Behavioral Science and Policy最新文献

{"title":"American Policy on Early Childhood Education & Development: Many Programs, Great Hopes, Modest Impacts","authors":"R. Haskins","doi":"10.1353/BSP.2016.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/BSP.2016.0001","url":null,"abstract":"The primary motivation for this Spotlight section on early childhood programs is to assess whether and to what degree they are successful in promoting the development and school readiness of children from poor families. Conflicting claims abound over the effectiveness of public programs such as Head Start and state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) and whether they are meeting the intended goals of preparing disadvantaged children for school and boosting the overall development of served children and their families. The disappointing results of the federal study of Head Start (the Head Start Impact Study [HSIS], reported in 2010) showing that the immediate positive impacts on children's achievement quickly faded1 added fuel to the evolving debate on what does and does not work in publicly funded early childhood education. Because other pre-K studies, conducted over similar time periods as the HSIS, have demonstrated more promising results, the hope remains that these programs can significantly boost children's development and school readiness. High-quality evaluations of state pre-K programs show that some produce substantial gains in intellectual development,2 yet many programs do not. In addition, few of these studies have shown long-term impacts on children. Another popular approach to advancing family and childhood development is home visiting programs (HVPs). Trained professionals or paraprofessionals work with new mothers, improving their child-rearing skills and assisting with life issues such as perinatal depression and employment. As with Head Start and state pre-K programs, the benefits of HVPs are often modest or overstated. There are also many unresolved issues about both the long-term impacts of these programs and the nagging but pressing question of whether successful interventions can produce good results when implemented at hundreds or even thousands of sites nationwide. Clearly, improvements are needed in setting early education and development policy and in advancing the research that will point the way forward. The articles in this Spotlight address these and other issues faced by Head Start, state pre-K, and HVPs and offer a host of solutions for educational policymakers to consider.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"1 - 8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66391063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Home Visiting Programs: Four Evidence-Based Lessons for Policymakers","authors":"Cynthia Osborne","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200105","url":null,"abstract":"Home visiting programs (HVPs) aim to help low-income parents enhance their parenting skills and improve a host of early health and developmental outcomes for young children. Over the past five decades, numerous HVP models have been developed and implemented, albeit with modest or even null results, according to meta-analyses and comprehensive reviews. In 2010, in an effort to advance HVPs’ effectiveness, federal lawmakers vastly expanded funding for HVPs with certain caveats, one being the requirement that the majority of programs be evidence based. Although the new requirement is a policy win, this review presents four main areas that must be addressed and improved upon if this new funding effort is to maximize positive outcomes. Pointedly, HVPs should have built-in flexibility for states to match the specific or unique needs of a family to a program model that has demonstrated effectiveness in meeting those specific needs. Further, program developers should clearly demonstrate what it is specifically about their model that works, in what context, and for whom. Ultimately, not unlike personalized medicine, state policymakers should target delivery of the right HVP model to the right family at the right time.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"29 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Launching Preschool 2.0: A Road Map to High-Quality Public Programs at Scale","authors":"C. Weiland","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200106","url":null,"abstract":"Head Start and other publicly funded preschool programs are some of the most popular government programs in the United States, and in recent years officials have explored expanding public preschool and making it universal. However, several recent large-scale studies have raised questions about the benefits of these programs for participants and for society, as well as whether high-quality preschool is achievable on a large scale. This article reviews the available evidence on these questions and also what is known about the quality of various types of existing programs. The evidence indicates that the curriculum and professional development choices of most programs are out of step with the science of early childhood education and that this has made preschool programs less effective than they could be. The Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program can be used as a case study in better practice preschool implementation. Evaluation of this program shows that high-quality public preschool is achievable on a large scale if localities make the right investment and implementation decisions.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"37 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evidence for the Benefits of State Prekindergarten Programs: Myth & Misrepresentation","authors":"Dale C. Farran, M. Lipsey","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200103","url":null,"abstract":"In 2014, New York City launched the historic Pre-K for All program, which massively expanded early education for children in the city. The state followed suit with a budgetary pledge of some $1.5 billion over 5 years to implement full-day universal prekindergarten (pre-K) statewide. Many other states have implemented or expanded state-funded pre-K programs in the last decade, encouraged by claims about expected benefits. However, there is remarkably little scientifically rigorous evidence for these benefits. Claims of pre-K success rely largely on small, experimental, model programs run 50 or more years ago—programs that bear little resemblance to current pre-K implementations. Evidence for program effectiveness is crucial given the current interest in and expansion of state-funded pre-K programs. This review of the evidence raises serious questions about the presumed benefits of state pre-K programs.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"9 - 18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reimagining Accountability in K–12 Education","authors":"Brian Gill, J. Lerner, Paul Meosky","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200108","url":null,"abstract":"Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, American policymakers have relied primarily on outcome-based accountability in the form of high-stakes testing to improve public school performance. With NCLB supplanted in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act—which gives states far greater discretion in the design of accountability systems—the time is ripe for policymakers to consider extensive behavioral science literature that shows outcome-based accountability is only one of multiple forms of accountability, each invoking distinct motivational mechanisms. We review rule-based, market-based, and professional accountability alongside outcome-based accountability, using evidence from the laboratory and the field to describe how each can produce favorable or unfavorable effects. We conclude that policymakers should (a) make greater use of professional accountability, which has historically been underutilized in education; (b) use transparency to promote professional accountability; and (c) use multiple, complementary forms of accountability, creating a complete system that encourages and supports the continuous improvement of educational practice.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"57 - 70"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Healthy through Habit: Interventions for Initiating & Maintaining Health Behavior Change","authors":"Wendy Wood, David T. Neal","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200109","url":null,"abstract":"Interventions to change health behaviors have had limited success to date at establishing enduring healthy lifestyle habits. Despite successfully increasing people's knowledge and favorable intentions to adopt healthy behaviors, interventions typically induce only short-term behavior changes. Thus, most weight loss is temporary, and stepped-up exercise regimens soon fade. Few health behavior change interventions have been successful in the longer term. In this article, we unpack the behavioral science of health-habit interventions. We outline habit-forming approaches to promote the repetition of healthy behaviors, along with habit-breaking approaches to disrupt unhealthy patterns. We show that this two-pronged approach—breaking existing unhealthy habits while simultaneously promoting and establishing healthful ones—is best for long-term beneficial results. Through specific examples, we identify multiple intervention components for health policymakers to use as a framework to bring about lasting behavioral public health benefits.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"71 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reforming Head Start for the 21st Century: A Policy Prescription","authors":"Sara Mead, A. Mitchel","doi":"10.1353/BSP.2016.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/BSP.2016.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Head Start was born in 1965 as a federal program that aimed to lift America's neediest children out of poverty and enhance their lifetime opportunities. Today Head Start continues to play an important role in our nation's early learning and development system; it serves nearly 1 million children and remains the only preschool option for poor children in many communities. Yet Head Start faces real challenges if it is to remain relevant and competitive in the face of the surge in state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) programs over the past 25 years. State pre-K programs now serve 1.3 million children and typically spend about half the amount per child that Head Start does, yet the best state pre-K programs achieve better results than does the average Head Start program. And recent federally funded evaluations of Head Start raise serious questions about its long-term effectiveness. In this article, we examine the major actions undertaken by bipartisan policymakers to improve Head Start and propose three distinct prescriptions of our own: (a) Allow Head Start providers and grantees the flexibility to triage the services most needed by children in their program rather than follow the “all services to all kids” mandate that now exists, (b) shift performance measures to focus more on outcomes than on compliance with regulations, and (c) change federal policies so that Head Start grantees can more easily coordinate and integrate with local and state early education services and funding streams.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"19 - 28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66391120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A 10-year Strategy of Increased Coordination & Comprehensive Investments in Early Child Development","authors":"A. Chaudry, Jane Waldfogel","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200107","url":null,"abstract":"The United States has a fragmented and inadequate system of early childhood care and education. Most children do not receive high-quality opportunities; only those whose families have the means to provide them receive their benefits. Market-based and privately financed services operate separately from publicly funded programs and serve different populations with different levels of quality. Often, there is little coordination between different programs that serve the same child over the course of her or his early years. This lack of coordination contributes to growing inequities in later educational and adult outcomes. We propose a 10-year strategy for a coordinated set of reforms to significantly improve and integrate the major public and private early childhood programs into a coherent whole. The goal is to better meet children's needs, with a special focus on leveling the development and learning gaps that exist before kindergarten. The strategy consists of paid parental leave, child-care assistance for children with working parents, universal early education that starts when children are 3 years old, and a re-envisioned role for Head Start to reach the most disadvantaged children with intensive services from birth.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"47 1","pages":"47 - 55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Making the Truth Stick & the Myths Fade: Lessons from Cognitive Psychology","authors":"N. Schwarz, Eryn J. Newman, William R. Leach","doi":"10.1177/237946151600200110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/237946151600200110","url":null,"abstract":"Erroneous beliefs are difficult to correct. Worse, popular correction strategies, such as the myth-versus-fact article format, may backfire because they subtly reinforce the myths through repetition and further increase the spread and acceptance of misinformation. Here we identify five key criteria people employ as they evaluate the truth of a statement: They assess general acceptance by others, gauge the amount of supporting evidence, determine its compatibility with their beliefs, assess the general coherence of the statement, and judge the credibility of the source of the information. In assessing these five criteria, people can actively seek additional information (an effortful analytic strategy) or attend to the subjective experience of easy mental processing—what psychologists call fluent processing—and simply draw conclusions on the basis of what feels right (a less effortful intuitive strategy). Throughout this truth-evaluation effort, fluent processing can facilitate acceptance of the statement: When thoughts flow smoothly, people nod along. Unfortunately, many correction strategies inadvertently make the false information more easily acceptable by, for example, repeating it or illustrating it with anecdotes and pictures. This, ironically, increases the likelihood that the false information the communicator wanted to debunk will be believed later. A more promising correction strategy is to focus on making the true information as easy to process as possible. We review recent research and offer recommendations for more effective presentation and correction strategies.","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"2 1","pages":"85 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65685833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editors’ Note","authors":"Steven Patierno, S. Sitkin","doi":"10.1353/bsp.2015.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/bsp.2015.0002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36971,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Science and Policy","volume":"4 1","pages":"2 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66390335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}