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(Or is it Dr. Brooks and Mr. Hyde?)

Last month, David Brooks implicitly lumped Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman together with other signers of the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" as standard-bearers for a desiccated "status quo." He apparently objected to that group's contention that "poverty and broad social factors drive high dropout rates and other bad outcomes. Schools alone can't combat that, so more money should go to health care programs, anti-poverty initiatives and after-school and pre-K programs."

Yesterday, by contrast, Brooks resurrected Dr. Heckman to support the argument that the nation needs wise policies--including early childhood support--to promote human capital development and close the gaps that divide poor from wealthy children even before they enter school.  (For more on Heckman's ideas, see our recent interview with him.)  "Some children are bathed in an atmosphere that promotes human capital development and, increasingly, more are not," Brooks writes.  "By 5, it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won't."  Sounds like an argument for pursuing out-of-school supports as well as school improvement strategies.

It's hard to know which David Brooks will prevail, but we'll be keeping score....

In the meantime, check out some of the promising pre-K programs we've profiled on Public School Insights.  We'll be highlighting more such programs in the coming month.