The Mississippi study may offer schools and teachers some guidance in how to improve early education outcomes, which are varied. The study found that the boost in vocabulary among children in the Mississippi program was equal to a month of extra time in school. Here’s what one of the researchers told Ed Week:

Pam Finney, the research management leader for the study, said the program was purposely “not a very complicated intervention,” and it helps teachers engage in the same complex conversations that the Kansas study showed professional parents have with their children, “introducing 50 cent words as opposed to 25 cent words,” as Ms. Finney put it.

The Ed Week author asks whether “a one-month edge be enough to boost these students reading development, get them moved to more advanced groups, and so on? ” I have a similar question. Is a month enough to help these children catch up to their high income peers? If not, what else needs to be done to close that gap?