblock-improving-head-start
The high performance of Massachusetts high school students in the past couple of years, which reformists like to take credit for, probably owes more to the emphasis that was placed on early childhood ed. in that state about a decade ago.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
We need more fully funded Pre-K Programs for all students, not just the poor and English Language Learners.
The opposition to early childhood interventions on behalf of poor children comes not from a place of scholarship but from a place of faith. The fundamental doctrine of the church of the Meritocracy is Genetic Determinism. Such people see only those studies and parts of studies that provide confirmations of their strongly held belief. They suffer from the confirmation bias that is characteristic of cultists. Interestingly, these are the same people make the argument that we should all pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. The crude and cruel reality of this belief system is that its adherents think that those born to fail should fail because that’s in the natural order.
Of course, genetic determinism about intellectual ability is not scientifically sound. Repeated studies of motivation for succeeding on general aptitude tests have shown that simple rewards are sufficient to wipe out or almost wipe out differences in performance between low-SES and high-SES kids. Other studies have shown that training in fluid intelligence activities can similarly erase those differences. And we now know from epigenetic studies that genes are like switches that are set by environmental conditions and that there can be inheritance of acquired characteristics as a result. For example, stressed mothers will pass along in their egg cells chemicals that will affect the expression of genes for obesity. They will have fat children. No specific genes correlated with g, or general intelligence, have ever been found despite intensive study of this, and epigenetic studies tell us that genetic expression is powerfully affected by environmental conditions and completely invalidate the twin studies on which high heritability figures for intelligence are based. Intelligence is not immutable. To begin to learn why genetic determinism is FALSE, see Richard Nisbett’s beautiful Intelligence and How to Get It and Eva Jablonka’s Evolution in Four Dimensions. And have a look at this:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/how_children_succeed_book_excerpt_what_the_most_boring_test_in_the_world_tells_us_about_motivation_and_iq_.htm
Hart and Risley showed that by the age of 4, there is a 30-million-word gap between the number of words heard by a low-SES child and the number of words heard by a middle-class child–this at a time when crucial neural parameters for language are being set. Without proper wrap-around services and compensatory environments of a kind rarely available now, those kids will never catch up or will have a very difficult time doing so.
Stephen Pinker says again and again, in book after book, that people used to think of the developing brain as adding new neural connections. It does that. But it also, early on, does a LOT of weeding out. Functional capabilities present at birth that are not used shortly thereafter ARE ruthlessly weeded out.
Those who suffer from confirmation bias because of their cultish genetic determinism will not read these studies and say, hm, I wonder if they are biased by third factors or if there are other interventions that would make a difference that have not been studied here.
Because, when it comes down to it, they believe that real schooling is wasted on the poor. They have a Great Chain of Being model in their heads. Poor children are on the bottom and are not fixable. The children of the proles, in the middle, can be minimally trained via worksheets on a screen from the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat so that they can become useful, obedient do-bots sufficiently gritful to carry out the tasks given them by their betters even when those tasks are extremely alienating. And children of the elites, at the top, belong in the schools where Gates and Rhee and other top ed deformers send their kids.
Cultists are immune to evidence.
There is research and then there is research. W. Steven Barnett’s research ruffles my feathers. First, let’s repost a prior posting of yours, Dr. Ravitch – a statement by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
A tough critique of Common Core on early childhood education 1/29/13 Valerie Strauss
“Their statement reads in part:
We have grave concerns about the core standards for young children…. The proposed standards conflict with compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades….
The statement’s four main arguments, below, are grounded in what we know about child development—facts that all education policymakers need to be aware of:
1. The K-3 standards will lead to long hours of direct instruction in literacy and math. This kind of “drill and grill” teaching has already pushed active, play-based learning out of many kindergartens.
…
3. Didactic instruction and testing will crowd out other crucial areas of young children’s learning: active, hands-on exploration, and developing social, emotional, problem-solving, and self-regulation skills—all of which are difficult to standardize or measure but are the essential building blocks for academic and social accomplishment and responsible citizenship.
4. There is little evidence that standards for young children lead to later success. The research is inconclusive; many countries with top-performing high-school students provide rich play-based, nonacademic experiences—not standardized instruction—until age six or seven.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children is the foremost professional organization for early education in the U.S. …”
They are talking about kindergarten; worse yet for pre-k.
I have been observing the academic work of two of my grandchildren who are in pre-school and in different districts and think of the Nat’l Ass. Ed. Young Children statement.
…”long hours of direct instruction in literacy and math. This kind of “drill and grill” teaching has already pushed active, play-based learning out of many kindergartens… ” Pre school is three hours but those are long three hours for our toddlers – pre-schoolers. Direct teaching is taking place in their pre-school. They receive packets of homework which is “optional” but what parent who does not know better will make their child do the homework – pencil and paper. Pre-schoolers can not hold the pencil correctly. The Common Core is being pushed down into pre-k!!!!! For some children we are already turning them off to school. Separation anxiety is so painful for the toddler, the parent, an on looker. And just because some can do the paper and pencil work doesn’t mean it is age appropriate.
Parents should take on some responsibility for their children. Workshops should be held for parents/caregivers to support them in helping their children at home. There are many organizations already in place helping young mothers/caregivers. Many public libraries have phenomenal opportunities for appropriate active, social and emotional development.
“Hurrying children into adulthood violates the sanctity of life by giving one period priority over another. But if we really value human life, we will value each period equally and give unto each stage of life what is appropriate to that stage….In the end, a childhood is the most basic human right of children.” Professor David Elkind, Ph.D., author of “The Hurried Child” stressed the importance of free, self-initiated, and spontaneous play developing a healthy, mentally, emotionally and socially adjusted child. “The ages at which children learn to walk, talk, and learn the three Rs have not changed, even with all the effort to introduce them earlier.”
Be ever reminded that we are 17.4 trillion in national debt. That’s almost $220,000 for a family of four. Schools have been suffering from cut backs for years now. Some district have cut kindergarten to half day and some districts have cut kindergarten completely and you are talking about pre-k!!!!!! Be realistic. Where is the money coming from. More sequesters to pay for something that is optional? The more that debt ceiling is raised the more our money loses value and we will soon need a wheel barrel of bills to pay for a loaf of bread.
Pre -K is not synonymous with Day Care. Day Care is important for working mothers but many mothers/ caregivers are not working. With 10.5 million out of work there has to be many a parent/caregiver at home to share the privilege of helping their children grow
emotionally, intellectually, and physically in an appropriate way.
It’s a matter of what we are willing to pay for. We spent 6 TRILLION dollars on our misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.
To get an idea of how big that number is, consider this: A million seconds is 11.5 days. A trillion seconds is 31688.8 years.
You amaze me.
6 trillion and continually rising. With continuing idiocies still going on around the world. All hail the death and destruction machine that is the US military industrial complex.
And the Obomber has the audacity to “call out” Russia for “illegally invading” another country-the Ukraine. Pot meet Kettle as it has been since the end of WW2 at least.
Old story. Have you read, Duane, Major Smedley Butler’s War Is a Racket (1935)?
To you and others on this blog, I highly recommend it. It’s a quick and wonderful read. Butler did the dirty job of enforcement of business interests in banana republics in Central America for a lot of years and then told the simple truth about what the business he had been in. It’s a classic. Inimitable.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Yes, I’ve read it and have referenced it many a time (not here though).
I find it interesting that Americans refuse to listen to two generals (for all of Americans much ballyhooed loyalty and deference to the “men in uniform”) who actually felt the sting of war themselves, Butler and Eisenhower.
indeed
Yup. When the Chinese come from one side and the Russkies from the other, you just show them your fishing hook, Duane. The wars weren’t bad. They were fought badly, and we lost. Big diff.
When was the last time the US was invaded (and that 911 job wasn’t an invasion)?
Are you really that afraid of the vaunted Russkies, HU?
The Chinese, historically at least, have not been known for an aggressive invasive foreign policy to the extent of Western European and American ways.
We’ll be at war with Russia within a year. Maybe the Chinese will try to take Taiwan at the same time. 1941 all over again.
Bet you a friendly beer that neither of those two things happen before 4/1/15.
Done
And while we were spending trillions on these wars, Harlan, the Chinese were investing billions in businesses in small countries throughout the third world, building ties.
They must be quite amused by the myopia of our politicians, who cannot see beyond next Tuesday. Theirs is an old culture. They can wait for us to do to ourselves what the late Roman Empire did.
Condoleeza RIce stated that the education crisis is a national security problem, so perhaps we should view education as defense spending and fund universal pre-K as a defense measure.
———————————————————————————
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education-jan-june12-education_03-20/
JEFFREY BROWN: So, if you say there’s a crisis, then what do we do? Now, you go and you look at — you have offered a series of things, most of which have been much discussed, more emphasis on core curriculum, common standards across the U.S., more choice for students.
What is new, beyond putting it into a national security rubric?
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Well, putting it into a national security rubric shouldn’t be underestimated, because it’s very easy if it’s just about my child. And my child can get a good education because I can either put that child in private school or I can move to a community where the schools are good, then I don’t have to worry so much about that child in East Oakland or in South Central L.A., or in Anacostia, for that matter, who won’t get a good education.
But when you say this is a national security problem, then it is a common problem for all of us.
Drilling kids on shouting out 26 letters and maybe 100 numbers does not take the place of the millions of words that middle-class kids hear in one-on-one conversational give-and-take from infancy on. Same with worksheets and computerized drill. It’s crazy.
EXACTLY!!!!!
The data from international tests, so beloved by ed deformers, show one thing:
They show that U.S. kids from low-SES backgrounds perform poorly on international standardized tests.
If we are going to change that, we have to do something more than feed aspirin to the cancer victim.
We have to create nurturing compensatory environments from a very, very early age.
And that’s not cheap.
But guess what? Three of every hundred U.S. citizens is now in jail, in prison, or on parole. We have 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2011 – about 0.94% of adults in the U.S. resident population. Additionally, 4,814,200 adults at year-end 2011 were on probation or on parole. In total, 6,977,700 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2011 – about 2.9% of adults in the U.S. resident population.
It’s the highest rate, by far, to be found in any country in the world. Think of the most rigid, repressive regime in the world. Our rate of imprisonment is higher. Far higher.
And almost all of those in jail, in prison, and on parole were kids from those low-SES backgrounds.
What do you think THAT costs? Prison in Washington State, New York, and Connecticut costs $50,000 to 68,000 per year per inmate.
We will either intervene on the front end or we will pay on the back end.
And pay.
And pay.
And how the hell would you intervene? Take the kids away at birth? Require anyone who wants a child to present a father and a marriage certificate and a high school diploma?
Harlan, why would you suggest such nonsense?
A good place to start: Very high-quality, universal daycare and preschool.
Too costly?
Well, consider what we are paying on the other end of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Just no push down of the curriculum. Play is a young child’s work. Through PLAY kids learn a lot. Keep those worksheets away from those babies and stop testing them. Protect them from PARCC, and the rest of the awfulness.
Play is a young child’s work.
yes yes yes
See Alison Gopnik’s wonderful books:
The Scientist in the Crib,
The Philosophical Baby,
and
Words, Thoughts, and Theories
Now that kindergarten is basically first grade on steroids (when compared to my personal 1970’s public elementary school experience) I think universal pre-K is needed now more than ever.
While we’re at it, would it be asking too much to bring back old school kindergarten?
I thought we all bowed down to the Finnish model, you know, where students don’t start formal schooling until age 7.
But parents start teaching their kids to read at home by age three. That’s four years of reading before starting school. In addition, about 99% of the population is Caucasian, speaks the same language and almost 80% belong to the same religion.
Then there’s the fact that most of the teachers belong to a strong labor union; parents and administration supports them.
And no standardized testing. Teachers create the curriculum with support from government and administration.
No doubt Lloyd, my comment being tongue in cheek as I’m not sold on earlier and earlier “schooling regimens” for children.
To work, an early childhood literacy program (starting at age 3) would have to be fun, short and not linked to grades. Local libraries should be involved in this program if it were to be launched where parents who qualify due to living below the poverty line and qualifying for free or reduced school lunches would re required by law to drop their kids off at the local library or have them picked up by licensed and bonded caretakers. An hour or two each day ending with a snack and a nap would probably work best.
No tests. No grades. Just fun with books for an hour or two five days a week in a local library. That five day minimum could include Saturday and Sunday—five to ten hours a week. Kids could check out age appropriate books and when they return share what they read and then be qualified for a weekly drawing for a prize that would be a book. Children’s authors could be included in this program to come and do presentations as a special treat for the kids.
The lead up to the author event, every child would be introduced to that author’s work.
Sounds reasonable to me!
Thank you. But it would never work because someone who isn’t a veteran teacher would manage it and somehow muck it up until it was so complex it would fail from the weight of the rules and paperwork.
Those on the far right don’t want to spend money for anything but wars and what leads to profits. If you need proof consider these facts:
1. Merchants of death: The US private sector arms industry is the largest merchants of death in the world. Second place is so far from US arms sales, it’s ridiculous. First place: US with 44% of market; second place goes to Russia with 17%.
2. Pornography. The US is the largest producer of pornography in the world—Times Warner is one of the US companies offering pornography to the world
Therefore, the conclusion is that they don’t want to spend the money it will take to really deal with the causes of poverty by implementing early literacy programs starting as young as age three.
I taught kindergarten for seven years in South Los Angeles. About half of my students had had some form of preschool. It was obvious who those students were in terms of their kindergarten readiness. Worksheets and workbooks were mandatory. We were required to assess the students’ basic skills as they were all considered “at risk”, Title I students. Some of the students did not know their last names, names of the colors, any letter or number names. Once when I was talking to the school psychologist, she stated that the kindergarten students entering our school were functioning at a three-year-old level. Yet we were supposed to have them ready for first grade in nine months. A complicating factor was we were on a “year-round” calendar, so two-thirds of the students had only three or four days between school years, no summer vacation for them (or us teachers)! No wonder most of the children never caught up.
Universal pre-K is a good idea in theory, but I’m not sure how it would work out in practice. I see a push down of curriculum as well, where pre-K would end up less about play and more about being “college and career ready”. Not sure we need public education from birth to adulthood.
” Not sure we need public education from birth to adulthood.” Again I sense sarcasm seeping through. Ugh!
Is this sarcastic enough?
I thought we all bowed down to the Finnish model, you know, where students don’t start formal schooling until age 7.
If the rich like pre-K or its equivalent for their kids, why not for the kids of the rest of us?
BTW, Diane’s readers all need to read 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools, by David Berliner and Gene Glass (Teachers College Press, 2014). I hope it gets reviewed soon on this blog. Ravitch and the Lubienskis are lauded in the book.
Edd Doer4 (arlinc.org)
So we would rather give inmates free college education than provide a solid foundation in Pre-K, which might LOWER the rate of imprisonment? We need to pour tons of resources into young children. Poverty stricken children need our help. Early intervention should be our priority.
Sent from my iPhone
>
exactly
If poverty stricken children need our help, what would be your first step to begin to deliver that help?
Assuming universal pre-K as a good, how do you propose to fund it? What policies would you support that could succeed practically in doing so?
Usually on this blog most posters content themselves with snarling “spend money on people not wars,” or “tax the rich.”
There may be reasons why that won’t come about and/or won’t even work.
Thoughts?
Harlan, in the United States, the LANGUAGE of classical liberalism and free markets is used to mask a reality of oligarchical, monopolistic, crony capitalist collusion at both the state and federal government levels. We have become a banana republic. Our laws are written by monopolists in backrooms for the purpose of insuring their monopolies and bilking taxpayers. The latest commodity is students, THE 21st-century investment opportunity. There is so much talk about free market solutions in education. But look at this stuff at all closely and you find that the guys running the big and brick and mortar charter programs are, more often than not, ex-bureaucrats and the idiot brothers, cousins, sons, and golfing buddies of powerful politicians and bureaucrats. But this is nothing new or special. In every area of U.S. life, the fix is in.
People aren’t believing it any more. They are getting wise. They are figuring out that the same ones talking the classical liberal line are the ones fixing things in the background. They are like the anti-gay Senator who solicits men in airport bathrooms, like the guy who runs homosexual reeducation camps who is found going to Europe with his escort from Rent-a-Boy.com. They are liars and scumbags who debase the word freedom and use it as a cover.
We can’t help poor kids. That would be a violation of people’s liberty not to be taxed. But we can spend 6 trillion on phoney wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That spending, you see, was necessary.
Yeah, and North Korea just had “free” elections.
cx: But look at this stuff at all closely and you find that the guys running the big virtual and brick and mortar charter programs are, more often than not, ex-bureaucrats and the idiot grifter brothers, cousins, sons, and golfing buddies of powerful politicians and bureaucrats.
cx: phony, not phoney
“Usually on this blog most posters content themselves with snarling “spend money on people not wars,” or “tax the rich.”
I don’t consider it snarling when I common sensibly advocate for those two social policies.
You’re right Duane. You don’t snarl. My apologies.
But that by no means either of your policies make sense.
And that is where we disagree and ne’er the train shall meet, eh!!
See also, Harlan, my note above about the cost of having 3 percent of our population, at a given time, in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole, almost all young men and women who were low-SES kids.
Bob Shepherd: the “nyah nyah nyah how ya gonna pay for it” game?
Well, strangely [?], there’s always enough money to flush down the bottomless pits of charters and vouchers and eduprivatization schemes.
And then how many times have we heard that the economic and military and political security of the entire US of A rides on a strong world-class education system? Like, ya know, recently when the one of the architects of the brilliancies of Iraq—Condoleeza Rice Her Self—co-authored another of her mushroom clouds fantasies?
Well, if there’s an endless stream of money to pour into the pots of edupreneurs and we have to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq no matter what the cost—
Then Pre-K. Whatever it takes. Period.
Poetic justice—no?—if the education establishment and its peers in the corporate/government spheres want to slide down the slippery slope of their FUDD [fear/uncertainty/doubt&dread] lines of reasoning: then when it comes to Pre-K, case closed.
“Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.” [John Steinbeck]
😎
Krazy. Please report to room 101.
I’ll go with you KTA. Whatever it takes. GAH!