Early Childhood Research Findings in the News

“For decades, researchers have debated the long-term impact of early childhood education, sharing evidence that while some children experience positive long-term outcomes, others see initial benefits fade out — or even experience detrimental outcomes,” opens the article by Jackie Mader from The Hechinger Report. “Now, a new study is adding to a growing body of research indicating that high-quality early care and learning programs can positively impact children for years into the future. But there is one caveat: Children need to be enrolled early, in infancy or early toddlerhood, to reap these benefits.”

This important study was carried out, beginning in 2010, by the ECEI. The researchers followed a cohort of 37 children who were enrolled in Tulsa Educare and a control group of 38 who did not get spots in Educare and were cared for by a variety of different methods. 

“This intensive, long-term research is important as we seek to better understand how children learn and develop,” says Diane Horm, Ph.D., the founding director of ECEI and a George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chair of Early Childhood Education at OU-Tulsa. “It is also important that we effectively communicate the findings to a wide variety of audiences – because the research findings have implications for families, educators, researchers, and policy makers.”

Click below if you’d like to read the full articles.

The lasting benefits of high-quality child care – Hechinger Report Link: https://hechingerreport.org/newsletter/the-lasting-benefits-of-high-quality-child-care/

“Gold Standard” Study Finds High-Quality Care is Important in Infancy – Early Learning Nation Link: https://earlylearningnation.com/2023/08/gold-standard-study-finds-high-quality-care-is-important-in-infancy/