Benefits of Pre-K for Children’s Achievement and Social Behavior Through the End of Fourth Grade

• In Event: Do pre-K gains persist? Evidence from four pre-K programs

Abstract

Although research has clearly shown that public pre-K programs help prepare children for kindergarten, increasing attention has been drawn to whether these early investments have benefits that persist over time and, if so, under what conditions and for whom. This study adds to this conversation and considers (a) whether there are immediate academic and socioemotional benefits of pre-K enrollment at age 4, (b) whether these benefits persist up to five years later, and (c) whether the benefits of pre-K persist more strongly under certain conditions and for different groups of children, including dual language learners and children in poverty.
To address these objectives, we apply regression techniques to data for 781 low-income children living in a large, culturally- and linguistically-diverse county between the 2015/2016 and 2021/2022 school years (for sample demographics, see Table 1). At age 4, approximately half of children were enrolled in pre-K. Then, at the start of kindergarten, pre-K non-attenders were recruited if they: (1) did not have a formal center-based pre-K experience at age 4; (2) had a household income less than 250% of the poverty line; and (3) attended the same kindergarten classroom or school as the pre-K attendee sample. Children’s outcomes were directly assessed and reported on by teachers in the fall and spring of kindergarten and then again in the spring of first and fourth grade. Their academic skills were measured using the Woodcock-Johnson and teachers reported on children’s social behavior using the Teacher-Child Rating Scale. In addition, in fourth grade, students reported on their own social emotional well-being and engagement with the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. All models controlled for a rich set of covariates (see Table 1 for a list) and accounted for the nesting of children in classrooms.
As can be seen in Table 2, findings from this study revealed that children who participated in pre-K at the age of 4 entered kindergarten demonstrating stronger language, literacy, and math skills relative to children without prior pre-K experiences (effect sizes = 0.30-0.50, ps<.001). With that said, the academic benefits of pre-K attendance were short-lived and only persisted through the end of kindergarten for language and literacy skills and first grade for mathematics. By the end of fourth grade, the pre-K advantage was significantly smaller and no longer statistically significant (effect size = .06-.10, ns). When considering children’s social behavioral outcomes, no differences emerged between pre-K attenders and non-attenders across the elementary school years. Additionally, when looking at students’ own reports of their social behavior and engagement in fourth grade, we found no differences between pre-K attenders and non-attenders.
When taken together, our findings add to the existing knowledgebase by highlighting the academic and social benefits of pre-K programs serving low-income children up to five years post program exit. Before the conference, we will estimate subgroup models that consider whether benefit persistence is stronger for dual language learners and children in poverty and the extent to which the lack of benefit persistence is explained by children’s post-pre-K experiences.

Authors

• Arya Ansari, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Robert C Pianta, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Jessica E Whittaker, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Virginia Vitiello, University of Virginia - Charlottesville