Parents send their children to school in the hopes giving them a path to a bright future. One project from the United States provided this academic boost for preschool students in order to prepare them to transition into elementary school. There are researches that say that the kickstart for pre-schoolers to have that academic advantage will wane off over time. However, there are researches that say otherwise, explaining it’s not a complete waste and that there are a number of advantages that stick to the children until they grow up into adults.
It’s a huge debate, especially after knowing the United States spent $9 billion on Head Start in 2017.
Started in 1965, Head Start is a program launched by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to provide early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to families who are part of the population earning low incomes. The program will also monitor the participating children in order to make sure they are prepared to enter kindergarten.
Which stays and which goes
Through the years, there are a bunch of studies that want to know if the program is really effective. One of this is a study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services. Unfortunately, the study found out that “the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole.” It is said the academic benefits expected from children will eventually recede as they grow older.
On the other hand, there are defenders that continuously say there are long-term effects that help children towards adulthood. One example is the report titled “The long-term impact of the Head Start program” created by Brookings Institution, which found there are long-term effects on different factors.
- The Head Start program was able to improve educational outcomes. With this, children under the Head Start program are more likely to graduate from school, pursue college, take up a post-graduate course, and even get a license or certification in their chosen or a different field.
- Aside from school-related development, children under early childhood education were able to experience improvements with their social, emotional, and behavioural development. However, this development only becomes evident as they reach adulthood.
- Lastly, participants of the Head Start program were able to acquire better parenting skills despite not fishing any degree compared to other students who didn’t attend the early childhood development program.
Conclusion
Despite the program not particularly producing long-lasting effects when it comes to academic success, there are still abilities that participants were able to acquire that will evidently aid them when they grow older. Vox, a general interest news site, dug deeper with this topic and concluded that the early childhood development program was able to provide child care functions to children; hence, the lifelong effects.
If you’re interested in teaching children and providing them with child care, you can take up an early childhood education and care course from Multi Award Winning MCIE. The school offers courses taught by experienced teachers and provides practical and necessary skills for people who want to create a positive impact on children.
