Prep School for Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts of Head Start on Human Capital and Economic Self-Sufficiency

This paper evaluates the long-run effects of Head Start using large-scale, restricted administrative data. Using the county roll-out of Head Start between 1965 and 1980 and age-eligibility cutoffs for school entry, we find that Head Start generated large increases in adult human capital and economic self-sufficiency, including a 0. 65-year increase in schooling, a 2.7 percent increase in high school completion, an 8.5 percent increase in college enrollment, and a 39 percent increase in college completion. These estimates imply sizable, long-term returns to investments in means-tested, public preschool programs. (JEL I21, I26, I28, I38, J24)

Changing plans

There are many routes into the early years, but not all of these routes are originally planned into long term careers. Michelle Moore, manager at Little Angels Day Nursery and Prep School, Highbury, tells us about her unplanned journey.

The Perceptions of English Preparatory School Instructors on Online Education through the Community of Inquiry in the Covid-19 Process

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions and experiences of English preparatory school instructors from the perspective of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in online education settings during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study employs a mixed-methods research design, specifically concurrent triangulation design. The quantitative phase of the study includes a survey completed by 140 prep school instructors using snowball sampling. The survey examines the perceptions of participants concerning the three elements of the community of inquiry, teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence, as well as the challenges the participants faced during online education. The qualitative phase comprises semi-structured interviews with 6 of the participants who took the survey. The interview questions focus on the advantages and disadvantages of online education along with the participants’ efforts to create interaction in their classes. Data from the survey were analysed using SPSS in the form of descriptive statistics with means, percentages and standard deviations. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded through thematic content analysis. The results of the survey indicate that while a slightly significant positive correlation was found between overall COI, teaching presence and social presence with online teaching experience, no significant correlation was found between online teaching experience and cognitive presence with an r score close to .0. Furthermore, prep school instructors create interaction during online teaching using collaborative tasks, Web 2.0 tools and personal information from students. The findings from the interviews suggest the following emerging themes: assessment and feedback, social interaction and getting to know students, convenience, technical problems, and attendance issues.

The skills of discovering and nurturing talented and gifted students and their availability among prep school teachers

The current research aimed to identify the skills of discovering and nurturing talented and gifted students for the preparatory stage teachers and its availability, two methods were adopted; The descriptive method for reviewing previous studies and preparing the literature framework, and the experimental method for applying research tools. The research sample consisted of (30) prep school teachers (male and females) who works at Abnob Educational administration prep school. A list of 24 skills for the discovery and nurturing of gifted and talented prep students was prepared, In addition to a note card for the skills of discovering and nurturing gifted and talented students for prep school teachers, As a conclusion the researcher found out that there is a weakness at the prep school teachers discovery and nurturing of gifted and talented students. In the light of the above finings it is recommended to do more studies that concerned with the skills of discovering and nurturing gifted and talented students for prep school teachers and upgrade the efficiency of teachers in the various stages through starting courses that aim to help teachers to discover the gifted and talented students and recommend the appropriate strategies that can be used in teaching, in addition to other recommendations