School's out forever: universal pre-K study.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Brief article

BARACK OBAMA laid out a plan to bring pre-kindergarten education to all children in 2013. Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the party's 2016 presidential nomination, has called for universal preschool on the campaign trail, citing research supposedly showing its benefits. But a major new study published in September suggests that universal pre-K may not provide the boost that these politicians claim.

In the study, Mark Lipsey, Dale Farran, and Sandra Jo Wilson of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt University followed more than 1,000 children over a period of several years. The kids were divided into two groups; one was randomly assigned to a voluntary pre-kindergarten program in Tennessee and the other was not. The random assignment allowed the researchers to create an effective control group, giving the results more credibility.

The children selected for...