Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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When kids fail in school, we all pay
(New high school graduates Jerrod Hoskins and Kathleen Hause at Springboro’s ceremony last spring.)
Over at the Early Stories blog, my pal and former LA Times education reporter Richard Lee Colvin blogs about early childhood education. He wrote recently about a new book looking at the economic and social price of poor education.
Colvin references the famous Perry Pre-School Study in which researchers tracked the life outcomes of children who got high quality pre-school in Ypsilanti, Mich. over 40 plus years.
In the book, “The Price We Pay,” Colvin’s Columbia University colleagues Henry Levin and Clive Belfield, a pair of economists, find (in Colvin’s words) that:
… offering preschool the quality of the legendary Perry Preschool Project of 40 years ago to 100 children would produce an additional 19 high school graduates.
But, they also find other interventions, even high school interventions, that might make even more difference. What will it take to get schools to invest in more effective interventions?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Young Children
Comments
By Mary
February 4, 2008 4:02 PM | Link to this
old prof, according to the news, our legislators have limited capital and millions of dollars in budget shortfall. Sound investment requires wise decisions, priorities,and smart use of limited resources.By Oldprof
February 3, 2008 4:24 PM | Link to this
Investment requires capital; our schools have none. Our legislators have capital, but generally their minds are already made up and they don’t want to be confused by facts.By Mary
February 3, 2008 7:32 AM | Link to this
I am having problems really understanding what this discussion is about,other than a shortage of teachers in preK. I can see why some of the public thinks this might be babysitting until it is fleshed out more to the public what the tangible goals of preK are. For example, is it to have them learn colors, alphabet, read, count, add, subtract, sit, not wet their pants,or what? Also, some of the same issues apply to older students - lack of teachers trained for the types of students they are dealing with (including gifted which can be a larger percentage of students than the public might think) and lack of “first things first” or priorities.