Ted Gayer

The Effects of Universal Pre-K on Cognitive Development.

In this study of Oklahoma’s universal pre-K program, the authors relied on a strict birthday eligibility criterion to compare “young” kindergarten children who just completed pre-K to “old” pre-K children just beginning pre-K. This regression-discontinuity design reduces the threat of selection bias. Their sample consisted of 1,567 pre-K children and 1,461 kindergarten children who had just completed pre-K. The authors estimated the impact of the pre-K treatment on Woodcock–Johnson Achievement test scores. The authors found test impacts of 3.00 points (0.79 of the standard deviation for the control group) for the Letter–Word Identification score, 1.86 points (0.64 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Spelling score, and 1.94 points (0.38 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Applied Problems score. Hispanic, Black, White, and Native American children all benefit from the program, as do children in diverse income brackets, as measured by school lunch eligibility status. The authors conclude that Oklahoma’s universal pre-K program has succeeded in enhancing the school readiness of a diverse group of children.

Promoting School Readiness in Oklahoma An Evaluation of Tulsa's Pre-K Program

Since the mid-1990s, three states, including Oklahoma, have established a universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program. We analyze the effects of Oklahomas universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program for four-year-olds on children in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS). The main difficulty with testing the causal impact of a voluntary pre-K program is that certain parents are more likely to select pre-K, and these parents might have other unobservable characteristics that influence the test outcomes of their children. Because TPS administered an identical test in September 2001 to children just beginning pre-K and children just beginning kindergarten, we can compare test outcomes of “old” pre-kindergarten students to test outcomes of “young” kindergarten students who attended pre-K the previous year. We find that the Tulsa pre-K program increases cognitive/knowledge scores by approximately 0.39 standard deviation, motor skills scores by approximately 0.24 standard deviation, and language scores by approximately 0.38 standard deviation. Impacts tend to be largest for Hispanics, followed by blacks, with little impact for whites. Children who qualify for a free lunch have larger impacts than other children.

Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness

E arly childhood programs have been heralded by both scholars and decisionmakers as a promising avenue for fostering school readiness (1–4). In the United States, these sentiments have fueled ambitious preschool initiatives from both state and federal resources. Oklahoma’s prekindergarten (pre-K) program has generated attention because it is universal, is based in the school system, and reaches a higher percentage of 4year-olds than any other state pre-K program. Oklahoma’s statefunded pre-K program channels aid to local school districts, which are free to run full-day programs, half-day programs, or both. Federally funded Head Start programs, which are targeted to poor or otherwise at-risk children, and private day care centers are also eligible for state funding if they establish “collaborative” relations with their local school district. The Oklahoma pre-K program has relatively high standards compared with those of other states and offers relatively high pay and benefits to well-qualified teachers. Every lead teacher must have a B.A. degree and must be certified in early-childhood education. Student teacher ratios of 10-to-1 and class sizes of 20 must be maintained. The Community Action Project (CAP) of Tulsa County, whose Head Start program serves the largest number of children in Tulsa, is eligible for state funding. Its teachers meet the same standards as their Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) counterparts and receive similar pay (5). Here, we estimate the short-term test score gains for children in Tulsa’s pre-K and Head Start programs. In August 2006, we administered three subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement Test to incoming Tulsa students entering pre-K and Head Start programs and kindergarten. The tests were administered just before the commencement of classes by the individual who would be teaching the child that year. About 78% of all pre-K entrants, 69% of all Head Start entrants, and 73% of all kindergarten entrants were tested. The tested students closely mirrored the universe of students, except for the kindergarten cohort, where some differences between the two groups were found (6). While the child was being tested, the parent completed a survey to provide demographic information. Program participation and school lunch eligibility were determined separately (7). The three subtests we used were the letterword identification test (a measure of prereading skills); the spelling test (a measure of prewriting skills); and the applied problems test (a measure of premath skills). These subtests have been shown to be especially appropriate for children aged 4 to 5 and have been used by other researchers studying both at-risk and more diverse groups of children. Woodcock-Johnson test scores at or before school entry help to predict later scholastic achievement (8). A difficult methodological challenge that confronts education researchers is selection bias. Here, the concern is that children whose parents choose for them to participate in the voluntary pre-K or Head Start programs will differ from nonparticipants and that these differences will affect test scores. To overcome such selection bias, we have used two separate regressiondiscontinuity estimations. First, the treatment group consisted of 1264 kindergarten students who attended Tulsa’s pre-K program and the comparison group was 1492 children who were about to begin that program. For the second estimation, the treatment group consisted of 327 kindergarten students who attended Tulsa’s Head Start program, and the comparison group was 483 children about to enter that program. This research design is possible because the TPS and the Tulsa Head Start program strictly enforce a 1 September birthday requirement for enrollment in the 4-year-olds’program. Our analysis estimates the continuous relation between age and test score separately on both sides of the age cut-off. This is achieved by regressing test scores against the child’s precise date of birth (the number of days born before or after the cut-off qualification date), an age cutoff indicator variable, and an interaction variable that allows for different slopes on both Preschool programs in Oklahoma help children to succeed in school. Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness

The Market Value of Reducing Cancer Risk: Hedonic Housing Prices with Changing Information

In this paper, we use housing price changes occurring after the release of a regulatory agencys environmental risk information to estimate the value people place on cancer risk reduction. Using a large original data set on the repeat sales of houses, matched with detailed data on hazardous waste cancer risk and newspaper publicity, we find that housing prices respond in a rational manner to changes in information about risk. Since the new information indicated that the sites in our sample pose relatively low cancer risk, the informational release led residents to lower their risk beliefs, resulting in an average housing price increase of

Neighborhood Demographics and the Distribution of Hazardous Waste Risks: An Instrumental Variables Estimation

56 to

Housing price responses to newspaper publicity of hazardous waste sites

87. This price change implies a statistical value per case of cancer of

Behavioral Public Choice: The Behavioral Paradox of Government Policy

4.3 million to

Market-based Approaches to Environmental Regulation

8.3 million, which is similar to the estimates obtained in labor market studies of the value of a statistical life. Newspaper publicity about the local sites increased housing prices, suggesting that residents perceived the news as good.

Social cost of carbon: Domestic duty

This paper examines whether the marginal price of risk reduction varies by the demographic characteristics of neighborhoods. Using an instrumental-variables approach to control for the two-way relationship between housing prices and environmental risk, the paper finds that the marginal valuation of risk reduction is higher in high-education and high-income neighborhoods. The results also suggest that environmental risks are greater in neighborhoods with low-priced houses and in neighborhoods with low levels of collective action, suggesting that polluters consider these characteristics when making their siting decisions.

Determining the Proper Scope of Climate Change Policy Benefits in U.S. Regulatory Analyses: Domestic versus Global Approaches

Abstract This paper uses housing market data to examine the relationship between newspaper coverage of local hazardous waste sites and housing prices. We explore a range of measures of newspaper publicity, including the number of Superfund-related articles, the number of such articles that focus on the risk levels at the sites, and the number of such articles that appear on page one or section A. We restrict our sample to those houses sold more than once in order to eliminate confounding timE−invariant determinants of housing price. Our findings indicate a price increase of approximately US