The Economics of Birth to Five             

Return to Index of Topics  -  Notes: 1) This page is a work in progress and does not yet comprehensively cover its topic or include all the COTC and web resources its topic deserves.  2) Bold is used to emphasize our [COTC] sense of importance and does not necessarily reflect gestures or tones of emphasis in the original source. This color indicates COTC edits for brevity or flow. See referenced original for exact quotes.

Share this:          

Development of Economic Argument for Investing in Birth to Five

... If done right, high-quality, parent involvement, working with kids birth to five, you can make an extraordinary difference down the road.

There are some excellent longitudinal studies, as well as more current studies, that strongly suggest there's a very high public return - public, not just private, but public return, if you invest in birth to five and do it right.

What I mean by ‘do it right’ is that it needs to be high quality. It needs to be master level teachers and it includes home visits and working with the parent(s). If done right, especially for at-risk children, these studies show dramatic differences; where the kids who receive these kind of early education programs compared to a randomized control group that didn't. So, the methodology is about as good as you can get that shows that these kids are much more likely to be literate by the third grade on. More current studies that aren't the longitudinal ones, (and these longitudinal ones follow these kids for thirty, forty years), confirm that within three or four years you can see dramatic improvement in at-risk children's success in third grade. 

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Return on Investment - Investing in Birth to Five

There were benefit/cost ratios in these studies of anywhere from eight to one to seventeen to one. We actually went and calculated a rate of return, which nobody had quite done before, that if invested and invested well, what's the return to the public? What's the overall return? We found that annual rate of return from this one study, (there's four studies all pointing in the same direction) of sixteen percent inflation adjusted. Twelve percent of that was a public return because the student is less likely to need special education, he’s less likely to be retained in the first grade, is more likely to get a job, stay off of welfare, pay taxes, and the crime rate goes down significantly.

So, we said, "Look, hands down, this beats conventional economic development, which we argued was a zero public return. And it stacks up pretty well to any private return. We argued this was a pretty safe investment because we know how to do this, and if focused and done right we were very sure we could get these kinds of results. So, relative to private returns and relative to virtually any sort of public investment you can make today, this would have to be high on your list." Typically, it's either low on the list or it doesn't even appear as public investment.

Your original question was how did I get involved. It is kind of through the back door, looking at economic development and realizing most of the economic development that we're funding in this country is counter productive. There is an area in which we're way under-funding and it's birth to five. It should be viewed not just as education, but as economic development. 

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Parental Involvement is Key

...One type of resistance comes from the far right. They're worried that we're going to take children away from their families. I point out that the research strongly, strongly suggests that parent involvement is a key factor in getting the kind of return we're talking about. We're not talking about taking the children in these low-income families out of the family, just the opposite. We're talking about working with the family, because the studies show you've got to get the parent engaged.

Essentially, you're educating the parent on parenting and it's a critical component. The programs that we are advocating suggest to get the high return includes a mentor with the parent at a very early age. The brain development people will tell you in the most stressful environments, most at-risk children, you have to get them by three. You can't wait until four or five, even, that can be too late. So, we're talking about mentors in families from birth on.

So, when we talk about high quality programs, we mean parent involvement, we mean home visits, we mean educating the parents as well as the child. That seems to dissipate that problem.

Those kinds of programs, they may look expensive. Relatively speaking, they're not, because the return is so high. 

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Universal Pre-K

A universal four year-old early education is a good first step. I'm not sure it's the best first step, though. The programs that we argue for are focused on at-risk families, birth to five, with a mentor going to the house. We actually talk about scholarships for these families. The scholarships are tuition-plus. So, the plus is the mentor, tuition is when the child turns three and four, then they get to send their child to a high-quality early education program.

It’s a program that covers birth to five. If you just go at four year olds, and if you do it universal, you end up subsidizing a lot of families that don't need it, as we talked about earlier. It's not focused on the real needs because it's starting too late in many cases. So, I think universal four year old is a good step, but I think where the highest return is, and where the most need is, is birth to five in the at-risk families.]

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Financial Fulcrum Efficiency of Birth to Five Investments

We should be putting much more at the foundation, in the birth to five. Percentage-wise, it's minuscule compared to the resources that we put into kindergarten through twelve. Again, I think it's a rethinking of the importance of birth to five. I think most of us don't understand how critical those learning years are, how critical those years are to the architecture of the brain, how critical those years are for success in the future.

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Supporting Families with Tools

There is an attitude out there that this is the job of the parents - birth to five is not public education. I think that's something we have to grapple with and explain to people, yes, it is the job of the parents. The tools that we're talking about are tools we're offering. We're offering opportunities for these parents, the at-risk parents, so their kids have the same opportunities as the rest of the kids. 

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Conventional Economic Development is Counter Productive

In Minnesota here, we're talking about two new stadiums, one for the Twins and one of the Vikings. The cost is 1.5 billion. One and a half billion will give me a big enough endowment so that I can insure that every at-risk child in Minnesota will have a high-quality early education program. Two stadiums versus high-quality early education: I don't think there's a real choice here. 

Arthur Rolnick, Senior Vice President & Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Author: "The Economics of Early Childhood Development." Source: COTC Interview http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Share this:          

There is no substitute for your first-person learning.

SIGN UP HERE to receive general updates about our project or news of future interview releases 

Note about interviews: Participation in a Children of the Code interview does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the Children of the Code project or documentary by the interviewee. Conversely, including an interview does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the views, organizations, books or products of the interviewee, other than as explicitly stated, by the Children of the Code Project and documentary.  
 


For more information about
Children of the Code events please click here
or call: 502-290-2526


Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst  Director, Institute of Education Sciences, Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education
 Dr. Jack Shonkoff Chair, The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child; Co-Editor: From Neurons to Neighborhoods
Dr. Edward Kame'enui Commissioner for Special Education Research, U.S. Department of Education; Director, IDEA, University  of Oregon
 Dr. G. Reid Lyon  Past Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Dr. Keith Stanovich  Canadian Chair of Cognitive Science, University of Toronto
Dr. Mel Levine Co-Chair and Co-Founder, All Kinds of Minds; Author: A Mind at a Time, The Myth of Laziness & Ready or Not Here Life Comes
Dr. Alex Granzin  School District Psychologist, Past President, Oregon School Psychologists Association 
Dr. James J. Heckman Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences 2000; Lead Author: The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children
Dr. Timothy Shanahan President (2006) International Reading Association, Chair National Early Literacy Panel, Member National Reading Panel
 Nancy Hennessy  President, 2003-2005, International Dyslexia Association
 Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams Senior Scientist, Soliloquy Learning, Author: Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print
 Dr. Michael Merzenich Chair of Otolaryngology, Integrative Neurosciences, UCSF;  Member National Academy of Sciences
 Dr. Maryanne Wolf Director, Center for Reading & Language Research; Professor of Child Development, Tufts University
Dr. Todd Risley  Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Alaska, Co-author: Meaningful Differences
 Dr. Sally Shaywitz  Neuroscientist, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University, Author: Overcoming Dyslexia
Dr. Louisa Moats  Director, Professional Development and Research Initiatives, Sopris West Educational Services
 Dr. Zvia Breznitz Professor, Neuropsychology of Reading & Dyslexia, University of Haifa, Israel 
 Rick Lavoie Learning Disabilities Specialist, Creator: How Difficult Can This Be?: The F.A.T. City Workshop & Last One Picked, First One Picked On
 Dr.Charles Perfetti Professor, Psychology & Linguistics; Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Learning R&D Center, U. of Pittsburgh, PA
Arthur J. Rolnick Senior V.P. & Dir. of Research,  Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis;  Co- Author: The Economics of Early Childhood Development  
Dr. Richard Venezky  Professor, Educational Studies, Computer and  Information Sciences, and Linguistics, University of Delaware
Dr. Keith Rayner  Distinguished  Professor, University of Massachusetts, Author: Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing
Dr. Paula Tallal  Professor of Neuroscience, Co-Director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University
 Dr.John Searle  Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language, University of California-Berkeley, Author: Mind, A Brief Introduction
Dr.Mark T. Greenberg Director, Prevention Research Center, Penn State Dept. of Human Development & Family Studies; CASEL Leadership Team
Dr. Terrence Deacon  Professor of Biological Anthropology and Linguistics at University of California- Berkeley
Chris Doherty  Ex-Program Director, National Reading First Program, U.S. Department of Education
 Dr. Erik Hanushek Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Dr. Marketa Caravolas Director, Bangor Dyslexia Unit, Bangor University, Author: International Report on Literacy Research
 Dr. Christof Koch Professor of Computation and Neural Systems,  Caltech - Author: The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach
 Dr. Guy Deutscher Professor of Languages and Cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia, Holland; Author: Unfolding Language
 Robert Wedgeworth  President, ProLiteracy, World's Largest Literacy Organization
Dr. Peter Leone  Director, National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice
 Dr. Thomas Cable  Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin, Co-author: A History of the English Language
Dr. David Abram Cultural Ecologist and Philosopher; Author: The Spell of the Sensuous
Pat Lindamood and Nanci Bell  Principal Scientists, Founders, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
 Dr. Anne Cunningham  Director, Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education, Graduate School of Education at University of California-Berkeley
 Dr. Donald L. Nathanson  Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College, Director of the Silvan S. Tomkins Institute 
Dr.Johanna Drucker  Chair of Media Studies, University of Virginia, Author: The Alphabetic Labyrinth
John H. Fisher  Medievalist, Leading authority on the development of the written English language, Author: The Emergence of Standard English
 Dr. Malcolm Richardson   Chair, Dept. of English, Louisiana State University; Research: The Textual Awakening of the English Middle Classes  
James Wendorf  Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities
Leonard Shlain Physician; Best-Selling Author: The Alphabet vs. The Goddess
Robert Sweet  Co-Founder, National Right to Read Foundation

FULL LIST OF OVER 100 COMPLETED INTERVIEWS

HELP US: If you appreciate this interview and the work of the Children of the Code project please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us. Your comments and feedback not only help us learn to better serve you, they help us get the support we need to continue the project.  Click here to read what others are saying about the Children of the Code Project.

SIGN UP HERE to receive general updates about our project or news of future interview releases 

The Children of the Code is a Social Education Project and a Public Television Series intended to catalyze and resource a social-educational transformation in how we think about and, ultimately, teach reading. The Children of the Code is an entertaining educational journey into the challenges our children's brains face when learning to read. The series weaves together archeology, history, linguistics, developmental neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, information theory, reading theory, learning theory, and the personal and social dimensions of illiteracy. 


CONSIDER HELPING OUR WORK BY CLICKING HERE


THANK YOU!

 

Copyright statement:  Copyright (c) 2014, Learning Stewards, A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization, All Rights Reserved. Permission to use, copy, and distribute these materials for not-for-profit educational purposes, without fee and without a signed licensing agreement, is hereby granted, provided that "Children of the Code - www.childrenofthecode.org"  (with a functioning hyperlink when online) be cited as the source and appear in all excerpts, copies, and distributions.  Thank you. (back to top)