CEHD News

Edward Zigler

Making preschool available to all children age 3 and older in the United States would carry great benefits, say three scholars who have won the 2008 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education.

The change would improve the school readiness of the nation’s young children, fill a gap for working families, lower the high school dropout rate, reduce crime and boost the economy, argue award winners Edward Zigler, Walter Gilliam and Stephanie Jones in their winning 2006 book, “A Vision for Universal Preschool Education.”

Walter Gilliam

Forty U.S. states now fund pre-kindergarten programs, but the programs enroll fewer than 10 percent of all preschoolers, Zigler, Gilliam and Jones found.Using research gathered over four decades, the winners set out specific actions that can be taken to develop good universal preschool systems. The book “stands alone in its field for its accessibility, clarity, timeliness and ability to combine a solid research background with practical recommendations,” said their award nomination.

Stephanie Jones

Zigler, a Yale University professor emeritus of psychology who helped develop the nation