Pre-kindergarten programs benefit children, regardless of family income level or English-language skills, a new study shows.
Scientists looked at 1,200 children enrolled in the state of Georgia’s Pre-K Program and found that universal pre-k also results in strong skills in language, literacy, math, and general knowledge.
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“These findings demonstrate compelling evidence for the impact of Georgia’s statewide early education program on children’s school readiness skills,” says Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, a senior scientist with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Georgia’s Pre-K Program is one of the country’s oldest such state-funded programs, serving over 81,000 4-year-olds annually in a variety of settings. Established in 1995, the program enrolls children from all income levels and charges families no fees to participate.
Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) oversees Georgia’s Pre-K Program, providing standards for classroom instruction, child assessment, and other program services.
The program runs on a school-year model, with one adult per 11 children in each classroom. Lead teachers have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field.
The average scores for children in the program were above the national norm on key measures of language, literacy, and math. Children not enrolled in the program scored at or below the national norm.
Math and literacy
“The results were most pronounced in key language and literacy skills,” Peisner-Feinberg says. “These are important precursors for later reading ability.” The program also enhanced children’s math skills, another key area of school readiness.
“It’s important to note that positive effects of the program were found for all children—boys and girls, from families with different income levels, as well as for children with differing proficiency with English,” she said. “This is a universal pre-k program that truly benefits children from all backgrounds.”
The findings are consistent with earlier studies of large-scale pre-k programs, including ones in North Carolina and in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The results from Georgia are noteworthy because the study used a sophisticated design that allowed a comparison between two groups of children whose families chose to enroll them in the program, but only one group had participated at the time of the study.
Researchers will next follow pre-k graduates through third grade. Prior research has shown that pre-k programs continue to help children for several grades afterward.
“With North Carolina’s pre-k program, our studies consistently find positive effects of participation on children’s performance in pre-k and kindergarten, as well as longer-term effects on reading and math skills at the end of third grade,” Peisner-Feinberg says.
Bringing researched-based recommendations to pre-k programs can help programs as they get off the ground or expand, she adds.
“With 30 states already planning to implement pre-k, new research and evaluation will be essential to guiding their design and ensuring their quality.”
Source: UNC-Chapel Hill
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