Persistence and Convergence: The End of Kindergarten Outcomes of Preschool Graduates and Their Non-Attending Peers

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

Abstract

Children who attend preschool at age 4, on average, enter kindergarten more ready to learn than children who have no prior school experience. Although the depth of knowledge on the short-term benefits of preschool has grown tremendously, many questions remain. One question in particular that has been the focus of much discussion is both whether and why the benefits of preschool persist over time. It is with this question that this study is primarily concerned.

Specifically, the present investigation examined the benefits of preschool through the end of kindergarten for children from low-income homes who lived in a large and diverse county (n = 2,581; 48% attended preschool) as well as the role of children’s experiences in kindergarten for the maintenance of early program benefits. Children’s outcomes were measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten. Their achievement was measured using the Woodcock-Johnson and their executive function skills were assessed with the Backward Digit Span task, Head Toes Knees Shoulders task, and Pencil Tap task. Additionally, teachers reported on children’s social-behavior. All models discussed below controlled for a rich set of child and family covariates (see Table 1 for a list) and account for the nesting of children in classrooms.

As can be seen in Table 2, preschool graduates outperformed non-attenders in the areas of achievement and executive functioning at the start of kindergarten (ds =.18-.53), but no differences emerged in their social-behavior. However, program benefits diminished by over half by the end of the year (ds =.11-.22). Convergence between groups was largest for more constrained skills, such as letter-word identification, and was attributed to the fact that non-attenders made greater gains in kindergarten as compared with graduates of preschool.

Having established empirical evidence of convergence, we next explored the portion of convergence attributed to children’s experiences in kindergarten. We did so by implementing classroom-fixed effects and controlling for children’s kindergarten entry skills, thereby allowing us to examine convergence within classrooms between pre-K attenders and non-attenders who displayed similar skills. In doing so, we found that convergence in groups’ performance was not attributed to the different types of classroom pre-K attenders and non-attenders experienced in kindergarten. In fact, even when pre-K attenders and non-attenders were enrolled in the same kindergarten classroom and demonstrated comparable skills at kindergarten entry, non-attenders continued to make greater gains, resulting in convergence.

When taken together, these results confirm two patterns of findings reported in the extant literature: (1) the benefits of preschool do persist through the end of kindergarten, and (2) a substantial share of these benefits diminish in the year after program exit. This study also adds to the literature by revealing that children’s transition to, and experience in, kindergarten do not contribute to the diminishing benefits of preschool, at least in this study sample. Instead,
findings lend support to the notion that even though children’s skills are susceptible to improvement as a result of pre-K, their longer-term outcomes are likely to be impacted by factors that are outside the scope of early schooling.

Authors

• Robert C Pianta, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Arya Ansari, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica E Whittaker, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Virginia Vitiello, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erik Ruzek, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author