The Collaboration for Early Childhood, a 10-year-old advocacy organization, has embarked on an ambitious initiative over the next 3-5 years to strengthen early childhood education in Oak Park and River Forest — and with good reason.
Oak Park’s school districts, for instance, disproportionately spend less on early childhood education, about $126,000, compared to funding for grammar and high school education.
The nonprofit believes that investing in early childhood development is key to producing a productive workforce, reducing crime and increasing graduation rates. And they are not alone in that school of thought. University of Chicago Professor James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate in economics, has done groundbreaking work showing that character skills development in at-risk children under five reduces the need for social services, lowers criminal justice costs and increases self-sufficiency later in life.
“Much evidence suggests the wisdom of your approach,” Heckman said. “It suggests that investing in early childhood development … is one of the smartest ways to create a better economy and stronger society for all.”
Heckman spoke Wednesday night on the topic to a packed house at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St. He suggested that public policies should be shaped and resources applied to developing what is often called “soft skills,” such as persistence, attention, motivation and self-confidence.
“What you want the government to do is to think harder on how they evaluate the success of these programs and then tailor them in a way that essentially produces more emphasis on these traits,” he explained. “Instead of just looking at scores on an achievement test, look at things like how well the child is behaving … how much social interaction and so forth.”
Teaching these soft skills at the preschool level is not difficult, but the task is determining how these skills are taught and which traits should be taught, he said.
“A lot of education is focused just on smarts and it is not just smarts. It is some of these others things as well. So I think it is a matter of emphasis. It is not like we change the schools radically,” said Heckman, comparing individuals who have a high school diploma versus those with a GED. While individuals with GEDs are just as smart as those with high school diplomas, Heckman noted that those with GEDs are less likely to go to college. He said GED recipients as well as high school drop outs have lower levels of non-cognitive or soft skills compared to high school graduates.
“This is one example how important these other traits are, the missing ingredient — some people call it the dark matter of social policies that we don’t really measure but is central to understanding how we can promote success,” Heckman said. “I think we want to develop skills and abilities. I think it is the best way to solve the problem of economic and social inequality.”
Teachers Qiana McNary and Faith Rice believe Heckman’s theory — in part. McNary, who teaches at Jones Academy on the South Side, said developing soft skills do lay a good foundation, but it is not the only thing that addresses social-economic problems.
“What he talked about is definitely important,” McNary said, “but I think it has to come from developing relationships with students and parents and the level of teacher involvement. If the teacher is investing in students that would be the key.”
Rice believes developing those skills should extend beyond early childhood education. She works at the Marcy Newberry Association, a Head Start program in Austin.
Soft skills development should continue through the ninth grade, Rice said, which is where a lot of social and emotional skills come into play. She too contends building strong relationships with students weighs more than academics.
“If you have people who believe in you and are constantly pushing you, then you are going to automatically have that intrinsic motivation that he spoke of,” she said. “Motivation is key, especially for low-income students. If they don’t believe they can do it or it will make a difference … then they are not going to do it. We have to find a way to motivate our students.”
The Collaboration co-sponsored Wednesday’s event. The group wants to create a childhood care support system that stretches across Oak Park and River Forest school districts. The support system includes early detection screenings to catch developmental issues, support for at-risk families, professional development for caregivers, and establishing benchmarks for early childhood education providers.
“It is very clear that if we really do want to address our achievement gap, we need to do a better job of addressing the early-learning issues,” said Carolyn Newberry-Schwartz, the group’s executive director.