Students work on numbers in La’Tris Sykes kindergarten class at Lincoln Park Primary School. Research shows that investing in quality early education pays dividends.

One of the most important predictors of a child’s success in school and life is whether he or she receives a high-quality preschool education.

Research shows that children who participated in a quality early education program had higher IQs and test scores in math and reading during elementary and secondary school, were less likely to repeat grades and were placed in fewer special education classes.

That’s good news.

The bad news is that high-quality early education programs are like good men — they are hard to find.

In the New York Times SundayReview, David L. Kirp shows how New York became a model for quality preschool education. Kirp is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute.

In “How New York Made Pre-K a Success” Kirp makes it clear: high quality early education costs money, requires trained, educated teachers, parental involvement and community support:

The make-or-break factor for prekindergarten is quality, and every study confirming its long-term benefits focuses on an exemplary initiative What makes for quality? A full-day program, staffed by well-trained teachers, supported by experienced coaches and social workers, who know how to talk with, not at, youngsters; a teacher for every 10 or fewer children; a challenging curriculum backed by evidence; and parental involvement.

One of the 16 key metrics measured in the Studer Community Institute’s Dashboard is kindergarten readiness. The dashboard, created in collaboration with the University of West Florida, is a snapshot of the community’s economic, educational and social well-being.

The benefits of high-quality pre-K and childcare are immeasurable. It is critical to closing the achievement gap between children of different economic backgrounds and for preparing them for kindergarten, primary school and beyond.

Decades of research show that investing in children at an early age pays incredible dividends over the course of a child’s lifetime.

Children who enter school with early skills, such as basic knowledge of math and reading, are more likely than their peers to experience later academic success.

Unfortunately nearly a third of children — 34 percent — entering kindergarten in Escambia County aren’t prepared for school last year. In Santa Rosa County, 19 percent of children didn’t score ready for school, while nearly 30 percent failed to meet requirements statewide.

Education experts maintain that children need access to affordable, high-quality education that promotes early learning and school readiness.

The prevailing thought in early education circles was to give added attention to low-income children and the rest, will (or should) take care of themselves.

In New York, officials decided early to make pre-K available to every child, rather than just poor kids. A study of Boston’s preschools found that poor and middle-class children who attended pre-K did better on subsequent tests of literacy and math. Poor youngsters also became more socially and emotionally competent. In short, everyone benefits from pre-K, the Times reported.

Kirp believes New York should a good place for other states to emulate:

“New York’s approach is a model for how to collect and analyze data to inform practice, to bring the system to the highest quality,” said Pamela Morris, a professor at New York University who is studying how well teachers are using a rigorous new math curriculum. The city’s preschool program scores higher than the national average on assessments of the learning environment, according to data prepared by an independent research group as well as appraisals of the all-important interactions between teachers and kids. Parents give it a thumbs up, with 92 percent rating their child’s experience as good or excellent. Not only has their youngsters’ learning greatly improved, parents report, they are also better behaved.

In recent years, Florida has increased the number of subsidized childcare and preschool slots available for low-income families. But middle-class families get little or no additional help, despite growing research that show high-quality early learning makes a huge difference in academic and other long-term outcomes for all children.

Statistics show that a working, middle-class family with two young children will spend on average nearly 30 percent of their income on childcare.

The price for high-quality pre-K programs in some states exceeds college tuition. In California, for example, parents are paying as much as $24,000 a year per child. By comparison, a year of state college tuition and fees costs about $13,000 per student.

On average, quality early education is expensive at more than $9,000 per student per year, according to a report by two groups, The Institute for Women’s Policy Research and Early Childhood Policy Research. Few states are willing to make that kind of commitment.

Florida is the only state to attempt to deliver preschool on a scale and at a speed comparable to New York City, according to Kirp.

While universal pre-K in New York is off to an impressive start, it’s still a work in progress, Kirk believes:

Early education cannot work miracles. For the gains made by these 4-year-olds to stick, there must be a smooth path from prekindergarten through the first years of elementary school and beyond. What’s more, starting preschool earlier, at age 3, has been shown to have a substantial impact, especially for kids from poor families, but at present public prekindergarten is available only to 4-year-olds.