National Conference of the
Early Childhood Research Collaborative

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota Center for Early Education and Development

Human Capital Conference Series on Early Childhood Development

Critical Issues in Cost Effectiveness in Children’s First Decade

Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8, 2007
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Summary. This conference will present recent research on the effects of early childhood programs and services defined broadly. It integrates four critical themes in the field. The first is children’s stage of development. The focus is the entire period of early learning from prenatal development to early school age. The second major theme is cost effectiveness. Given the greater use of cost-benefit analysis in social and educational research, knowledge about the level of cost effectiveness of early childhood programs across stages of development is needed more than ever.  The third theme is program focus, which includes the intervention goals, content and services, ranging from prenatal nutrition and parenting education to school readiness and achievement. The fourth theme is scale. Programs vary dramatically in size and scope, target population, structure, and funding. These range from one-site intensive interventions to federal or state-funded programs serving thousands of families at different levels of service. Considered together, these themes provide a unique and comprehensive framework to better understand the effects of early childhood programs and their contributions to society.