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Using administrative records, the study estimates long-run impacts on adult outcomes. Findings show strong links between kindergarten test scores and later earnings, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. Small classes increase college participation and performance across several outcomes, while class size effects on earnings at age 27 are not statistically significant. More experienced kindergarten teachers raise earnings, and kindergarten class effects are significant: higher class quality, measured by classmates’ end-of-class test scores, improves earnings and college attendance. Classroom-quality effects fade for later test scores but persist in non-cognitive measures, indicating substantial long-term effects of early childhood education, especially for disadvantaged areas.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/how-does-your-kindergarten-classroom-affect-your-earnings-evidence-from-project-star/264595/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/how-does-your-kindergarten-classroom-affect-your-earnings-evidence-from-project-star/264595.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Lucas Vance","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-14",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How were students assigned in Project STAR for this study?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"Students and teachers were randomly assigned to different classroom arrangements within their schools from kindergarten to third grade across participating Tennessee schools.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What does the study find about kindergarten test scores and adult outcomes?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Kindergarten test scores strongly correlate with later outcomes including earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Do small class sizes and teacher experience affect long-term earnings?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Students in small classes are more likely to attend college and perform better on several outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, while having a more experienced kindergarten teacher increases earnings.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},264595,1789384214,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},549768064622,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES  \nHOW DOES YOUR KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM AFFECT YOUR EARNINGS?  \nEVIDENCE FROM PROJECT STAR  \nRaj Chetty  \nJohn N. Friedman  \nNathaniel Hilger  \nEmmanuel Saez  \nDiane Whitmore Schanzenbach  \nDanny Yagan  \nWorking Paper 16381  \n[http://www.nber.org/papers/w16381](http://www.nber.org/papers/w16381)  \nNATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH  \n1050 Massachusetts Avenue  \nCambridge, MA 02138  \nSeptember 2010  \nWe thank Lisa Barrow, David Card, Elizabeth Cascio, Janet Currie, Jeremy Finn, Edward Glaeser, Bryan Graham, James Heckman, Caroline Hoxby, Thomas Kane, Lawrence Katz, Alan Krueger, Derek Neal, Jonah Rockoff, Douglas Staiger, and numerous seminar participants for helpful discussions and comments. We thank Helen Bain and Jayne Zaharias at HEROS for access to the Project STAR data. The tax data were accessed through contract TIRNO-09-R-00007 with the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division at the US Treasury. We thank the SOI staff, and in particular Nicholas Greenia, for their invaluable help and guidance in this process. Gregory Bruich, Jane Choi, Jessica Laird, Keli Liu, Laszlo Sandor, and Patrick Turley provided outstanding research assistance. Financial support from the Lab for Economic Applications and Policy at Harvard, the Center for Equitable Growth at UC Berkeley, and the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  \n© 2010 by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Danny Yagan. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.  \nHow Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence From Project STAR Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Danny Yagan  \nNBER Working Paper No. 16381  \nSeptember 2010 JEL No. H0,J0  \nABSTRACT  \nIn Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to different classrooms within their schools from kindergarten to third grade. This paper evaluates the long-term impacts of STAR using administrative records. We obtain five results. First, kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with outcomes such as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. Second, students in small classes are significantly more likely to attend college, attend a higher-ranked college, and perform better on a variety of other outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, but this effect is imprecisely estimated. Third, students who had a more experienced teacher in kindergarten have higher earnings. Fourth, an analysis of variance reveals significant kindergarten class effects on earnings. Higher kindergarten class quality – as measured by classmates' end-of-class test scores – increases earnings, college attendance rates, and other outcomes. Finally, the effects of kindergarten class quality fade out on test scores in later grades but gains in non-cognitive measures persist. We conclude that early childhood education has substantial long-term impacts, potentially through non-cognitive channels. Our analysis suggests that improving the quality of schools in disadvantaged areas may reduce poverty and raise earnings and tax revenue in the long run.  \nRaj Chetty  \nDepartment of Economics Harvard University 1805 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [chetty@fas.harvard.edu](chetty@fas.harvard.edu)  \nJohn N. Friedman Harvard Kennedy School Taubman 356  \n79 JFK St.  \nCambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [jfriedman@post.harvard.edu](jfriedman@post.harvard.edu)  \nNathaniel Hilger Department of Economics Harvard University 1805 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA 02138 [nhilger@fas.harvard.edu](nhilger@fas.harv","cbCaioJWPPs0PeEx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioJWPPs0PeEx","pdf",431934,82,"English","# Introduction\n## Research question and background\n## Data linkage and measurement approach","[{\"question\":\"How were students assigned in Project STAR for this study?\",\"answer\":\"Students and teachers were randomly assigned to different classroom arrangements within their schools from kindergarten to third grade across participating Tennessee schools.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the study find about kindergarten test scores and adult outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Kindergarten test scores strongly correlate with later outcomes including earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings.\"},{\"question\":\"Do small class sizes and teacher experience affect long-term earnings?\",\"answer\":\"Students in small classes are more likely to attend college and perform better on several outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, while having a more experienced kindergarten teacher increases earnings.\"}]","How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? - Evidence From Project STAR | PDF",207]