Effects of the New Jersey Abbott Preschool Program through Middle and High School: One vs. Two Years

• In Event: Sequencing of Early Learning Experiences: Dosage, Instructional Alignment, and Children’s Developmental Outcomes

Abstract

Public investments in early childhood education (ECE) have increased rapidly over the last several years (Friedman-Krauss et al., 2020) based on research that high quality ECE programs can produce large gains in children’s learning at kindergarten entry (Barnett et al., 2018; Gormley et al., 2005; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013). Fewer studies, especially those focused on state-funded preschool, have estimated impacts into middle and high school. And little is known about how long-term impacts on learning vary by the amount of time children attend high quality ECE.

This paper estimates the long-term effects of New Jersey’s state-funded Abbott Preschool Program through middle and high school, focusing on the difference in effects for children who attended for one- versus two-years. The Abbott Preschool Program provides full-day, high-quality ECE to 3- and 4-year-olds in 31 high-poverty districts in NJ. Prior research finds significant positive impacts of the program on predominantly disadvantaged children’s academic skills: Results of a regression discontinuity design evaluation demonstrated significant positive impacts of one year of Abbott Preschool on children’s vocabulary, math, and literacy skills at kindergarten entry (Barnett et al., 2018). The program has also been found to have positive impacts on children’s learning through fifth grade, with larger impacts for children who attended for two years compared to one year (Barnett et al., 2013).

The current paper extends these findings through middle and high school. To obtain the initial sample, kindergarten classrooms were randomly selected from the 15 largest Abbott school districts. Children (n=1,038) were then randomly sampled from those classrooms without regard for whether or not they had attended Abbott Preschool during the previous year. Children who did (1 year n=451; 2 years n=303) and did not (n=284) attend Abbott Preschool were followed through the 2016-2017 school year (11th grade).

Administrative data including special education placement, in-grade retention, and state standardized test scores in language, math, and science were used to examine the effects of attending Abbott Preschool for one or two years. Effects were estimated using ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression with propensity score matching based on baseline child covariates such as race/ethnicity, free lunch status, gender, age, and home language, and parent employment, mother marital status, parent education to reduce selection bias. District fixed effects and clustered standard errors were used to adjust for the non-independence of data as children were nested in classrooms and schools.

Results indicate positive, statistically significant effects on language, math, and science achievement in middle and high school based on attending Abbott Preschool. Effects were generally larger for children who attended for two years than one year (See Figure 1). There was also a significant reduction in grade retention which was larger for children who attended for two years than one years (See Figure 2). Future analyses to be included in the presentation will add a second cohort of children followed through eighth grade.

Discussion of the results will focus on implications for ECE policy and practice, including informing expansion of high quality preschool to three-year-olds.

Authors

• William S Barnett, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Presenting Author

• Kwanghee Jung, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allison Hope Friedman-Krauss, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ellen Claire Frede, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Non-Presenting Author