There has been much talk about Head Start and its effectiveness after President Obama recently proposed a comprehensive national plan for early childhood development. Opponents of the plan claim the National Head Start Impact Study (NHSIS), released in December 2012, shows that government investment in early childhood development is ineffective—a generalized conclusion that is neither…
Topic: ROI
Skills gained from high quality programs persist for a lifetime. Watch Video
Early Childhood Education: Quality and Access Pay Off View Summary
This two-page summary document is for those who need to prove that government investment in early childhood education for disadvantaged children pays off for individuals and society. Early Childhood Education is a comprehensive investment of government-subsidized early childhood development programs—including Head Start. Heckman and co-authors Sneha Elango, Jorge Luis García and Andrés Hojman find that…
Early Childhood Education: Making Sense of All the Research. View Statement
Tulsa, Tennessee, Quebec—we’ve seen a number of new studies on the effectiveness of early childhood education. Some say it works, others say it doesn’t. Professor Heckman and his co-authors Sneha Elango, Jorge Luis Garcia and Andres Hojman provide clarity in Early Childhood Education, a new working paper that makes sense of a number of seemly…
Quality Early Childhood Education: Enduring Benefits. View Statement
This article first appeared in The Hechinger Report on October 15, 2015. Disadvantaged children who receive quality early childhood development have much better education, employment, social and health outcomes as adults, the vast majority of research shows. Unfortunately, this good news is getting lost in the current obsession over third-grade test scores. This is the…
Vanderbilt Pre-K Study: You get what you pay for View Statement
Vanderbilt University’s study of Tennessee’s Voluntary Preschool Program evaluates a low quality early childhood program using a flawed methodology. Randomization was corrupted by noncompliance with the intended experimental protocol. The press release accompanying the report exaggerates the importance of the findings and the quality of the evidence. Many students assigned to treatment refused to cooperate and the investigators…
Gráfico de Heckman View Page
James Heckman muda a equação para a prosperidade americana. View Page
James Heckman muda a equação para a prosperidade americana.
Investir no desenvolvimento na primeira infância: Reduzir déficits, fortalecer a economia. View Page
Investir em educação na primeira infância para crianças em risco é uma estratégia eficaz para reduzir os custos sociais.
A Equação Heckman: James Heckman View Page
O trabalho inovador do professor Heckman com um grupo de economistas, psicólogos do desenvolvimento, sociólogos, estatísticos e neurocientistas tem mostrado que a qualidade do desenvolvimento na primeira infância influencia fortemente os resultados econômicos, sociais e na saúde para os indivíduos e para a sociedade como um todo.