Opinion
Consensus Requires Solid Data
Virtually all of North Carolina’s relative improvement in test scores occurred during the 1990s — before Smart Start and other much-touted reforms could have caused it.
Opinion
Flasback: The Other Child-Care News
The latest findings from a prominent child-care study undercut the assumptions behind North Carolina’s expensive preschool interventions — but most of the media attention went elsewhere.
Opinion
A Smarter Start On Preschool Policy
Lack of quality control is a key reason why state preschool interventions don’t deliver on their promise.
Opinion
A Wiser Choice Than Preschool
Contrary to popular impression, there has never been good evidence for the notion that preschool intervention explains differences in educational attainment.
Opinion
The Other Child-Care News
The latest findings from a prominent child-care study undercut the assumptions behind North Carolina’s expensive preschool interventions — but most of the media attention went elsewhere.
News
North Carolina Preschool Programs Grow
RALEIGH -- Pre-kindergarten education is a growth industry across the United States, and North Carolina is no exception with its costly Smart Start and More at Four programs. But before policymakers can understand whether pre-K programs are worthwhile, effective, wasteful, or absolutely essential, it makes sense to figure out what deficit they are supposed to correct.
Opinion
Smart Start Strikes Again
North Carolina’s most cleverly named social program has again proven its PR skills with a new report claiming educational benefits that, on closer inspection, prove far less than advertised.
Opinion
Dumb Start
Smart Start may well be the most successful public policy initiative ever hatched in North Carolina - if one defines success as getting good press. Not just in North Carolina but nationally, the program has received lavish praise for "investing in children."
