| CHRONICLE NEWS~SERVICES WASHINGTON -
The United States' longest-running effort to gauge the effects of day care centers
on children has found that for all children - but particularly for those most
at risk of academic failure - good day care boosts school performance into second
grade. Conversely, the debilitating effects of poor day care - defined
as everything from centers with safety hazards to caregivers who are depressed
- also persisted into the crucial first years of a child's school experience,
said researchers. The study, which followed more than 400 children from
day care through second grade, also found that high-quality day care helped children
in the long run as well as short term. Saying that good day care helped needy
children the most, the research team recommended that the states and Congress
spend more money on day care programs, worker training and salaries and tax credits
for working parents, especially those leaving welfare rolls. The full-day
care centers, which include Head Start, nonprofit and for-profit centers, were
scored by how much attention a child got from workers, how much and how well they
played with other children, and whether the children had plentiful and safe furnishings,
toys, books and other learning materials, said Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, a University
of North Carolina researcher. | The
success in early learning and school readiness report was released yesterday at
a news conference by Education Secretary Richard Riley and the researchers. "The
quality of experiences in the early years matters," Riley said. But, he added,
"child care facilities that meet high standards and offer employees a livable
wage remain woefully inadequate." The researchers from the University of
North Carolina, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of
Colorado, and Yale University found that children in low-quality care tended to
score lower on tests measuring language and math skills. Without offering
exact dollar figures, Richard Clifford, another UNC researcher, said the best
day care tended to cost twice as much as the worst. Good programs could be found
in the public and private sectors, researchers said. The Clinton administration
wants to increase tax breaks that moderate-income parents get for paying childcare
expenses for children under 13 and create a tax credit for employers to provide
day care for their workers. Republican leaders have similar proposals. |
