Microsoft Word Heckman final 2007-03-22c jsb doc
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34 families foster in their children. Both cognitive and noncognitive skills are important for success in school and in life. 62 The enriched early childhood interventions have had their greatest impacts on creating motivation and successful attitudes among participants — traits usually ignored in discussions of educational policy. A large body of empirical work at the interface of neuroscience and social science has established that fundamental cognitive and noncognitive skills are produced in the early years of childhood, long before children start kindergarten. The technology of skill formation developed by economists shows that learning and motivation are dynamic, cumulative processes. 63
disadvantaged. Public schools focus only on tested academic knowledge and not the noncognitive behavioral components that are needed for success in life. Schools cannot be expected to duplicate what a successfully functioning family gives its children. Parental environments play a crucial part in shaping the lives of children. Later remediation of early deficits is costly, and often prohibitively so. 64 Remedial schooling, public sector job training programs, and second chance GED programs are largely ineffective at current levels of funding. While these programs can be improved, and do help a few, they are not cost-effective when compared with alternative policies. Families matter. But most Americans are justifiably reluctant to intervene in the early years and prefer to respect the sanctity of the family. In the past forty years, American society has experimented with voluntary enriched family supplementation programs, which offer children from disadvantaged environments some of the cognitive and emotional stimulation and enrichment given by more advantaged families. Children who received these enriched environments were followed into adulthood. Comparing their social and economic outcomes to those of similar children denied access to these 35 environments by randomization, one finds that the treated children perform better at school, are less likely to drop out of school, and are more likely to graduate high school and to attend college. The treated children are less likely to be teenage mothers and foster a new generation of deprived children. They are less likely to be on welfare and less likely to smoke or use drugs. Treated students have higher test scores. A principal benefit of early childhood intervention is in shaping the noncognitive skills - behavior, motivation and self control - that are not considered an important outcome of the schooling curriculum in current policy discussions. The estimated rate of return to the Perry preschool program is about 16%. This includes benefits from reduced remediation and reduced crime, as well as the increased earnings of the participant. All of the children targeted for intervention are of low ability. While much work remains to be done to bolster the case for wide-scale application of these programs to disadvantaged families, the current evidence is powerfully suggestive, if not yet definitive, that large-scale programs will be effective. None of this evidence supports universal preschool programs. It is important to note what we are not saying. We do not claim that all skills and motivations are formed in the early years, nor that schools and firms do not matter in producing effective people. We are also not offering any claims that the early years are the sole determinants of later success, or that persons who are raised in disadvantaged families should be absolved of any guilt when they participate in crime. We are simply arguing that early environments play a large role in shaping later outcomes and that their importance is neglected in current policy. The recent evidence on the technology of human skill formation establishes that enriched early environments need to be followed up by good schooling and workplace learning environments. Complementarity of investments at different ages is an intrinsic feature of the human skill formation process. Enriching the early years will promote the productivity of schools
36 by giving teachers better-quality students. Improving the schools will in turn, improve the quality of the workforce. The available evidence on the technology of skill formation shows the self-productivity of early investment. Figure 12 summarizes the argument. At current levels of public support, America under-invests in the early years of its disadvantaged children. Redirecting funds toward the early years is a sound investment in the productivity and safety of American society, and also removes a powerful source of inequality. 37
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Bowles, S., H. Gintis, and M. Osborne Groves (Eds.). Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2005. Bureau of Justice . Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Offenders Statistics. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/. 2004. Cameron, S. V. and J. J. Heckman. Can Tuition Policy Combat Rising Wage Inequality? In M. Kosters (Ed.), Financing College Tuition: Government Policies and
Cameron, S. V. and J. J. Heckman. The Dynamics of Educational Attainment for Black, Hispanic, and White Males. J. Pol. Econ. 109(3) (2001): 455–99.
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