A child's early years play a significant role in determining their chances later on in life, including their chances of social mobility. But the poorest children are already 11 months behind their peers when they start at primary school, with efforts to close the gap stalling, and evidence that the gap has started to widen once again in recent…

This volume explores whether the nation's early childhood programs are boosting child development and preparing children for schooling and proposes reforms that would improve the programs. The volume contains contrasting papers on the success of Head Start, Early Head Start, and home-visiting programs and on policies that would improve these three…

This volume contains 14 papers on productivity, incentives, and financing in U.S. higher education, issues of particular urgency in light of revenue shortfalls, expenditure pressures, and controversies that have shaken public confidence in higher education. Part 1 contains two background papers: "Introduction" (Michael S. McPherson, Morton O.…