Four issues are of particular relevance to policy:
1 Do early effects ‘fade’ over time?
2 Do the beneficial effects of early education pertain across diverse sectors of the
population?
3 Do different types of pre-school education have the same effects on children?
4 Are the effects of pre-school mediated by changes brought about in parents or are
they due to enhanced cognitive profiles at the very start of school?
EPPE contributes to all of these questions although its extension study; Effective Pre-School and
Primary Education 3-11 (EPPE 3-11, 2003 - 2008) will answer the first more securely. The
EPPE 3-11 will be able to answer questions relating to mechanisms for lasting change: is it
increased family participation/expectation that underlies the effects of early education or is it the
enhanced profile of competence which children show when they start out at school? The report
cannot answer questions about mechanism but EPPE was designed to collect the kind of data
that would enable the researchers to answer questions later on about mechanisms of change.