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Early Childhood Education to Promote Health Equity: A Community Guide Systematic Review
Robert A Hahn1, W Steven Barnett, John A Knopf
1Community Guide Branch, Division of Public Health Information Dissemination, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (Drs Hahn and Knopf), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia; National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (Dr Barnett); Office of the Associate Director for Science (Dr Truman) and Division of Adolescent & School Health (Dr Hunt), National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia; UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark (Dr Johnson); UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California (Dr Fielding); University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Muntaner); Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia (Dr Jones); and Departments of Public Health and Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York (Dr Fullilove).
Context:
Children in low-income and racial and ethnic minority families often experience delays in development by 3 years of age and may benefit from center-based early childhood education.
Design:
A meta-analysis on the effects of early childhood education by Kay and Pennucci best met Community Guide criteria and forms the basis of this review.
Results:
There were increases in intervention compared with control children in standardized test scores (median = 0.29 SD) and high school graduation (median = 0.20 SD) and decreases in grade retention (median = 0.23 SD) and special education assignment (median = 0.28 SD). There were decreases in crime (median = 0.23 SD) and teen births (median = 0.46 SD) and increases in emotional self-regulation (median = 0.21 SD) and emotional development (median = 0.04 SD). All effects were favorable, but not all were statistically significant. Effects were also long-lasting.
Conclusions:
Because many programs are designed to increase enrollment for high-risk students and communities, they are likely to advance health equity.
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