Impacts of Early Childhood Education on Medium- and Long-Term Educational Outcomes

2017/11/01 by Dana Charles McCoy, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Kathleen M. Ziol‐Guest +6 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Family and Disability Support Research #Parental Involvement in Education #Graduation (instrument) #Psychology #Early childhood education #Early childhood #Medium term #Term (time) #Grade retention #Demography #Academic achievement #Mathematics education #Developmental psychology #Sociology #Economics #Mathematics #Physics

paper · doi:10.3102/0013189x17737739

openalex publication_date 2017/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Despite calls to expand early childhood education (ECE) in the United States, questions remain regarding its medium- and long-term impacts on educational outcomes. We use meta-analysis of 22 high-quality experimental and quasi-experimental studies conducted between 1960 and 2016 to find that on average, participation in ECE leads to statistically significant reductions in special education placement (d = 0.33 SD, 8.1 percentage points) and grade retention (d = 0.26 SD, 8.3 percentage points) and increases in high school graduation rates (d = 0.24 SD, 11.4 percentage points). These results support ECE’s utility for reducing education-related expenditures and promoting child well-being.

Citations

• Comparative benefit–cost analysis of the Abecedarian program and its policy implications

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• Early childhood education [wikipedia]

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