Darcy Stiteler – 6/20/06

This page was last updated on June 26, 2006.

Early learning is critical; Darcy Stiteler, Project Coordinator - Beaver County Early Care and Education Council; Beaver County Times; June 20, 2006.

In addition to this critique, shown below is a published letter I wrote to the Times.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Regarding Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed budget increases for early childhood education:

“Are you concerned with today’s crime rate, teen pregnancy rate, the unemployment rate or the drop-out rate in high school? How about the rapid rise of drug use among teens?

“If you are concerned with any of these situations in Beaver County, then you should also be concerned with Rendell’s proposed budget that will be decided by June 30. The House budget for 2006-07 currently does not include $59 million in increased early childhood education funding proposed in the governor’s budget.

“Why is early childhood education so important? By age 5, a child’s brain is 90 percent developed. Research has shown that children who attend quality early childhood programs are less likely to engage in crime, teen pregnancy, drug use and rely on welfare.

“Children who attend quality early childhood programs are more likely to enter kindergarten ready to learn, graduate from high school and attend college. According to the Perry Preschool Study, economists estimate that for every $1 invested in early childhood education, society will see a $17 return.”

[RWC] Just as Sheriff DeLuca and Bruce Clash in their letter, Ms. Stiteler doesn’t give us the full story of the study she cites.

The Perry Preschool study was conducted in the 1960s. Only 58 children participated in the program. The IQs of the children were in the “borderline intellectual functioning” classification. Perry Preschool required home visits and extensive parent participation, including a requirement that one of the parents be a “stay at home” parent.

While most researchers agree the Perry program had favorable results, it’s also true those results have never been reproduced in any other preschool program.

None of the cited study groups represent the general student population and none of the cited programs represent what most of us think about when we hear the term “preschool.”

“Please contact your local legislator today and ask them to support the governor’s budget request and also increase the child-care subsidy budget by $14 million to eliminate waiting lists and increase funding for Keystone STARS by $10 million.

“Pennsylvania is on the brink of great things and it all begins with a strong foundation. That foundation is our young children. We as a society cannot ignore this issue when there is such strong evidence that investing in early childhood affects all aspects of our communities.

“We need to encourage our legislators to make the right decisions for families and children when voting on the budget in the coming days.”

[RWC] Once again we have supporters of more government spending who resist telling us the whole story when they cite study results.

My letter below was entitled “Preschool efficacy isn’t clear” by the Times and was published on June 26, 2006. My title was “Preschool efficacy clear?”

We recently read letters from Sheriff Felix DeLuca & Bruce Clash (June 18th) and Darcy Stiteler (June 20th) extolling the alleged virtues of “quality pre-kindergarten programs.”

About the efficacy of preschool, the DeLuca/Clash letter asserted, “The research is clear.”

Not exactly.

Two of the programs cited, Chicago Child-Parent Centers and Perry Preschool, are more accurately described as intensive child and parent intervention than as “quality pre-kindergarten.”

For example, CPC kids are in the program from preschool through third grade (ages three through nine), receive extra tutoring, and parents must regularly participate in classroom activities, field trips, school events, et cetera. CPC staff members regularly visit student homes and parents receive assistance to earn a high school diploma.

Even so, by the time these kids reached age 21, the high school graduation rate was still below 50%.

Regarding Perry, the IQs of the children were in the “borderline intellectual functioning” classification. As the CPC program, Perry Preschool required home visits and extensive parent participation.

CPC and Perry study participants didn’t come close to representing the general population, yet we didn’t hear about that in the letters.

About Head Start, the U.S. Department of Health and Human services concluded, “In the long run, cognitive and socioemotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start.”

Researchers at Georgia State University who studied Georgia’s universal preschool program concluded, “The study sample does not differ from the entire kindergarten population in GKAP (Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program) capability scores.” In other words, children who attended preschool scored the same as children who did not.

When people want us to part with more taxpayer dollars for their pet projects, it would be nice if they told us the whole story.