Research determined that an achievement gap exists between rich and poor children. However, a high-quality public preschool program may be the hope for early learning to be equalized between rich and poor, given its believed importance in gaining individual success.
Huffington Post reports that children from low-income families as well as those from black or Hispanic backgrounds have been found to lag behind students from white or well-off families. The discrepancy between the rich and poor, along with minority groups, become apparent as soon as they begin attending kindergarten.
This is largely because low-income and minority students tend to skip preschool learning. This is even more true for high-quality preschool learning.
In terms of reading level, students from low-income families lag behind their white and well-off peers by 13 months at kindergarten. Black students have been found to trail by seven months, while Hispanic students by 12 months in kindergarten.
The Center for American Progress proposes that establishing a high-quality universal preschool system is the answer. Citing high-quality preschool analysis of students in Boston and Tulsa, the Center for American Progress points out that the gap between rich and poor could more easily be bridged given such a system.
Boston and Tulsa are among the very few cities which offer high-quality preschool learning for all children from the age of 4. High-quality preschool learning did not only improve achievement levels for reading but also for maths.
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The director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, W. Steven Barnett, who is also one of the study authors, emphasizes that ensuring high-quality learning is essential for such a program to succeed. Barnett points out that quality is dwindling in majority of the public programs so that results as found in Boston and Tulsa are not always replicated.
A group of proponents pose that high-quality preschool learning should be made available only to children of low-income families. Another group, however, maintains that public-funded high-quality preschool learning should be available to everyone to prevent the attachment of any income-linked stigma to these schools.
Training Journal points out that the strongest development for a child takes place in the early, preschool years. Development of speech, language, cognitive and social skills, according to Save The Children and as evidenced by neuroscience experts, is fastest during the preschool age.
"Think of it as a relay race: Winning the first lap does not guarantee you're going to win the race, but no one wants to be behind at the first hand-off," W. Steven Barnett stated. "What the national data shows is children of color and low-income children are far behind when they start kindergarten and that gap - they never catch up."
