Paying for Preschool: Who Blends Funding in Early Childhood Education?

Duer, Jennifer K.; Jenkins, Jade Marcus

doi:10.1177/08959048221103804

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Additionally, many of these programs lack key quality benchmarks for providing and implementing instructional supports that are necessary to obtain the lasting benefits of preschool [19,22]. In order to operate, programs must blend multiple funding streams at multiple levels [23]. Therefore, greater investments are needed to expand access to serve more children in high-quality early learning environments.…”

Section: The Importance Of Funding High-quality Early Education and Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Community Approaches to Funding and Supports for High-Quality Early Care Experiences: A United States Example

Wilkinson,

Diaz,

Decker-Woodrow

et al. 2024

Education and Human Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While much research has validated the importance of high-quality early learning environments to achieve successful long-term outcomes, providing such environments for all children continues to be a challenge. Debates and varying opinions of how to best use and direct funds to early education and care, as well as determine levels of support to increase quality persist. To address these challenges, a large urban city in the United States has taken a multi-faceted, community-based approach to both funding and quality implementation supports. In the chapter, the authors will first detail examples of funding and provision challenges and provide examples of how cities have sought to address these challenges. Second, the chapter will detail the specific approach to funding and support in the example of focus. Third, the authors will present findings to date on the quality of environments and return on funding investment. Finally, the authors will conclude the chapter with recommendations for increasing access to high-quality early care experience in other contexts and environments across the globe.

show abstract

Section: The Importance Of Funding High-quality Early Education and Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Community Approaches to Funding and Supports for High-Quality Early Care Experiences: A United States Example

Wilkinson,

Diaz,

Decker-Woodrow

et al. 2024

Education and Human Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many pre‐k programs, like North Carolina's, offer care through a mixed market of private nonprofit, for‐profit, and government organizations, as well as public schools. In turn, many early learning providers “blend” these multiple funding sources, whereby children in the same center or classroom may be funded by different sources (Chaudry & Datta, 2017; Duer & Jenkins, 2022; Pianta et al, 2009). Therefore, 4‐year‐old children enrolled in a given ECE center may see their preschool experience simultaneously influenced by NC Pre‐K funding and the availability of other ECE programs (e.g., HS).…”

Section: Identifying Moderator Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Heterogeneity in the Impact of Public Preschool Programs

Watts

Jenkins

Dodge

et al. 2023

Monographs Society Res Child

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We examine the North Carolina Pre‐K (NC Pre‐K) program to test the hypothesis that observed variation in effects resulting from exposure to the program can be attributed to interactions with other environmental factors that occur before, during, or after the pre‐k year. We examine student outcomes in 5th grade and test interaction effects between NC's level of investment in public pre‐k and moderating factors. Our main sample includes the population of children born in North Carolina between 1987 and 2005 who later attended a public school in that state, had valid achievement data in 5th grade, and could be matched by administrative record review (n = 1,207,576; 58% White non‐Hispanic, 29% Black non‐Hispanic, 7% Hispanic, 6% multiracial and Other race/ethnicity). Analyses were based on a natural experiment leveraging variation in county‐level funding for NC Pre‐K across NC counties during each of the years the state scaled up the program. Exposure to NC Pre‐K funding was defined as the per‐4‐year‐old‐child state allocation of funds to a county in a year. Regression models included child‐level and county‐level covariates and county and year fixed effects. Estimates indicate that a child's exposure to higher NC Pre‐K funding was positively associated with that child's academic achievement 6 years later. We found no effect on special education placement or grade retention. NC Pre‐K funding effects on achievement were positive for all subgroups tested, and statistically significant for most. However, they were larger for children exposed to more disadvantaged environments either before or after the pre‐k experience, consistent with a compensatory model where pre‐k provides a buffer against the adverse effects of prior negative environmental experiences and protection against the effects of future adverse experiences. In addition, the effect of NC Pre‐K funding on achievement remained positive across most environments, supporting an additive effects model. In contrast, few findings supported a dynamic complementarity model. Instrumental variables analyses incorporating a child's NC Pre‐K enrollment status indicate that program attendance increased average 5th grade achievement by approximately 20% of a standard deviation, and impacts were largest for children who were Hispanic or whose mothers had less than a high school education. Implications for the future of pre‐k scale‐up and developmental theory are discussed.

show abstract