Children and Poverty: the Role of Preschool
There is an interesting conversation on Twitter right now about the importance of preschool and preK programs for 3 and 4 year olds. One of the main questions is how to provide a “high quality” preschool experience for all children (specifically trying to understand what constitutes “high quality” education for very small children). I believe a solid foundation begins with quality education for small children. How do we get these vital programs into every school in every district for every child? tlb
This guest post was written by NIEER Senior Research Fellow Cynthia Lamy. Dr. Lamy is a developmental and educational psychologist whose research and writing focuses primarily on children at risk of school failure, due to the many influences of poverty. She is currently working for the Robin Hood Foundation.
High quality preschool generates measurable, long-term impacts on children. Many of us have known this for a long time, and have heard it or have said it ourselves many times. This is vital, valuable information for policymakers and for families. And for early childhood professionals, on days when boisterous 3-year olds are testing their teacher’s patience, and stressed parents are showing up late for pick-up, and policy advocates are explaining the graph to Congress one more time, it means that our career choice to focus on young children and their families, and our daily struggle to produce our best work, is…
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