The fragile foundation of pre- and early-school programs for disadvantaged children

In many countries, pre- and early-school programs are the core of educational disadvantage policy. Such programs aim at preventing educational delays of children growing up under unfavorable socioeconomic circumstances. The programs provide a range of compensational stimulation activities in child care centers and kindergartens, sometimes combined with activities for parents at home. Despite the investment of billions of dollars each year, the educational gap between the rich and poor is widening. The question, then, is whether such programs are really effective. Therefore, studies into the effectiveness of such programs are significant. In this sense, this article reviews two so-called model programs, the Perry Preschool and the Abecedarian programs, which were small-scale experimental programs conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. This review critically analyzes a series of publications written by the projects’ staff and reanalyses done by Nobel laureate James Heckman and colleagues. They claim that both programs are highly effective and that their findings can be generalized to other reasonably similar programs. This review shows, however, that both experiments were hampered by several methodological shortcomings, which seriously threaten the reliability and validity of their outcomes. Furthermore, the projects were so exceptional, in terms of circumstances, target groups, budgets, and teacher qualifications, that it is not possible to generalize their results. It is concluded that not just quality research, but especially critical quality research, is imperative. That is, researchers should be more critical with regard to their own work and that of their colleagues, and they should not accept research findings at face value.