The Fadeout Project

An often cited critique of early childhood programs is that the cognitive effects fadeout by elementary school. In other words, strong initial gains diminish or disappear a few years after children have le the program. To understand this phenomenon, in the fadeout project, researchers at the Center use never before studied data on individual IQ items in the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Early Training Project studies. Using a model of skill formation that considers previous IQ and formal education experiences, researchers identify the period- by-period impacts of the programs on IQ. They find that there are fast gains on test scores at preschool entry for those who a ended the early education programs, but there are li le additional gains after that initial boost; almost all fadeout is concentrated in the very rst year of school. Therefore, this evidence suggests that lower cognitive test scores do not necessarily fadeout, but rather that this decrease is explained by diminishing returns of education—in other words those who didn’t a end the early education programs bene t more from the first year of school. Some describe this as “catching up” rather than effects fading out.