Study shows educational value of Sesame Street
Mention Sesame Street to most Americans born in the last 45 years and you’ll probably get a smile. Millions of adults from all kinds of 
backgrounds can tell you about their favorite skit or character from the legendary PBS show. And millions of parents have stories about their children learning to read with the help of Elmo or learning to count with help from (of course) Count von Count.
Now the most authoritative study ever done on the impact of Sesame Street finds that the show has delivered lasting educational benefits to millions of Americans who grew up in the 1970s.
The study, coauthored by Wellesley College economist Phillip B. Levine and University of Maryland economist Melissa Kearney, finds that greater access to Sesame Street in the 1970s helped children stay at grade level as they moved through school. Just one hour of Sesame Street each day led to substantial educational gains. This effect is especially true among boys, African Americans and children from disadvantaged areas.
From the beginning, Sesame Street has utilized early learning research to connect with its young viewers. Here in San Francisco, Children’s Council was honored to partner with Sesame Workshop earlier this year to host a workshop series for parents and caregivers on improving child resilience.
Children’s Council’s Sesame Workshop series just concluded – but you can still get a FREE toolkit from Sesame Workshop! These are practical tools to support the day-to-day emotional challenges children face, such as moving to a new home, starting a new child care program, dealing with divorce or incarceration, and more.
Please call 415.276.2900 or email rr@childrenscouncil.org to request your free toolkit.
So how did the researchers figure this out? Well, in the 1970s about one-third of all American toddlers, or roughly five million kids, watched Sesame Street on a regular basis. For an adult audience, that’s similar to the TV ratings for the Super Bowl. But just having a TV didn’t guarantee that you could see Sesame Street. Back then, shows were broadcast via two different kinds of over-the-air signals – VHF (higher quality) and UHF (lower quality). Complicated federal regulations led to some major cities, like New York and Boston, receiving Sesame Street over VHF, while others, like Washington, DC and Los Angeles, got the show on UHF. In the end, about two-thirds of the country’s households had the option to watch Sesame Street during the 1970s and the other third did not. That created an economist’s dream – a randomized trial. Children with similar backgrounds, living in similar communities, either had access to Sesame Street or did not based on where they lived. And about 50% of the kids with access to the show watched it regularly! The researchers used census data to track educational outcomes for children in those cities and found a statistically meaningful effect on the educational progress of the children who, because of where they lived, were more likely to watch the show. This effect is especially true among boys, African Americans and children from disadvantaged areas.Want to learn more about the study? Click here.
2 Comments
Maria Narciso
July 3, 2015 at 8:38 am
When will be the next show educational value of Sesame Street?
Aaron Rosenthal
July 7, 2015 at 10:19 am
Hi Maria – I’m not sure what you are asking. Do you mean when will Children’s Council have more Sesame Street workshops?