Today, Shepherding the Next Generation has released a new, Tennessee-specific research document called Strengthening Families Through High-Quality Early Education in Tennessee. This document presents the compelling and rigorous research showing the beneficial individual, family, community, and economic outcomes of high-quality early education for at-risk children, with a specific focus on voluntary pre-K in Tennessee. For example:
- At-risk girls who had been randomly selected to participate in a high-quality early education program as kids were almost a third less likely to have had their babies while not married by the time they were age 27, and were also five times more likely to be married and living with their husbands at that age;
- Men who were not in pre-K as children were 63 percent more likely to have children they did not raise; and
- The girls in the program were less than half as likely to be receiving government assistance at age 27.
To learn more about these results and the many other positive impacts of early education on strengthening families and communities, please download a PDF of the report.