The Key to Future Earnings Potential? Kindergarten

You read that right: kindergarten. A recent study from Harvard University appears to show that the more you learn in kindergarten, the more successful you'll be as an adult.

Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues took a look at the life paths of about 12,000 children who had participated in an experiment on education conducted in the 1980s. The original experiment, Project Star, randomly assigned students to kindergarten classes, attempting to ensure that each class had a similar socioeconomic mix. It then studied how well students performed, and found large differences from class to class. The researchers were able to attribute some of the difference to class size and peer group, but most of the differences seemed to be based on how effective each teacher was. Some were fantastic, others not so much.

What Project Star found to be the outcome of the experiment, however, was quite different than what Mr. Chetty believes. According to the original researchers, any gain cause by kindergarten experience peters out by junior high or high school. This conclusion is based on the fact that by junior high and high school, students who did well earlier on don't perform any better on standardized tests.Mr. Chetty, on the other hand, says he wasn't interested in standardized testing -- he was interested in real-life accomplishments in adulthood. And he found some interesting outcomes. All of the participants of Project Star are now close to 30, and the more they learned in kindergarten, the more likely they were to go to college, to be saving for retirement, and to be earning more money.

Mr. Chetty's study shows that early education can have a tremendous impact on a person's adult life. But it also raises an interesting question surrounding the real value of elementary school teachers. I've never doubted that teachers are underpaid, especially the really good ones. After all, as this study shows, these are the people who shape our children's lives. As a society, what is that worth to us? If Mr. Chetty's conclusion is right, then I'd have to say not nearly enough. What are your thoughts?

More on this topic:
Are You Missing Out on Free Money for Your Kid's Education?
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