The Cradle of Prosperity

Raising the New American Economy

“The No Child Left Behind Act and all the related policies are predicated on the assumption that we succeed with an educational intervention if we improve test scores. Such policies are at best misleading,” he says. “Twenty percent of all high school degrees these days are GEDs (General Equivalency Diplomas, in lieu of high school graduation). And it’s even higher in New York, Florida, California, and Illinois. It was 2 percent in the 1960s, and it’s risen to 20 percent.” The achievement test scores of individuals who receive GEDs show they are “as smart as high school graduates, but they don’t earn anywhere near what high school graduates earn because they lack persistence and motivation, self-control and the ability to look forward—noncognitive skills.” The most notable benefit of early childhood education, says Heckman, is its effect “on socialization and not … on IQ. Social skills and motivation have large payoffs in the labor market.” Such skills are more difficult to measure, especially by current standardized testing, but in the long run they may be more decisive than a few percentage points in language or math skills.

Key Ingredients for Success

Early childhood education is not the only way to ensure solid brain architecture, nor is it separable from other types of support for children, their families, and their communities. Essential ingredients include good prenatal care, adequate nutrition for mothers, stable working hours, conditions and benefits for young parents, and parenting education for both mothers and fathers.

The research of Ross Thompson, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, has focused on how early relationships provide the foundation for young children’s understanding of the psychological world as well as for skill development. “Young children are motivated to learn by their emotional attachments to caregivers who value learning,” he says. “The skills of human capital are skills in cooperation, emotional understanding, and morality—not merely intellectual skills.” Thus, strengthening a family’s ability to communicate and build healthy relationships can contribute to the development of solid brain architecture in their children—which has important implications for parenting programs. “The same parent-child conversations that teach about emotions also strengthen memory skills.”

Implications for change beyond the family are also important. “Today, we have a better understanding of childcare as an important developmental influence on the future of our society,” says Thompson. “But while regulations tend to focus on easily measurable qualities like group size and adult-to-child ratios, the most important quality of childcare for young children is their relationship with their childcare provider.” However, because childcare providers are paid poorly and given few benefits, their job turnover rate is high and the children experience highly inconsistent relationships. Thompson suggests that quality and stability of relationships should be “one of the most significant markers of the quality of childcare.”

Just as skill begets skill, a strong family economy can beget strong brain architecture in children, which ultimately contributes to a stronger national economy. If parents work three jobs or are laid off—or if their employer provides no health insurance—their children’s lives are more likely to be disrupted and they are more vulnerable to the consequences of experiencing toxic stress. “We often ignore one of the most effective, promising ways to assist kids, and that is through economic intervention for parents,” says Greg Duncan, professor of Education and Social Policy at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. From 2000 to 2003, he directed the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. “We have a number of ways of doing this; for example, making a program like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) more generous. Programs along these lines put more income into the hands of low-income families.” Duncan is currently writing a book about New Hope, a rigorously evaluated demonstration program implemented from 1994 through 1998 in Milwaukee that guaranteed income above the poverty level to people who were willing to work at least 30 hours a week.

More than 1,300 people were included in the New Hope study, where each applicant was randomly assigned to the program or control group. If they were assigned to New Hope, they were eligible for three years of services and benefits, including a monthly earnings supplement, subsidized childcare, and health insurance. Differences that emerged between the two populations were analyzed extensively.

“For children enrolled in New Hope, these benefits had a very positive effect, especially on the boys. Teachers reported boys’ achievement levels and behavior improved markedly,” says Duncan. “This is encouraging. In the last ten years, welfare reform has moved many single mothers into the labor force and off the welfare rolls, but reform hasn’t done much to boost family income levels. For many women, the welfare check is reduced as the paycheck increases. New Hope offered a chance to test a framework that encourages work while increasing a family’s real income.” Analyses of some of these studies have shown that the children who benefited most from a rise in total household income were 3, 4 and 5 years old at the beginning of the program—years when a considerable amount of brain architecture is being built.

Maximizing Return on Investment for Society

In the end, prosperity’s cradle may not be where most economists and policy makers thought it was. As James Heckman emphasizes, economists should consider the implications of child development as seriously as monetary aggregate, points on an interest rate, and freight-car loadings. “The things we economists used to think of as soft and fuzzy have a real effect on economic behavior,” he says.

Americans may differ on how much to invest, and who should do the investing, but the science of brain development shows that an early, targeted investment in vulnerable children can maximize long-term returns and prevent lifelong public expenses. More importantly, wise investment can help young people grow into adults who are able to contribute to their full potential and ensure the stability of communities that, in turn, will nurture the next generation of productive individuals and businesses, as well as civil society as a whole. “The scientific evidence indicates that we should not have to choose between our moral responsibility for children and the desire for strong economic returns on our investments,” says Shonkoff. “Both goals are served well when we truly understand the science of early childhood and early brain development, and when we make a commitment to close the gap between what we know and what we do to promote the well-being of children.”

As young brains grow, so grows the economy—along with the vitality of our communities and ultimately the health and sustainability of our democratic institutions.

The interviewer: Richard Louv is the Council’s executive editor and author of seven books about family, community and nature, including Last Child in the Woods.

For information about commonly used terms in Council publications, see Definitions.