Estimating, Bounding, and Decomposing the Effects of a Parent-Directed School Readiness Program

Author: Flávio Cunha (Rice University) • Qinyou Hu (UT San Antonio) • Andrea Salvati (Aarhus University) • Kenneth I. Wolpin (University of Pennsylvania) • Rui Zeng (Central University of Finance and Economics)
Posted: 2 November 2026

Abstract

We evaluate JumpStart, a parent-directed school-readiness program run by a Houston-area school district, in a randomized trial spanning three cohorts. Being offered the program raises scores on a curriculum-aligned assessment by 7.6 percentage points and parental investment by 0.26 standard deviations. A model of skill formation with endogenous inputs and program participation yields an average treatment effect of completing the program of about 9 percentage points, and attributes roughly a quarter of this effect to higher measured investment. Nonparametric bounds corroborate the average effect, and a mediation analysis that relaxes part of the model's structure supports the decomposition.
JEL codes: C93, I21, I24, I28, J13, J24
Keywords: Early Childhood Development, Human Capital Development