There's a good reason why labels such as "day care" have fallen by the wayside in recent years, replaced by terms such as "early childhood education" and "early learning." A growing body of research offers little doubt that what happens—or doesn't happen—prior to kindergarten exerts a strong influence on how children fare throughout their formal education and beyond.

The Perry Preschool Study offers some of the most comprehensive research about the long-term effects of early childhood education. Study participants were tracked from age 3 or 4 into their late 20s, and researchers found that those who participated in high-quality early childhood education programs demonstrated cognitive gains, higher graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment, and gainful employment advantages over those who didn't participate.

Many studies have backed up the results of the Perry study. For example, a 2003 study from Georgetown University examined the impact of Oklahoma's pre-K program, which is a nationally significant model of early childhood education. Researchers found that on average, test scores for students increased 16 percent after participating in the one-year program, with low-income students posting a 26 percent improvement. The greatest gains were in cognitive and language skills; Latino students had the greatest improvement, with a gain of 54 percent in these skills.