Text 1: Education researcher Park argues that early childhood education yields exceptional returns. Studies of Head Start and similar interventions show lasting effects on graduation rates, employment, and even health well into adulthood. A dollar spent on a four-year-old, Park argues, returns several dollars to society.
Text 2: Education researcher Cole accepts that quality early childhood education can yield long-term benefits but warns against generalizing. The famous Perry Preschool and Abecedarian studies were small, intensive, and well-funded; rolling out comparable quality at national scale, she argues, has proven harder, with much smaller measured effects in larger trials.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- Acheck_circle
whether the strong effects in small studies will scale to national programs.
- B
whether childhood occurs before adulthood.
- C
whether quality early childhood education has any benefits.
- D
whether Head Start exists.
Explanation
Both accept some benefits and the existence of programs. They differ on whether small-study effects scale. B captures the dispute.