We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0–3) and preschool (ages 3–6) programs in Reggio Emilia. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by municipal sys- tems (outside of Reggio Emilia), or by state or religious systems (in all three cities). We ex- ploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strate- gies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most pos- itive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with indi- viduals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, participation in elections, and obesity. Comparisons with in- dividuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by a survey we conduct, which documents increasing sim- ilarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.

Evaluation of the Reggio approach to early education

Daniela Del Boca;Chiara D. Pronzato;
2018-01-01

Abstract

We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0–3) and preschool (ages 3–6) programs in Reggio Emilia. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by municipal sys- tems (outside of Reggio Emilia), or by state or religious systems (in all three cities). We ex- ploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strate- gies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most pos- itive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with indi- viduals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, participation in elections, and obesity. Comparisons with in- dividuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by a survey we conduct, which documents increasing sim- ilarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.
2018
1
32
Pietro Biroli, Daniela Del Boca, James J. Heckman, ∗, Lynne Pettler Heckman, Yu Kyung Koh, Sylvi Kuperman, Sidharth Moktan, Chiara D. Pronzato , Anna L. Ziff
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1663075
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