Preschool Achievement Gap

Preschool began in Europe during the 1800s when European educators commenced education systems with young children in mind. They did this with the aim of aiding kids throughout one of the most critical junctures of child development(History). Preschool has become increasingly popular ever since; in fact, more and more children are attending preschool each year where they are provided with the basic fundamental cognitive skills that are extremely useful in life(Preschool). Also, several countries worldwide have some sort of early learning system implemented into its children's education, France being one of the major preschool focused countries in the world. According to the Business Insider, the decade old largest business news site on
the web, France is also one of the “smartest” countries based on its students’ math and science scores.
This topic is heavily debated, and the most significant question in this argument is whether or not preschool is necessary for young children, concerning the positive, negative, short term, and long term effects it has on them. Proponents of children not going to preschool believe that parents (and possibly siblings) are the only social interaction that a 3-5 year old needs, being that they have the rest of their lives to gain social skills in elementary, middle, and high school. Additionally, the financial burden it puts on parents can sometimes be overwhelming and not worth the benefits gained. For example, a father of a 5 year old in Washington, D.C., says, “We did not expect to have to pay $15,00 per year to send our child to preschool…” Finnish children do not start school until age 7, unlike the United States in which children generally start preschool anywhere from 3 to 5 years old. Despite this difference, Finnish children, by the time they are 15, have proven to outperform several countries, including the United States, based on international assessments(Sanchez).
The academic achievement gap can be defined as the significant difference in academic performance between groups of students which is often based upon gender, race, and economical status(Achievement).
The Center for American Progress is a reputable source as its founder was the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and Obama’s Presidential Transitional director. Although the CAP is known to be a liberal, one-sided organization, it was founded over a decade ago and its statistics can be trusted. According to the CAP, a report proposes a resolution to diminish the achievement gap. This simple solution is universal preschool, making high quality, early learning available for all families. A study shows that going to a preschool of high quality could allow low-income children to decrease their academic gap by 41%, African American children to almost close their achievement gap in reading, and Hispanic students to completely close the educational gap between them and white
students(Parker).
Although preschool can be beneficial to all, the ones who benefit most are children who come from homes with not much mental stimulation or poor families. An interesting study shows how preschool can benefit children concerning kindergarten readiness. The study followed 600 pairs of twins, both fraternal and identical from age 2 until they began kindergarten at 5 years old. Altogether, those who did go to preschool did better when they started kindergarten compared to those who did not attend preschool. The intriguing thing about this study is that the minority children and children who were from less economically stable families with their mental development not being properly stimulated by their parents, benefited the most from preschool due to its starkly different learning environment compared to their homes. However, amid the children who were from more affluent families, there was no difference between those who did and did not go to preschool. In relation to this study; author Elliot Tucker-Drob, of the University of Texas at Austin stated in a journal news released, “...children who are growing up in homes that have fewer resources and lower-quality stimulation from parents aren't being held back as much by their homes if they're attending preschool.” He also said that the study is, “in no way saying that poor parents are bad; it's simply saying that there are these associations and, potentially, one way to break this cycle is with preschools.”(Preschool) This study is a perfect example of how not all kids benefit from preschool the same way. This study is also from U.S. and World Report News, which was founded over 8 decades ago, thus increasing its credibility.
Not only does preschool prepare kids for the immediate next step in their academic path, it also builds and develops skills that can be used throughout their lifetime. Scholar, social, and self-regulation skills are the most useful and substantial skill that one can obtain through attending preschool. Basic social skills such as listening, sharing, being patient, and gracefully losing are developed by interacting with a sizable quantity of fellow peers of the equivalent age/age group. These abilities help children succeed both in school and in life. The presence or absence of key self-regulation skills is a good indicator of early academic success. According to the website Parents, self-regulation is the ability to control one’s behavior, attention, and emotions. This can be expressed through a simple action such as asking for a toy rather than than just taking it. Parents can definitely motivate such capabilities at home, but preschool and its environment causes children to develop said skills in a “consistent context” so that they are able to deploy them frequently(Stipek). Overall, the main benefits of attending preschool are its capability to lessen the achievement gap, and to prepare children with the major skills needed to succeed in school and life.
Strong arguments can also be made for the other side of this debate which promotes that preschool does not have many benefits, and the ones that exist are short term.
In a study based on a national database of 14,000 children from diverse backgrounds, the effects of preschool attendance on several factors such as rates of aggression, academic skills, and interpersonal skills were examined. While reading and math scores increased, there was a negative effect on social behavior. White children experienced an increase of negative effects in response to only three hours per day. With six hours the effects more than doubled. Additionally, more negative effects were not seen African American children unless they attended at least six hours per day. This shows the direct relationship between attending preschool and social behavior. Children who start preschool earlier in life are more susceptible to developing social behavior issues in life(Dewar). The academic benefits gained in preschool will not last throughout one’s life as school does not last a lifetime. However, social skills will because people socially interact with one another and are faced with social decisions everyday throughout the entirety of one’s life. Therefore, having poor social behavior can hinder someone throughout their life and cause several issues such as going to prison, abusiveness, and many negative traits and
characteristics.
According to Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defence Association, “We are in danger of over institutionalizing [young children].” Smith believes that if a child receives plenty of love and attention from their parents, they can develop naturally and the brain can develop freely(Lester). The more young children attend a structured environment, the less opportunity they have to develop naturally and less likely they will be stressed. Stress can lead to poor health and thus should be avoided when possible. Diane Flynn Keith, founder of Universal Preschool, states that the standardized curriculum of preschool at a time when children are developmentally vulnerable could cause them to be “irreparably harmed by such a strategy.”(Lester). Although there are valid short term educational benefits gained from attending preschool, it is evident that introducing a young child to a rigid, away from home environment can be deleterious and unrepairable.
Another negative aspect about attending preschool is stress, and it can easily be measured by levels of cortisol. This is a stress hormone that is released throughout the day with normal increases and decreases when certain things occur. For example, cortisol levels peak just after waking up and continue to gradually fall through the course of the day and are lowest right before sleep. The more stress, the more amount of cortisol produced. When children stay at home, their cortisol levels denote a healthy pattern. However, the cortisol levels children who attend preschool unhealthily increase during the day. There are two main possibilities for this rise of stress during the day: peer social interaction and the lack of daytime access to a secure attachment figure. It is difficult for a child to form an attachment where the staff is overworked and under sensitive. According to a study of over 100 preschoolers, children who obtain more secure attachment with their teachers were more likely to have a normal pattern of cortisol levels throughout the day. Additionally, as stated by a University of Minnesota psychologist, “There is something about managing a complex peer setting for an extended time that triggers stress in young children.”(Dewar). Stressful social peer interaction will inevitably occur in one’s life and there is no need to stress out young children when there is an option to stay home and develop naturally, the way children did for centuries before early learning programs even began. Overall, the main negative aspects of attending preschool are its tendency to cause behavioral issues, and to unhealthily increase stress in young children.
In conclusion, children should not be mandated to attend preschool until further research is done. An increase in academic scores due to the attendance preschool is inconsistent because its effects are not universally similar. While there is a direct correlation in the U.S. between the two; Finland, for example has higher test scores than the U.S. and doesn’t start school until Finnish children are seven years old. Further research should be done in order to find out why this situation is much different in countries like Finland. Is it their geographical location, their social attitude toward preschool, or possibly its effects on their economy? All of these question must be answered before one can conclude whether or not all children should be mandated to attend preschool.