Understanding Early Childhood Learning through the Urban Early Childhood Intervention in China

Many early childhood education interventions have shown significant positive impacts onchildren's skill development. However, most of these effective interventions have beenconducted in households with low economic status or in less developed countries. Theliterature includes substantial debates on whether early childhood interventions cangenerate similar impacts in high-income households or well-developed countries. Thisdebate is directly related to core questions: (a) what are the key mechanisms forboosting early childhood learning; (b) whether high-income families can support theirchildren's skill development without external support; (c) if early childhood programsare needed even for families that are not of low economic status, what are the mostcost-effective programs for enhancing early childhood skill development.In this proposal, we will conduct a large-scale early childhood intervention (ChinaREACH) in Hangzhou, marking the first China REACH intervention in an urban setting.In this study, we will use state-of-the-art methods to implement a randomizedcontrolled trial for our first urban China REACH intervention in Hangzhou. Additionally,based on this Hangzhou intervention, we plan to evaluate the effects of the treatment onchildren's skill development and explore the potential mechanisms underlying the earlychildhood learning process across different socioeconomic statuses. Specifically, we willstudy how this urban program benefits the skill development of children from ruralmigrant families, which may offer another solution to improve social mobility in China.Finally, we will compare the outcomes for urban children in Hangzhou with those fromour previous rural China REACH (Huachi) intervention to understand how the sameintervention affects children's skill development across different socioeconomic contexts.