Closing the Achievement Gap

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that early childhood education programs can help bridge the achievement gap, reduce dropout rates and delinquency and increase economic productivity and social stability for economically disadvantaged young children. The paper describes what elements in these programs are critical in order for them to be successful in achieving their stated objectives and concludes that, at least in this area of educational and social reform, the nation is moving in a more positive and productive direction.

From the Paper:

"There is an ongoing societal concern for the welfare of disadvantaged young children and the negative effects poverty has on their academic performance. The outcome of this preoccupation largely takes the form of early childhood programs. Actually, 'early childhood programs have been a part of the nation's social policy landscape for decades' (Shonkoff, 1). The main objective of such programs is to close the achievement gap between low-income students and their more privileged counterparts. Said differently, 'childhood intervention programs' seek 'to diminish the social economic status disparities in the preschool years so that poor children enter school on a more equal footing to their more affluent peers' (Brooks-Gunn, Currie, & Besharov, 3)."

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