Economist Estimates Effect of High-Quality Early Education on Special Education

The recent report on special education in Massachusetts, which raises questions about the over-identification of children from low-income families, has us thinking about the well-documented reductions in referrals to special education for low-income children who attended high-quality early education programs. For example, longitudinal evidence from the Chicago Child-Parent Centers preschool program has shown program participants were 40% less likely to be placed in special education. Similar effects have been found in the Abecedarian and Perry Preschool interventions, the subjects of the other two major longitudinal studies of high-quality early education.

by Irene Sege

Full Story: http://eyeonearlyeducation.org/2012/05/15/economist-estimates-effect-of-high-quality-early-education-on-special-education/