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Evidence Supporting Comprehensive Early Childhood Education for Disadvantaged Children

A trend toward providing educational experiences for preschool children has been evident in recent years. The trend raises a number of policy issues. Who should be served? What kinds of programs are most effective? Should preschool programs be administered by the public schools? An evaluation of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program provides evidence of the effectiveness of one early childhood education program in improving performance of disadvantaged children and in increasing the likelihood that effects will persist over time. Major components of the program are an instructional program for 4-year-olds, comprehensive noninstructional services, involvement of parents, and staff development to increase continuity of learning experiences of children from prekindergarten through the primary grades. It was found that (1) prekindergarten favorably affected children's cognitive and noncognitive performance; (2) involvement of parents augmented the favorable impact of prekindergarten; (3) prekindergarten reduced the possibility that a child would repeat a grade or would require special education; and (4) increasing the continuity of learning experiences of children helped maintain the effects of the prekindergarten program in the primary grades. The results indicate that a comprehensive early childhood education program, operated by the public schools, can improve the performance of disadvantaged children.