Long Hours Help
Academically, But Impair Social Development
Helen Gao, San Diego
Union-Tribune, November 1, 2005
Two new studies have concluded that extended time in preschool or day care
can thwart a child's social development, a finding already fueling a
debate surrounding a nationwide movement to expand early education
programs. One study found that the social harm persists through third
grade, regardless of how well caregivers work with preschoolers.
The studies, however, reaffirmed previous findings that early education
programs help develop children's language and math skills.
Preschool advocates in California want voters to approve a measure heading
for the June ballot that would raise the tax on the wealthy to fund more
preschool programs. A group of educators in San Diego County want to use
tobacco tax money to make part-day preschool more widely available here.
Advocates dismiss the new studies' findings, saying they are based on a
mishmash of programs, many of which lack quality. The proposed state
initiative calls for a part-day program eventually taught by teachers with
bachelor's degrees and child development training. Only a quarter of early
education teachers and administrators in California have bachelor's.
"This is a wake-up call. We need to do something comprehensive to raise
the quality of the preschool experience for California's children to
ensure both cognitively and socially they benefit," said Catherine Atkin,
president of Preschool California, which is backing the measure.
One of the studies, by Stanford University and University of California
researchers, is to be presented Friday at a conference in Washington, D.C.
The researchers collected data on more than 14,000 children nationwide,
conducted interviews with mothers and teachers, visited classrooms and
assessed student achievement.
The other study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health & Human
Development, was published in the fall edition of American Educational
Research Journal.
That study was based on 770 children and consists of observations at home
and day care, reports from mothers and teachers and standardized test
results.
According to the Stanford and UC study, children who spend more than six
hours a day in center-based care outside the home showed poor social
skills. It is especially pronounced among middle and upper-income
children.
Researchers noted social detriments such as "diminished levels of
cooperation, sharing, motivated engagement in classroom tasks and greater
aggression."
"A lot of preschool staff are underpaid and overworked. After six hours,
the quality of activity may get sort of petered out," said Bruce Fuller, a
Berkeley sociologist who co-wrote the report and who questions whether the
state can launch a large-scale, high-quality preschool program.
Fuller conceded his study does not distinguish between good and bad
programs. Critics were quick to pounce on that fact.
"What they are calling preschool is basically any kind of classroom, most
of which are not very good," said Steven Barnett director of the National
Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
Despite the uneven quality of preschool programs, the study found that
children from poorer families who went to preschool made twice the gains
in language and math than children from middle-class families who went to
preschool.
For poor children, those gains outweigh any social impairment they might
suffer, according to the study.
The other study found that social harm resulting from too much preschool
or day care translates into "poorer work habits and poorer social skills
through third grade." The findings were not affected by the quality of
teacher- student interaction during preschool.
Deborah Lowe Vandell, a lead researcher, pointed to problems children had
with concentrating and getting along.
Vandell said she found that the negative social effects are most obvious
after children have spent more than 45 hours a week in a preschool.
The study, though, links high-quality child care centers to better memory
and scores on standardized tests lasting through third grade.
Some San Diego kindergarten teachers agree that the quality of an early
education program determines whether children coming to school are well-
adjusted and academically prepared.
Betsy Chamberlain, who retired two years ago from Field Elementary School
in Clairemont, said children who received quality preschool arrived in her
class "being able to sit down and being able to work." Those who didn't,
she said, "come in not as able to sit, not as able to start right into
things."
Chamberlain noted a huge difference between preschool and day care
programs, which some children attend from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Leslie Falconer, a kindergarten teacher at Ericson Elementary School in
Mira Mesa, said children need more than part-day preschool.
"I personally feel children need the nurture of their parents and the
home," she said. "Those early years, that's when they are bonding to their
family. That nurturing, only the family can give that."
Falconer was a stay-at-home mom who put her son in preschool part time.
She has observed that children who go to extended day care tend to be "a
little tougher" and have a "little edge" because they have to learn to
survive in an environment where teacher turnover is high because of low
pay.
Nationwide, more than 1.4 million 3-and 4-year-olds attend preschool
programs for six hours or more each day. About 5.2 million children attend
preschool.
Based on their findings, Stanford and UC researchers suggest that it would
be most cost-effective to provide full-day preschool for poor children and
offer half-day programs to those from middle-and higher-income families.
