Quality Education

UNSECO have many beliefs on quality education. The first step in making such decisions knows what makes a program “high quality.” Research suggests that the most effective programs are center based — preschools, nursery schools, learning centers, and the like. Center-based care does not encompass programs operating out of a caregiver’s home or programs involving only caregiver visits to a child’s home.

Strong evidence pointing to the benefits of high-quality early childhood education, and how to achieve them, comes from carefully conducted short- and long-term studies. The studies compared school and life outcomes for participants in the program to those of a randomly selected control group of children who did not participate. Although the programs varied in duration, the age at which care began, the curricula used, the characteristics of the families and children, and some of the social and health services provided, the results are remarkably similar. At risk children who participate in high-quality, center-based programs have better language and cognitive skills in the first few years of elementary school than do similar children who did not have such experiences. They tend to score higher on math and reading tests, and they are less likely to repeat a grade, drop out of school, need special education or remedial services, or get into trouble with the law in the future. They also tend to complete more years of education and are more likely to attend a four-year college. These and other studies also found the most significant benefits accrued to low-income and minority children and those whose mothers had a high school education or less.