The overall and differential effects of a targeted prekindergarten program: Evidence from Connecticut

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

“…As reported in prior papers (Lipsey et al, 2018; Pion & Lipsey, 2021), the effects of TN-VPK on individually assessed early achievement measures at the end of the pre-K school year were strong, especially on literacy measures. Those results are thus similar to the findings of multiple age-cutoff regression-discontinuity studies that have become the most common research model for assessing end of pre-K effects (e.g., Hustedt et al, 2021; Montrosse-Moorhead et al, 2019; Wong et al, 2008).…”

“…Unconstrained skills in literacy (vocabulary, listening comprehension, and background knowledge) and in numeracy (problem solving and mathematical reasoning) are not typically the focus of instruction in early childhood classrooms (Montrosse-Moorhead et al, 2019; Valentino, 2017), perhaps because they are not the usual content of assessments amid the increasing emphasis on “school readiness.” Over time, these skills become increasingly important in school, but they are more difficult to teach and assess (Snow & Matthews, 2016).…”

“…This design capitalizes on a strict age cutoff for pre-K eligibility and compares age-adjusted outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten for children who attended pre-K the prior year with those for younger children just beginning the pre-K program and thus had no pre-K exposure that prior year. These evaluations have focused on early literacy, language, and math and, almost without exception, have found positive effects at kindergarten entry (e.g., Pion & Lipsey, 2021; Hustedt et al, 2021; Montrosse-Moorhead et al, 2019; Wong et al, 2008). A limitation of this design is that it cannot be used for longer-term follow-up—by the end of kindergarten both the treatment and control groups have experienced pre-K.…”

Persistence and convergence: The end of kindergarten outcomes of pre-K graduates and their nonattending peers.

“…Notwithstanding the diversity in program delivery and various investigations’ analytic designs, there is now strong evidence from the developmental and educational sciences to suggest that children who attend pre-K, as compared with those without pre-K experience, are more ready for kindergarten in the areas of language, literacy, and math, particularly at the start of the year, when compared with children who do not have such experience (Barnett et al, 2018; Camilli, Vargas, Ryan, & Barnett, 2010; Duncan & Magnuson, 2013; Phillips et al, 2017; Yoshikawa et al, 2013). These results have been shown through evaluations of small-scale demonstration programs in the 1960s and 1970s (Campbell & Ramey, 1994; Schweinhart et al, 2005) and verified over the years with evaluations of a variety of scaled-up state and federal programs (Barnett et al, 2018; Gormley, Gayer, Phillips, & Dawson, 2005; Montrosse-Moorhead, Dougherty, Salle, Weiner, & Dostal, 2019; Puma et al, 2012; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013). And even though the magnitude of program impacts varies considerably and scaled-up evaluations see smaller end-of-treatment impacts than earlier small-scale demonstration programs, a meta-analysis by Li and colleagues (2020) of more than 65 programs reports that the cognitive impacts of program participation are approximately a quarter of a standard deviation upon program exit.…”

Datasets from an impact evaluation of a targeted prekindergarten program

“…These data are supplemented by Woodcock Johnson IV Tests of Achievement scores measuring reading, oral language, picture vocabulary and mathematical skills for each student.Data source locationConnecticut, United States of AmericaData accessibilityRaw restricted use data are available from Connecticut's P20 WIN data repository http://www.ct.edu/p20win/request-dataRelated research articleB. Montrosse-Moorhead, S. M. Dougherty, T. P. La Salle, The overall and differential effects of a targeted prekindergarten program: Evidence from Connecticut, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 48, 2019, 134–145 [1]. …”