Education Research Reports: Pre-School

Attention training improves intelligence and functioning of pre-school children's brain
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a graphical abstract. view more Credit: University of Granada Being able to vountarily regulate our attention is crucial for mental processes such as intelligence and learning in children. Therefore, a group of researchers from the University of Granada, Spain (UGR) have carried out a study in which they evaluated the influence of a computer-based attention-training intervention on intelligence scores and brain functioning on a group of pre-school age children. The study was conducted at the Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC) of the UG... more »
Nineteen percent of countries provide tuition-free pre-primary education and make it compulsory; among these 39% provide it for two years
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
At the UN General Assembly in 2015, the sustainable development goals set on education included ensuring access to pre-primary education around the world. 'Extensive research conducted worldwide has showed a critical link between pre-primary education completion rates and subsequent levels of educational attainment, employment and economic development,' said lead researcher Dr. Natalia Milovantseva, an associate professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia. 'And we know that in order to be accessible to all, educational programs must be tuition... more
Physical Activity: New guidance for preschool children aged 3 to 5
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago
The *US Department of Health and Human Services* recently released the *Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition*. The guidelines outline the amounts and types of physical activity needed to maintain or improve overall health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Key changes from the 1st edition include new guidance for preschool children aged 3 to 5 years, more evidence of the health benefits of physical activity, and a discussion of sedentary behavior, among others. The guidelines also highlight tested strategies that can be used to get all Americans to be active ... more »
It's not clear what works in early childhood educator preparation
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Early childhood educators do crucially important, highly skilled work and deserve to be respected and compensated on a level commensurate with the value of their work. If we respect the value of early childhood educators as professionals, we should also hold high expectations for the programs that prepare them and ensure that those programs are a good use of their time and resources. But it’s not clear if the training programs currently available for early educators adequately prepares them. The research we do have suggests there is wide variation among preparation programs, but i... more »
Do Class Sizes and Ratios in Early Childhood Education Impact Outcomes?
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This study uses data from a comprehensive database of U.S. early childhood education program evaluations published between 1960 and 2007 to evaluate the relationship between class size, child–teacher ratio, and program effect sizes for cognitive, achievement, and socioemotional outcomes. Both class size and child–teacher ratio showed nonlinear relationships with cognitive and achievement effect sizes. For child–teacher ratios 7.5:1 and lower, the reduction of this ratio by one child per teacher predicted an effect size of 0.22 standard deviations greater. For class sizes 15 and sma... more »
Focused Early Childhood Curriculum Can Enhance Social-Emotional Competence in Low-Income Children
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
*Research Findings*: This meta-analysis examined 29 (quasi-)experimental studies that involved low-income children ages 3 to 5 who might be subject to risks of academic failure and other negative outcomes. Compared to the controls, children who learned with social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula demonstrated significantly improved social-emotional competence, with an effect size or standardized mean difference of 0.241 (95% confidence interval [0.194, 0.287]). However, the use of other curricula that lacked an intensive focus on SEL yielded nonsignificant effects on the social-e... more »
Teaching and Learning in Pre-K through 2nd Grade - Lessons from Boston
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This report explains the work that has taken place over the last decade in Boston to not only improve pre-K, but to build on the successes of pre-K through reform of classroom environments, instructional practices, and curricula in pre-K, kindergarten, and, more recently, in first and second grade. It is a story of reforming from the bottom up, of realizing that the work of increasing student achievement is not confined to a single grade, but requires sustained efforts to improve the grades that follow, efforts that persist despite multiple changes in district leadership. It is a st... more »
The benefits of early child education
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 weeks ago
Children from low-income families who got intensive education early in life treat others with high levels of fairness in midlife, more than 40 years later, even when being fair comes at a high personal cost, according to a new study published today in* Nature Communications*. The 78 people in the study were followed as part of the Abecedarian Project, begun in the 1970s and to this day one of the longest running randomized controlled studies of the effects of early childhood education in low-income and high-risk families. Participants played games designed to measure their adher... more »
Right to Pre-K
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 weeks ago
Source: NIEER.org A new report makes a practical, policy and political case that preschool is fundamental to our nation's free public education system and that universal access should be a constitutional right. "A wealth of new research and political developments around the country support the position that pre-K must be accessible to all children at age three as a core part of their right to a free public education," according to the report. Establishing Universal Access to Prekindergarten as a Constitutional Right, published by The Center for Educational Equity (CEE) at Teacher... more »
Children with autism thrive in mainstream pre-schools
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 weeks ago
In a world first, breakthrough research from La Trobe University has shown that toddlers with autism are just as capable of learning important life skills through early-intervention delivered in mainstream pre-schools as in specialised settings. Over a period of three years, 44 children aged between 15 and 32 months were randomly assigned to classrooms that included only children with autism or to classrooms with typically developing peers. Using the same type of intervention method for all children - the Group-Early Start Denver Model (G-ESDM)* developed at La Trobe - toddlers wit... more »
Integrating the arts into head start classrooms produces positive impacts on kindergarten readiness
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 weeks ago
This study found that the presence and intervention of the Living Arts Detroit Wolf Trap artist residencies successfully increased preschool students’ scores on a variety of indicators as compared with 3–5 year old students who do not have this program in their schools. This is strong evidence that the arts-infused education has a significant impact on cognition and social-emotional development in pre-school children. The arts-infused residencies show statistically significant impact on social and emotional regulation and growth in preschool children.
Intensive arts integration associated with advantage in school readiness for economically disadvantaged children
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 weeks ago
• This study examined the impact of arts-integrated Head Start preschool on school readiness. • Overall, arts-integrated Head Start related to an advantage in school readiness. • Arts integration related to greater gains on a school readiness composite. • Arts integration related to greater gains in self/social awareness. • Arts integration also related to greater gains in understanding texture/material. The present study examined the impact of intensive arts integration on school readiness for economically disadvantaged children attending Head Start preschool. Participants were 265... more »
Majority of States Lack ‘Essential Elements’ for Preschool Success
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 weeks ago
A new analysis of public preschool policy by the National Institute for Early Education Research provides a road map for state policymakers–especially those new governors, legislators and state education leaders seeking to enhance early education. Research has shown high-quality preschool programs can enhance children’s development, reduce achievement gaps at kindergarten entry, and support a child’s later success in school and life. However, pre-k can only provide these benefits if a child’s classroom experience is high-quality. *Implementing 15 Essential Elements for High-Quality... more »Effects of
The evaluation roadmap for optimizing pre-K programs
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 5 weeks ago
In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that one of the best ways to build a productive and prosperous society is to start early – that is, before children enter kindergarten – in building children’s foundation for learning, health, and positive behavior. From the U.S. Chambers of Commerce to the National Academy of Sciences, those planning our country’s workforce insist we will need more people, with more diverse skills, to meet the challenges of the future. In response, educators have focused on supporting learning earlier, recognizing that early learning establishes the... more »
Most preschool math, literacy apps not designed to help children learn
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 month ago
Most literacy and math educational apps for preschoolers are not designed to help youngsters actually learn, according to a new study from the University of California, Irvine. Few incorporate features informed by evidence-based best teaching practices or age-appropriate in-play guidance. Youngsters under 5 process information very differently from older kids. They have shorter attention spans, less working memory capacity and more limitations in visual interpretation and are also still developing the fine motor skills needed for accurate touch-screen interactions. “More than half ... more »
Early childhood education: Academic-skill curricula boost literacy/math skills; widely used whole-child curricula do not.
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 month ago
This study uses experimental data to estimate impacts on school readiness of different kinds of preschool curricula – a largely neglected preschool input and measure of preschool quality. The researchers find that the widely-used “whole-child” curricula found in most Head Start and pre-K classrooms produced higher classroom process quality than did locally-developed curricula, but failed to improve children's school readiness. A curriculum focused on building mathematics skills increased both classroom math activities and children's math achievement relative to the whole-child cu... more »The
The Effects of Universal Preschool: Children’s Learning and Mothers’ Earnings
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 months ago
Over the past 15 years, the share of 4-year-olds who are U.S. residents attending public preschool has more than doubled to 33 percent.1 A growing number of cities and states have dedicated resources to establish or expand preschool programs, with policymakers frequently citing the impact that preschool participation has on school readiness.2 Preschool attendance has been shown to improve children’s academic and socio-emotional skills, preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.3 Research also shows that effective preschool programs benefit children from disadvantaged families the ... more »
Early Childhood Education in California
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 months ago
Download brief More than 24 million children ages 5 and younger live in the United States, and about one in eight of them—a little over 3 million—lives in California. Compared to the rest of the country, California has about twice as many children ages 5 and under who are first- or second-generation immigrants and live in families in which the adults are not fluent in English. About one in five of all children ages 5 and younger in California live in poverty, and nearly half of California’s children live in households that are at or near the poverty level. While their parents are ... more »
The Early Advantage: Rapid Change in Early Childhood Education and Care Around the World
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 months ago
A new, groundbreaking study, The Early Advantage, finds that Australia, England, Finland, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Singapore are pioneering new but remarkably different vision s for early childhood education and care (ECEC). In the new book, *The Early Advantage 1: Early Childhood Systems That Lead By Example* , world - renowned early childhood researcher Sharon Lynn Kagan and her team of international experts examine d the innovative approaches to early childhood policy, practice, and service delivery in these leading systems. Kagan and her team analyzed the quality... more »
Less than a quarter of Illinois children were fully prepared to enter kindergarten in 2017
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 months ago
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has released the first-ever statewide snapshot of kindergarten readiness in Illinois. The data cap off the first year of the state’s bold effort to collect readiness data for all kindergartners in the state. The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) puts critical information about children’s early development into the hands of policymakers, schools, and communities. The data reinforce the importance of high-quality early learning experiences for all children to get a strong start. The data give communities a powerful tool for... more »
Increased access to high-quality preschool programs
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 months ago
Under the Preschool Development Grants (PDG) program, states have increased access to high-quality preschool programs to over 34,000 four-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. This outcome is among many impactful data captured in the recently released *2016 PDG Progress Update* (PDF, 766KB).