Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness

Early childhood programs have been heralded by both scholars and decisionmakers as a promising avenue for fostering school readiness (1–4). In the United States, these sentiments have fueled ambitious preschool initiatives from both state and federal resources. Oklahoma’s prekindergarten (pre-K) program has generated attention because it is universal, is based in the school system, and reaches a higher percentage of 4year-olds than any other state pre-K program. Oklahoma’s statefunded pre-K program channels aid to local school districts, which are free to run full-day programs, half-day programs, or both. Federally funded Head Start programs, which are targeted to poor or otherwise at-risk children, and private day care centers are also eligible for state funding if they establish “collaborative” relations with their local school district. The Oklahoma pre-K program has relatively high standards compared with those of other states and offers relatively high pay and benefits to well-qualified teachers. Every lead teacher must have a B.A. degree and must be certified in early-childhood education. Student teacher ratios of 10-to-1 and class sizes of 20 must be maintained. The Community Action Project (CAP) of Tulsa County, whose Head Start program serves the largest number of children in Tulsa, is eligible for state funding. Its teachers meet the same standards as their Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) counterparts and receive similar pay (5). Here, we estimate the short-term test score gains for children in Tulsa’s pre-K and Head Start programs. In August 2006, we administered three subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement Test to incoming Tulsa students entering pre-K and Head Start programs and kindergarten. The tests were administered just before the commencement of classes by the individual who would be teaching the child that year. About 78% of all pre-K entrants, 69% of all Head Start entrants, and 73% of all kindergarten entrants were tested. The tested students closely mirrored the universe of students, except for the kindergarten cohort, where some differences between the two groups were found (6). While the child was being tested, the parent completed a survey to provide demographic information. Program participation and school lunch eligibility were determined separately (7). The three subtests we used were the letterword identification test (a measure of prereading skills); the spelling test (a measure of prewriting skills); and the applied problems test (a measure of premath skills). These subtests have been shown to be especially appropriate for children aged 4 to 5 and have been used by other researchers studying both at-risk and more diverse groups of children. Woodcock-Johnson test scores at or before school entry help to predict later scholastic achievement (8). A difficult methodological challenge that confronts education researchers is selection bias. Here, the concern is that children whose parents choose for them to participate in the voluntary pre-K or Head Start programs will differ from nonparticipants and that these differences will affect test scores. To overcome such selection bias, we have used two separate regressiondiscontinuity estimations. First, the treatment group consisted of 1264 kindergarten students who attended Tulsa’s pre-K program and the comparison group was 1492 children who were about to begin that program. For the second estimation, the treatment group consisted of 327 kindergarten students who attended Tulsa’s Head Start program, and the comparison group was 483 children about to enter that program. This research design is possible because the TPS and the Tulsa Head Start program strictly enforce a 1 September birthday requirement for enrollment in the 4-year-olds’program. Our analysis estimates the continuous relation between age and test score separately on both sides of the age cut-off. This is achieved by regressing test scores against the child’s precise date of birth (the number of days born before or after the cut-off qualification date), an age cutoff indicator variable, and an interaction variable that allows for different slopes on both Preschool programs in Oklahoma help children to succeed in school. Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness