New Study: Michigan Early Childhood Efforts Produce Startling Results

Children who attended a public pre-K school program had greater success throughout their K-12 career, including graduating at a higher rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study that followed more than 500 Michigan children for 14 years.

That study to be discussed today at a meeting of the State Board of Education, provides fuel to growing calls for increased funding for early childhood education in the state.

Michigan’s public pre-K program, called Great Start Readiness Program, provides early childhood education to about 30,000 poor and at-risk children. The study followed 338 children from Detroit, St. Clair County, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Wyoming and Roscommon who attended Great Start as 4-year-olds in 1995-96, and 258 demographically similar children who qualified for Great Start, but didn’t attend any type of pre-school before entering kindergarten.

The results were startling.

http://bridgemi.com/2012/06/study-on-michigan-early-childhood-efforts-provides-startling-results/#.T9dV1pj4J7c