Compensatory Programs in Preschool Education

The contribution focuses on early childhood education and care (ECEC) compensatory programs whose main objective is preventing children from disadvantaged backgrounds from starting their formal schooling with deficits. Evidence shows that early intervention improves children’s lives, reduces the prevalence of social problems later in life, and also provides huge savings in public spending. These programs are offered to children in preschool programs and in the early years of elementary school, as well as to their parents. We begin by introducing ECEC and the enrollment rate of young children in ECEC, as well as the accessibility and availability of ECEC for disadvantaged children. We then discuss basic assumptions about compensatory ECEC programs. We introduce the most prominent compensatory ECEC programs: Head Start, Early Head Start program, HighScope program (Perry Preschool Project), the Abecedarian project, Sure Start program, and the Milwaukee Project. Finally, we discuss the benefits and challenges of compensatory education programs. We present numerous features of these programs as well as research and summarize on this basis that high-quality ECEC programs can achieve positive outcomes for children, families, and the community. Therefore, we conclude that there is a societal and economic need to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their families have access to additional support to help them reach their full potential.