Originally Posted by epoh
Deacongirl - I am on the iPad, so I'll have to try and find it later, but I've seen another study like what you mentioned, but it also showed that by high school the gains in the low income students had basically been erased, and they performed the same as their peers who had not attended preschool.

There are clearly a lot of factors that influence success in school - innate scholastic ability, available funds for tutoring/outside learning, parental support and expectations, and so on.

ETA- Here's one article about the success, or lack there of, in Head Start programs http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/jun/8/20050608-112533-9016r/

I've seen the criticisms of Head Start before--it seemed clear to me that the quality of the education was not sustained beyond pre-school. To me the take away wasn't that pre-school had no long-term impact--it was that appropriate interventions needed to continue beyond pre-school (see Harlem Children's Zone--yes, I am familiar with the criticisms of this one too...)