Public Engagement /Evidence for pre-k

D.C. public schools have long had pre-k classrooms for four-year-olds, and of late D.C. public and charter schools have opened classrooms for three-year-olds as well.  Currently, however, no assessment system is in place that can measure the impact these services are having on child outcomes.

There is increasing evidence, however, that large-scale, public pre-k programs can, on balance, prepare low-income children to succeed in elementary school.

One of the most widely cited studies on the impact of early childhood education tracked low-income children who attended a Chicago pre-k program for three- and four-year-olds (the so-called Child-Parent Centers)  and compared them with children of similar backgrounds who did not. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, roughly 1,000 children per year attended the program.

Researchers found that the literacy and math skills of kindergarteners leaving the program were almost at the national average, whereas the children in the comparison group scored at the 25th percentile.  Though the program effect shrank as the children grew older, it remained significant well into high school. 

For more information on the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, see this site.

More recently, rigorous studies have shown that the Tulsa pre-k program -- which enrolls nearly 80% of all the city's four-year-olds -- has a significant impact in reducing deficits in pre-literacy and numeracy skills.  Low-income children and English-language learners in the program closed much of the gap between themselves and their more advantaged peers in their ability to recognize letters and words. 

For more details, see this report.

In Louisiana, the state superintendent's office has shown that the 10,000 low-income students in their compensatory pre-k program (LA-4) close much of the academic achievement gap in language and math skills (for more details, see this report ). 

Kindergarten retention rates for children participating in the program are cut by a third; special education placement rates by second grade are cut almost in half (to find out more of the lasting effects of LA-4, see this report ).

Researchers have also examined student outcome data from samples of children in states with high-quality pre-k systems (Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia) and found generally positive results (see the report here).

In short, even outside the "laboratory hothouse," public pre-k programs that apply the science of effective early education can make a difference for young disadvantaged children.