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School Readiness Skills: Pre-Kindergarten Compared to No Preschool Experiences

Sat, April 6, 12:20 to 1:50pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 200 Level, Room 205A

Abstract

Rigorous pre-kindergarten (PK) programs improve academic and social outcomes for 4-year-old participants, especially if they are from low-income families or are dual language learners (Burchinal et al., 2015; Phillips et al., 2017). Effect sizes range from modest to large, with average impacts of early intervention programs being moderate (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013). Many impact studies of PreK have used an age-based regression discontinuity design, comparing children who just qualified for the program based on birthday versus those who just missed it. Yet, there are a number of children who do not attend preschool and still qualify for programming based on age. Less is known about these students and how their inclusion in studies affects the size of preschool impacts. This study compares outcomes for PK attenders and children without center-based preschool experiences for children who attended one of the highest quality PK programs in the US (Barnett et al., 2017)
Four hundred and fifty-five students in 6 rural counties were recruited from 63 North Carolina PK classrooms. Students were randomly selected for inclusion in the study and were followed into kindergarten. Children in participating K classrooms were added to the sample if their parent completed a consent form and reported that they had not attended a center-based program in the preschool years. The research team enrolled 0-5 children per K classroom, with a total of 249 “nonattenders”. Comparisons of the PK attenders and non-attenders suggested mothers in the nonattender group had more education but their families reported less income and larger households. Non-attenders were slightly more likely to be dual language learners (DLL).
All children were assessed in the fall of K on the Woodcock-Johnson III Letter-Word Identification, Applied Problems, and Picture Vocabulary tests, the DIBELS measures of letter-sound recognition and phonemic awareness, and the NIH Toolbox dimensional card sort and flanker tests to measure cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Their teachers rated their emotional and behavioral skills using the Teacher-Child Relationships Scale (TCRS), Student Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS), and the Learning Behavior Scale (LBS).
Fall assessments of the children in the NC PK and nonattender groups were compared using hierarchical linear models that accounted for the nesting of children in kindergarten classrooms and included group (pre-k attender versus non-attender), DLL status, and group x DLL status as the primary variables as interest, with child gender, maternal age, and district as covariates. Composites were created from the teacher ratings after a factor analysis indicated two factors -- social skills and self-regulation. Analyses revealed that the PK group entered kindergarten with higher levels of language, reading, math, phonemic awareness, and social skills than non-attenders. The difference between the groups was larger for the DLL group than the English-only group on the math assessments (see Table 1).
Findings suggest that children who attended the state PK program began school with higher levels of school readiness skills. Data on outcomes in the spring of K have been collected and will be analyzed to determine whether they maintain that advantage during K.

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