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Research Summary

What Does the Research Tell Us?

Learning Begins at Birth

"Powerful capabilities, complex emotions and essential social skills develop during the earliest years of life." (1)

High quality learning environments are absolutely essential for infants and young children. Stimulating and enriching environments encourage infants to fully engage in the world around them and literally wire a baby’s brain. This engagement enhances their future growth and learning. Restrictive or punitive environments cause infants to withdraw and limits their potential future growth and development. (2)

"People offer the critical inputs for infant development – food and physical safety, comfort and reassurance, playthings and challenges, language and social feedback. More than anything else, relationships matter to babies." (3)

Early learning environments must be high quality to optimize a child’s healthy intellectual, social, emotional and physical growth.

Over 70% of young children spend time in early education and care outside their home.

In Wisconsin, more than three out of four children under age 5 are in education and care settings outside their home. (4)

Of those children outside the home, 25% are in center-based case, 20% are in family child care, 26% are in relative care, 5% are with a babysitter or nanny, and 24% are with their parents. (4)

Each day in Wisconsin, you will find over 150,000 children learning in early childhood settings outside their home, including child care programs and Head Start programs. (5)

There are over 24,000 young children with disabilities who receive services in their homes or other early childhood settings. (5)

Children who are at heightened risk for school failure are affected more by the quality of their early learning experiences in child care than children who are not at risk. (6,7)

The volume of children who are learning outside their homes at a very early age demands that we remain vigilant about the quality of education and care they receive. (8)

Caregivers trained in early education are critical to building young minds.

Early childhood teacher training is the key to positive child outcomes. (9)

In Wisconsin, only 6% of family child care providers have a bachelor’s degree versus 14% for center employees. A small percentage of child care providers have an associate degree – 14.7% for family and 13.8% for group center employees. Approximately two-thirds of providers have only 40-80 hours of training in early childhood development. A very small percentage of family providers - 9.6%, and child care center employees – 18.8%, have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. (10)

High quality relationships between children and their caregivers better prepares children for entering school ready to learn. (10)

Turnover of staff in early childhood programs causes a lack of stability in care providers that negatively impacts children’s ability to learn and thrive in early childhood settings. This high turnover is due, in part, to the low pay and few benefits child care workers earn. (6, 9, 12)

Child care centers with the highest density of children who are low-income (defined as receiving subsidy assistance through Wisconsin Shares) employ the lowest percentage of teaching staff with degrees (either bachelors or associate degrees. (11)

The positive effects of a high quality caregiver for young children last well into their school years. (9)

The opportunities we provide to all children today shape who they will become tomorrow.

Children who had the benefit of high quality early learning programs are more likely to: show long term gains in measures of educational achievement, including, higher reading and math scores, earn higher incomes; attend a four year college, and, delay parenthood, than children who have not benefited from these experiences. In addition, these children were less likely to: be arrested, receive public assistance; and fail to complete high school (7, 13, 15, 16).

Investing early in a child’s future pays off for the child and for society. Less than a $7,000 investment in an eighteen-month preschool program generated a total return to society of nearly $48,000 per child. (14)

Every dollar invested in early childhood saves more than seven dollars in future costs to society. These costs are saved in preventing early parenthood, health system costs, incarceration costs, and other costly results of a poor quality start for children. (14, 16)

Other western nations have achieved excellent outcomes for their children by investing early in childhood, e.g., Sweden. "We need to understand that childhood is a unique time of life, precious unto itself. We need to understand that nourishing it fully is not inimical to, but supportive of, society’s best interests. As this great nation preoccupies itself with visions of the 21^st century and beyond, the U.S. could make no better contribution to its own destiny than to genuinely examine its social construction of childhood and to reconsider society’s obligation to its children." (17)

References

Shonkoff, J.P., Phillips, D.A., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, Executive Summary, National Resource Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000. Web access at: www.nap.edu/books/0309069882/html/

Shonkoff, J.P., Phillips, D.A., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, Executive Summary, National Resource Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000. Web access at: www.nap.edu/books/0309069882/html/

Drummond, M., Seid, R., Caring for Infants and Toddlers: Issues and Idea, A Guide for Journalists and Policymakers, Executive Summary, Davide and Lucille Packard Foundation, 2001. Web access at http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/foc11%2D1g%2Epdf

Adams, G., The New Federalism, State Profiles of Child Well-Being, 2001, Urban Institute, 2001. Web access at http:\\newfederalism.urban.org/pdf/childcare_profile_WI.pdf

Haglund, J., and Herwig, J., with Wisconsin Early Childhood Collaborating Partners, Action Team, Working to Transform Early Childhood Education and Care, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Cooperative Educational Service Agency, #5, 3002. Web access at www.collaboratingpartners.com.

Vandell, B., Wolfe, B., Quality Child Care: Does it Matter, Does it Need to Be Improved, 2000. Web access at: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/ccquality00/ccqual.htm.

Peisner-Feinberg, E., Culkin, M., Howes, C., and Kagan S., 1999, The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go to School, 1999. Web access at www.fpg.unc.ed/~NCEDL/PAGES/cqes.htm

Tout, K. , Romano Papillo, A., Zaslow, M., Vandivere, S., Occasional Paper 51- Early Care and Education: Work Support for Families and Developmental Opportunity for Young Children, Urban Institute, 2000. Web access at http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/op51/occa51.html.

Bowman, B., Donovan, M., S., Burns, M. S., Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers, National Research Council, 2000. Web access at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309058363.html

Roach, M.A., Adams, D.A., and Edie, D.B., University of Wisconsin Extension, Child Care Research Partnership, Brief &To the Point: Who Cares for Wisconsin’s Children?, September 2001. Web access at www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/resources/parent.html.

Roach, M.A., Adams, D.A., and Edie, D.B., University of Wisconsin Extension, Child Care Research Partnership, Brief &To the Point: Are Program Characteristics Linked to Child Care Quality?, November, 2001. Web access at www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/resources/parent.html.

Roach, M.A., Adams, D.A., and Edie, D.B., University of Wisconsin Extension, Child Care Research Partnership, Brief &To the Point: Who Stays in the Child Care Field?, September 2001. Web access at www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/resources/parent.html.

Drummond, M., Seid, R., Caring for Infants and Toddlers: Issues and Idea, A Guide for Journalists and Policymakers, Davide and Lucille Packard Foundation, 2001. Web access at http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/foc11%2D1g%2Epdf

Reynolds, A., Temple, J., Robertson, D.L., Mann, E., A., Long-term Effects of an Early Childhood Intervention on Educational Achievement and Juvenile Arrest, Journal of the American Medical Association. Web access at www.waisman.wisc.edu/cls/cbaexecsum.4.html.

Karoly, L., Greenwood, P., Eviringham, J. Hoube, J., Kilburn, M., Rydell, C., Sanders, M., Chiesa, J., Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions, the Rand Corporation, 1998. Web access at www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR898

Ramey, C., Early Learning, Later Success: The Abecedarian Study, Frank Porter Graham Institute, University of North Carolina, 1999. Web access at www.fpg.unc.edu/~embargoed/executive_summary.htm

Hallmark, L., and Kagan, S., Early Care and Education Policies in Sweden: Implications For the United States:, Phi Delta Kappan, November, 2001, p. 245.