Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade.

Abstract

As state-funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs expand, it is critical to investigate their short-and longterm effects. This article presents the results through sixth grade of a longitudinal randomized control study of the effects of a scaled-up, state-supported pre-K program. The analytic sample includes 2,990 children from low-income families who applied to oversubscribed pre-K program sites across the state and were randomly assigned to offers of admission or a wait list control. Data through sixth grade from state education records showed that the children randomly assigned to attend pre-K had lower state achievement test scores in third through sixth grades than control children, with the strongest negative effects in sixth grade. A negative effect was also found for disciplinary infractions, attendance, and receipt of special education services, with null effects on retention. The implications of these findings for pre-K policies and practices are discussed.

Entering Kindergarten After Years of Play: A Cross-Case Analysis of School Readiness Following Play-Based Education

“…Our findings align with holistic views of education, given that the parents and teachers described these children as fluent with the non-constrained aspects of school readiness (Durkin et al, 2022 ; Taylor & Boyer, 2019 ). Their ability, however, to use social language and draw connections among concepts allowed them to master the more constrained elements of learning with persistence and enthusiasm.…”

“…This philosophical split left some early childhood programs grounded in play-based, child-directed experiential learning while others emphasized direct academic instruction. Durkin et al ( 2022 ) stated that direct instruction in early childhood education produces short-term gains in constrained literacy skills (e.g., recognizing the alphabet), but not the unconstrained literacy and numeracy skills associated with long-term academic success (e.g., comprehension, problem-solving). This suggests that content-heavy preschool curricula most aligned with school readiness assessments may fail to capture the foundational aptitudes children need for academic achievement.…”

Children’s Evolved Learning Abilities and Their Implications for Education

“…Consistent with this position are the results of a recent longitudinal study that followed over 2,900 children from low-income homes, some of whom had been randomly assigned to participate in direct-instruction preschool programs (Durkin et al, 2022). Although children attending the academically oriented preschool programs showed an advantage in achievement in first grade relative to children in a control group, this effect was reversed by third grade, with achievement differences in favor of children who did not participate in the preschool program being even greater in sixth grade.…”

The promise and purpose of early care and education

“…Longitudinal studies of ECE quality (e.g., Vandell et al, 2016) and evaluations of older ECE programs provide some evidence of long-term impacts (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013). However, evaluations of more recent programs, while documenting immediate impacts, show substantial fadeout with either no or very modest long-term positive impacts (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013; Phillips & Pre-Kindergarten Task Force, 2017), and negative impacts for one program, Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K (Durkin et al, 2022). Although many hypotheses for fadeout have been proposed, maintaining early impacts may require more support from both schools and parents.…”