Impact of North Carolina's Early Childhood Programs and Policies on Educational Outcomes in Elementary School.
Abstract
North Carolina's Smart Start and More at Four (MAF) early childhood programs were
evaluated through the end of elementary school (age 11) by estimating the impact of
state funding allocations to programs in each of 100 counties across 13 consecutive
years on outcomes for all children in each county-year group (n = 1,004,571; 49% female;
61% non-Latinx White, 30% African American, 4% Latinx, 5% other). Student-level regression
models with county and year fixed effects indicated significant positive impacts of
each program on reading and math test scores and reductions in special education and
grade retention in each grade. Effect sizes grew or held steady across years. Positive
effects held for both high- and low-poverty families, suggesting spillover of effects
to nonparticipating peers.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13015Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1111/cdev.12645Publication Info
Dodge, KA; Bai, Y; Ladd, HF; & Muschkin, CG (2016). Impact of North Carolina's Early Childhood Programs and Policies on Educational Outcomes
in Elementary School. Child Dev. 10.1111/cdev.12645. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13015.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Yu Bai
Statistician III
Kenneth A. Dodge
William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies
Kenneth A. Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy
and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also the founding
and past director of the Center for Child and Family Policy, as well as the founder
of Family Connects International.
Dodge is a leading scholar in the development and prevention of aggressive and violent
beha
Helen F. Ladd
Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Helen F. Ladd is the Susan B. King Professor Emerita of Public Policy and Economics
at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Her education research focuses
on school finance and accountability, teacher labor markets, school choice, and early
childhood programs. With colleagues at Duke University and UNC, she has used rich
longitudinal administrative data from North Caroline to study school segregation,
teacher labor markets, teacher quality, charter school
Clara G. Muschkin
Associate Research Professor Emerita in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Clara Muschkin is an associate research professor of public policy at Duke University
and an affiliate of the Center for Child and Family Policy. She directs the Child
Policy Research Certificate Program and is the faculty director for the North Carolina
Education Research Data Center (NCERDC).
Muschkin is a sociologist and demographer with an interdisciplinary research focus.
In her research, she asks how education policies that influence the composition and
organization of edu
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.

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