"A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention"
Researchers at the National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER) recently conducted a benefit-cost analysis of one of the nation's most respected early education programs, the Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention project in North Carolina. While other studies showed the children enrolled in the program fared significantly better in school and had better prospects as young adults, the new research set out to assess whether the cost to society was worth the benefits. The bottom line? Taxpayers received a four-to-one return on their investment, in addition to significant social dividends and including better school success. Not only that, the study also shows significantly higher lifetime earnings for both the children and their mothers.
Major Findings of the Benefit-Cost Analysis
Leonard Masse and W. Steven Barnett analyzed data from the Abecedarian project in North Carolina. This was a true experiment that followed children who participated in a high quality, early education intervention and a control group of children who did not receive the intervention. This study followed the children's progress in school and into early adulthood, charting their achievements both in the classroom and on the job.
In assessing the costs and benefits of the program, NIEER researchers found:
- The children in high-quality programs are projected to make roughly $143,000 more over their lifetimes than those who didn't take part in the program.
- Mothers of children who were enrolled can also expect greater earnings – about $133,000 more over their lifetimes.
- School districts can expect to save more than $11,000 per child because participants are less likely to require special or remedial education.
- Results suggested a possible impact on smoking. Participants were less likely to smoke (39% vs. 55% in the control group), resulting in health benefits and longer lives, for a total benefit of $164,000 per person.
- The children of participants are projected to earn nearly $48,000 more throughout their lifetimes.
The overall return? Roughly four dollars in benefits for every dollar invested.
Background – The Abecedarian Project
The NIEER team chose to study the benefits of the Abecedarian Project since it is one of the longest running, most carefully controlled, and respected studies on early education in America. The Abecedarian Project began in the 1970s, with 57 infants from low-income families in Chapel Hill, North Carolina randomly assigned to a high quality childcare setting. Another 54 were in a control group that did not receive the same intervention and high-quality education, although some of the children in the control group also attended childcare centers.
The children in the high-quality child care setting attended from infancy through age five. Educational activities addressing each child's needs were incorporated into their day. These "games" emphasized language while addressing social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Treated children scored significantly higher on tests of reading and math from the primary grades through middle adolescence.
At the age of 21, 104 of the original 111 infants in the Abecedarian Project were measured for cognitive functioning, academic skills, educational attainment, employment, parenthood, and social adjustment. At that time, researchers found:
- Participants had significantly higher mental test scores as toddlers through age 21 than the control group. Their reading and math achievement scores were also consistently higher.
- Participants were twice as likely to attend a higher education program as those in the control group -- 40% of the intervention group compared with 20% of the control group. More than twice as many of the participants -- 35% -- had graduated from or were attending a four-year college at the age of 21. Only about 14% in the control group had done so.
- Young adults in the intervention group were also more likely to postpone parenthood until they were more mature. On average, they were more than one year older (19.1 years) when their first child was born compared with those in the control group (17.7 years).
The Benefit-Cost Analysis
In researching the costs and benefits, the NIEER researchers isolated the costs of the special intervention – that is, the cost of the special services offered to the children in the high-quality programs. They concluded that the average annual cost of the Abecedarian Program is about $13,000 per child (2002 dollars). That's about twice the cost of the average Head Start program. Yet even at that high cost, the researchers found that the benefits outweighed the costs by a factor of four dollars for every dollar spent.
They also noted that the pay-off would probably be much greater in other communities, especially high-crime and low-income neighborhoods. That's because the Abecedarian Project was conducted in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a middle-class community that is more supportive than most of early education. Thus, the NIEER researchers concluded their analysis may actually underestimate the benefits of high-quality early education programs for disadvantaged communities. In such neighborhoods, the impact may be much larger. Indeed, other studies, such as the Perry Preschool Project, have estimated a return of up to seven dollars for every taxpayer dollar spent on early education, with most of the return from decreased crime costs.