For the past five decades, a team of researchers from several universities has tracked a sample of predominately Black participants who were born into poverty from early childhood into adulthood to examine the impact of early childhood education on their longterm outcomes. According to their recent findings, there are significant differences in how early childhood education affects Black men and women.
The project began in the 1970s when the research team recruited low-income families in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area to enroll in the study. All families who enrolled were provided with tailored social services and healthcare support. Ultimately, the research team had a sample of 104 children that they separated into two groups. The treatment group received five years of full-day education, while the control group only received the social and healthcare support.
Once they reached kindergarten, the treatment group demonstrated stronger reading and math skills and higher IQs than the control group. As the authors tracked the 104 participants through age 45, the vast majority of the treatment group had better success than the control group in education, employment, and relationships. The authors also used MRI scans and found noticeable brain differences between the two groups.
While all children in the treatment group continued to cognitively improve through middle school, Black boys and Black girls had vastly different outcomes once they got to high school. Black girls who received the early childhood intervention continued to improve as they progressed to adulthood, whereas Black boys began to score the same on tests as their peers in the control group.
The authors believe these findings provide evidence for an urgent need to ensure children receive quality education as early as they can, while considering the societal context between children of different races and genders. As the study continues to progress, the authors hope to gain more insight into how these societal barriers can be eliminated.
The research team consisted of scholars from the University of Virginia, Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Connecticut, and Virginia Tech.
