<\/p>\n
We thought we knew how to revive the American Dream. The United States could once more be the land of opportunity, where anyone, even those from the humblest beginnings, could reach the top. A big part of the answer was early childhood education in general and pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education in particular.<\/p>\n
Everyone seemed to agree that getting children \u2013 especially the poorest \u2013 ready to learn at primary school was the way to ensure that each had a fair chance of succeeding in the long run. Early demonstration programs documented impressive improvements in children\u2019s learning; later, those children grew into teenagers who were more likely to complete school and go to college. A tough start in life needn\u2019t handicap early learning or harm lifelong prospects \u2013 and the costs seemed manageable for the public purse.<\/p>\n
Then the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K study threw such confidence into doubt. Pre-K did indeed prepare children better for formal schooling, found a thorough evaluation of the state-wide program, published in 2015. But by first grade, those children had worse attitudes toward school, poorer working habits, and inferior academic outcomes than those who hadn\u2019t attended pre-K. Was Tennessee\u2019s medicine actually making the patient sick?<\/p>\n
The Tennessee research wasn\u2019t the first to question whether the benefits of pre-K education were long-lasting. Many studies of scaled-up programs have found that initial improvements faded over time. But this was the first high-quality pre-K study to identify negative outcomes at the primary school level.<\/p>\n