Economic evaluation of early childhood education in a policy context
| Date | 16 March 2012 |
| Published date | 16 March 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466661211213670 |
| Pages | 53-63 |
| Author | Stephanie Lee,Elizabeth Drake,Annie Pennucci,Gretchen Bjornstad,Triin Edovald |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
Economic evaluation of early childhood
education in a policy context
Stephanie Lee, Elizabeth Drake, Annie Pennucci, Gretchen Bjornstad and Triin Edovald
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to describe a cost-benefit analysis of early childhood education
programmes.
Design/methodology/approach – The analysis utilises the best evidence available for early education
programmes, combined with data from Washington State and economic literature to determine the
monetary implications of these programmes.
Findings – The results indicate that early childhood education can yield benefits that substantially
outweigh the costs of the programmes. In addition, these benefits were foundto apply in many different
public sector areas.
Originality/value – The paper offers an analytic model to determine the long-term benefits of early
intervention programmes.
Keywords Benefit-cost ratio, Early childhood education, Investments, Early intervention,
Evidence base, Meta-analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The early years are a crucial period for intervention and prevention of later problems.
Children develop substantially during this time, acquiring foundational language skills,
social skills and self-regulation. Disruption of this development may mean that children enter
school unprepared for the academic and social demands they will face. This deficit can
contribute to future problems in a range of areas such as mental and physical health and
educational attainment (Coie, 1996).
A growing body of evidence suggests that one of the more effective ways to improve
outcomes, such as improved ed ucational achievement or reduced criminality, for
disadvantaged children is to provide enriched early pre-school education (Hawkins et al.,
2010). For example, a study produced by the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education
project in the UK shows that some pre-school experience, compared to none, enhances all-
round development in children (Sylva et al., 2004). The study also found that disadvantaged
children particularly benefit from good quality pre-school experiences, especially when they
attend with a mixture of children from different social backgrounds.
The evidence for numerous pre-school programmes indicates that performance of children
in school can be improved in terms of less grade retention (i.e. child kept back a year or
repeating a year), high school graduation rates and better test scores (Blau and Currie,
2004). Unfortunately, only a few evaluations of these programmes measure children’s
outcomes in adulthood.
The investigation of the High/Scope Perry Preschool followed the children for more than
30 years and found positive effects on achievement test scores, grades, high school
graduation rates and earnings, as well as decreases in crime rates and welfare use
DOI 10.1108/17466661211213670 VOL. 7 NO. 1 2012, pp. 53-63, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
PAGE 53
Stephanie Lee, Elizabeth
Drake and Annie Pennucci
are all Senior Research
Associates at Washington
State Institute for Public
Policy, Olympia,
Washington, USA.
Gretchen Bjornstad and
Triin Edovald are both
Post-Doctoral Researchers
at The Social Research
Unit, Dartington, UK.
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