Great Start Readiness Program and Children’s Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Impact of Early Childhood Programs on Math, Literacy, and Problem-Solving (Table 33)

Abstract

Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) is a state-funded pre-K program that serves at risk four-year-old children. Utilizing longitudinal data from 1,394 children in a mid-sized urban school district, we conducted regression and piecewise linear growth model to investigate the impact of GSRP on the repeated measures of student reading and math, as well as their growth rate at each grade level from kindergarten to third grade. Results showed that GSRP participation was associated with higher achievement at various time points, ranging from 0.22-0.46 SD in math and 0.31-0.49 SD in reading. GSRP children had faster monthly growth rate than non-GSRP children during the kindergarten. However, the growth rate was not significantly different during the first, second, and third grades.

Authors

• Huang Wu, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Jianping Shen, Western Michigan University

• Xin Li, University of Houston

• Megan Russell Johnson, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

• Huilan Y. Krenn, W.K. Kellogg Foundation