Measurement Matters: Effects of the BPS Prekindergarten Program on Constrained and Unconstrained Skills through First Grade

• In Event: What Matters in Sustaining the Benefits of Pre-K through Early Elementary School

Abstract

Children who attend a high-quality PreK program during their four-year old year arrive at kindergarten with higher levels of school readiness than children who do not (Phillips et al., 2017). Yet, PreK-related gains in students’ cognitive skills tend to diminish as children move through elementary school – a phenomenon known as fadeout or convergence. One understudied hypothesis that might explain this trend is that prior studies have primarily assessed the effects of PreK on constrained rather than unconstrained skills. Constrained skills can be directly taught and assessed, are typically mastered by most children in early elementary school, and include such competencies as letter and word knowledge, fluency counting, and basic arithmetic. In contrast, unconstrained skills refer to competencies like vocabulary knowledge, deeper understanding, and problem solving that develop gradually over time and are more complex to assess (Snow & Matthews, 2016).

Extant work theorizes that because PreK and elementary schools may spend more time focused on constrained skills, children who do not attend PreK will quickly develop these skills upon starting kindergarten, thus helping to explain the PreK fadeout/convergence phenomenon. This leaves questions about whether PreK programs demonstrate more lasting effects on unconstrained than constrained skills as children move through elementary school. In the current study, we test this hypothesis by examining associations between enrollment in the evidence-based Boston Public Schools (BPS) prekindergarten program (public PreK; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013) and students’ constrained and unconstrained language/literacy and math skills in kindergarten and first grade.

The sample consists of 423 students (~65% attended BPS public PreK) enrolled in BPS first grade in 2018 - 2019. The sample is demographically diverse (see Table 1). Our student outcome measures are the PPVT (unconstrained language), the DIBELS (constrained literacy; available in kindergarten only), the Woodcock Johnson Letter Word ID subtest (constrained literacy; available in first grade only), the Research-based Early Math Assessment (REMA; unconstrained math), and the Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems subtest (WJAP; constrained math). Models adjust for a robust set of child- and family-level covariates (see Table 2).

We used multi-level models to examine associations between enrollment in BPS public PreK and constrained/unconstrained skills in the fall and spring of kindergarten and the spring of first grade. We found large and statistically significant associations between enrollment in public PreK and constrained and unconstrained skills in both domains in the fall of kindergarten (see Table 2). However, only the associations between public PreK and unconstrained language and math skills were sustained through the spring of first grade. Associations between public PreK and constrained literacy skills were null in the spring of kindergarten and associations between public PreK and constrained skills in math and literacy were null in the spring of first grade. Results were robust to sensitivity checks.

Further work will use a propensity score matching approach to replicate findings. We will examine differences in exposure to unconstrained vs. constrained instruction in PreK through first grade to contextualize our results, in addition to discussing implications for research, measurement, policy, and practice.

Authors

• Mirjana Pralica, MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) - New York City
  Presenting Author

• Meghan Patricia McCormick, MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) - New York City
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joann Hsueh, MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) - New York City
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christina J Weiland, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annie Taylor, Boston Public Schools
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Sachs, Boston Public Schools
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine Snow, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author