From eye on early education (1/31/12):
There’s more evidence of the long-term benefits of high-quality early education, this time from the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina, one of three major longitudinal studies of the impact of early education on low-income children. The low-income children who participated in the Abecedarian Project attended a high-quality, full-time, year-round early education and care program from infancy until kindergarten entry. The children engaged in activities that promoted their language, cognitive and social-emotional development.
At age 30, participants in the Abecedarian program:
- Were four times more likely than members of the control group to have earned college degrees, with 23% of participants earning college degrees, compared with 6% of the control group.
- Were five times less likely to have used public assistance, with 4% of the control group receiving benefits for at least 10% of the prior seven years, compared with 20% of the control group.
- Were roughly 1½ times more likely to have been consistently employed, with 75% of Abecedarian participants working fulltime for at least 16 of the prior 24 months, compared to 53% of the control group.
- Tended to delay parenthood by almost two years.
Read the rest of Irene Sege’s interesting article HERE