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Press Release
HOLD FOR RELEASE:
EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 PM EST TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1999
For More Information Contact:
Phil Sparks/Keri Monihan (202) 326-8700
Communications Consortium Media Center
Julie Green (202) 401-3028
US Department of Education
Lynn Kagan (203)432-9931
Tom Conroy (203)432-4482
Yale University
Kay Cooperman (310)206-5951
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Sarah Ellis (303)315-7470
University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center
Lloyd Little (919)966-0867
UNC-Chapel Hill
NEW STUDY LINKS CHILD CARE QUALITY WITH SUCCESS IN EARLY LEARNING
AND SCHOOL READINESS
WASHINGTON - A major study of more than 800 preschool
children begun in 1993 which has now followed the children through
second grade, establishes a link between quality child care and
school readiness. Approximately 74% of 3- to 5-year olds, or 6.8
million preschoolers, receive some type of child care on a regular
basis.
The “Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes” study
looks at the cost and quality of early child care and early learning,
and how these important factors relate to children's development
and school readiness. Researchers from the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center, the University of North Carolina - Chapel
Hill, UCLA and Yale University took part in the study.
The study shows that young children receiving poor
quality child care were less prepared for school and tended to have
less success in the early phases of school than students who received
high quality care in their preschool years.
“We followed children from their 3-year-old group
in child care through the early school years. This allowed us to
document the critical importance of high quality child care for
children's performance through second grade,” explained Richard
Clifford, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and an investigator on the study.
“In families where both parents work full-time
to make ends meet, the children can spend as many waking hours in
child care as they do with their parents. This study underscores
the importance of high quality child care in laying the developmental
foundation for every child to enter school ready to learn. I urge
policymakers at all levels of government to redouble their efforts
to make quality child care opportunities available to hard-working
American families,” declared U.S. Secretary of Education Richard
Riley.
The overall findings of the study were that:
- High quality child care is an important
element in achieving the national goal of having all children
ready to learn when they come to school. The quality of preschool
experiences for children in typical child care centers affects
their development while they are in child care and their readiness
for school. Children who attended higher quality child care centers
scored higher on measures of both cognitive and social skills
in child care and through the transition into school.
- High quality child care continues to positively
predict children’s performance well into their school careers.
Child care quality was related to basic cognitive skills (language
and math) and children's social skills, both of which are important
factors in children's ability to take advantage of the opportunities
available in school.
- Children who have traditionally been at
risk for not doing well in school are affected more by the quality
of child care experiences than other children. For some outcomes
(math skills and problem behaviors), children whose mothers had
lower levels of education were more sensitive to the negative
effects of poor quality child care or received more benefits from
high quality child care. Moreover, the influences of child care
quality of these typical child care settings for children at risk
were sustained through second grade.
- The quality of child care classroom practices
was related to children's cognitive development, while the nature
of the preschool teacher-child relationship influenced children's
social development through the early school years.
“The longitudinal analysis of children's performance
indicated that the quality of child care experienced by these children,
before they entered school, continued to affect their development
at least through kindergarten and in many cases, through the end
of second grade,” said Mary Culkin, a researcher from the University
of Colorado Health Sciences Center and one of the investigators
on the study.
“One aspect of child care quality that is related
to children’s success as they move into school is classroom
practice - the materials, activities, and daily experiences provided
in child care. These kinds of high quality practices provide a foundation
for children’s language and math skills which carry over into
learning during the early elementary years,” said Ellen Peisner-Feinberg,
a researcher at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and another
investigator on the project.
Carollee Howes at the University of California at
Los Angeles added, “In terms of teacher-child relationships,
I think what happens is children who have good relationships with
child care teachers leave child care expecting to have positive
relationships with their school teachers.”
The study concludes with a number of recommendations
for child care policymakers at both the national and state levels:
- Recent attempts by states to provide preschool
care and education experiences for children to help prepare them
for success in school are well founded and should be greatly expanded.
The results of the study support policies focusing on early childhood
care and education as a means of improving children's chances
of coming to school ready to learn. Much greater levels of investment
in early childhood care and education programs are needed to provide
high quality services to all children who need them, including
efforts on the part of both government and the private sector.
- Child care policies at both the federal
and state levels should be revised to encourage higher quality
programs. Our current policies do not encourage higher quality
services. For example, child care subsidy approaches which encourage
the use of lower quality informal and unregulated care are harmful
to the children at most risk. Subsidy systems closely tied to
open market rates often penalize low-income communities by restricting
the resources for providing higher quality care and education.
This research indicated that policies should be devised to provide
incentives for programs to raise the quality of services, especially
for children whose mothers are likely to have lower levels of
education. Below are listed several mechanisms that have been
used in some areas to work toward higher quality care.
- Child care subsidy systems can be
redesigned to provide incentives for providing high quality
care.
- The quality set aside in the federal
Child Care Block Grant is a good investment and should be extended.
- Tax incentives should encourage use
of higher quality care and education.
- Training of teachers who work in
early care and education
settings must be improved.
“There is one clear and compelling implication
from this study: America must find a way to provide high quality
child care for all children needing care prior to school entry.
There are a variety of ways of accomplishing this goal, but the
goal should be clear,” said Sharon Lynn Kagan, a Yale University
researcher and investigator on the project.
A complete, embargoed copy of the Executive Summary of the report
can be accessed via the Internet at www.fpg.unc.edu/~NCEDL/PAGES/cq.cfm
on Friday, June 4th.
This research project was funded by grants from the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, the William T. Grant Foundation,
the JFM Foundation, the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, the David
and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the USWEST
Foundation, one anonymous foundation, and the Educational Research
and Development Centers Programs as administered by the Office of
Educational Research and Improvement, PR/Award Number R307A60004,
U.S. Department of Education. Contents do not necessarily represent
the positions of policies of the National Institute of Early Childhood
Development and Education, the Office of Educational Research and
Improvement, the U.S. Department of Education, or any other sponsoring
organization.
Joy Garner
Communications Consortium Media Center
(202) 326-8729
(202) 682-2154 (fax)
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