The Effectiveness of Preschool Education on Academic Achievement.

This study examined the impact of preschool education on the academic achievement of 100 third graders from May Community Academic Public School in Chicago, Illinois. The subjects were all minority students. A random sample of 30 students per group was selected from the 55 students who had received preschool education and the 45 who had not. The mathematics and reading results of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were used as the achievement measure. Findings indicated that third graders who had preschool experience had significantly higher reading and mathematics achievement scores than third grades who had not had preschool education. (KDFB) *****************1.A*. A*********************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Robbin B. Johnson U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) yeThis document has been reproduced as eceived from the person or organization originating it. 1:1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions staled in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. There are many students in the Chicago Public Schools who are receiving or have received some type of preschool education via pre-kindergarten, nursery school, or head start programs. Various preschool education programs are being utilized with the Chicago system. At the present time, there is an abundance of information on these programs with respect to their effect on student academic achievement or their effect on the educational environment in general. Since there has been a proliferation of early childhood education in the past few years, teachers, parents, local school councils, and school administrators need to know if students participating in these preschool programs are obtaining educational benefit from this method of introduction to education whether it relates to reading or mathematics achievement or any other area of instruction. Given the proper information, educators can make the proper decisions about investing more money and time in these type of early educational programs. The decision educators and administrators make now involving preschool education and their continued implementation within our schools could have long term effects on our students' education now and in the future. The beginnings of this field were just like those of the human infantslow, gradual, and dependent on the nurture and care of many individuals who foster the profession's gradually developing sense of self-awareness. It is difficult to pinpoint just when early childhood education began. Perhaps the field's birth can be traced to the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, who advocated that a child's education start well before age six, or to John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a Czech educator and bishop who wrote The School of Infancy in 1628 and recommended that education begin on the mother's lap. Education for Comenius would be the same as play, as natural as life and growth itself (Aries, 1962). Nevertheless, many cite Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) as responsible for the birth of early childhood education. In his book Emile (1762) Rousseau stressed the importance of beginning a child's education at birth. He also believed that children's education should be based on the nature of children, not on adults' notions of what children are like or should be like. Rather than sending children to schools, he felt they should be raised in the country, their education left up to nature. Preschool education can be defined as children attending some type of formal schooling between the ages of three and five years of age. Many people believe that preschool education will have an effect on the achievement of educators in our age. Researchers long ago demonstrated that early childhood education can work in schools and have found positive results in achievement (Anderson, 1994). Kutnick (1993) described the final status of classroom practice in Texas prekindergarten programs in comparison to initial study findings and findings from a self -study PERMISSION 1 9ODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Rb61EMR. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 . \r\t-s_itArN TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES InICnOkAATIMI r`CKITM3 implemented in 1993 with prekindergarten staffs participating in the study. Findings from the longitudinal component indicated positive trends in academic performance for children who participated in prekindergarten programs. The results of the study showed that students from prekindergarten programs are less likely to be retained, closer to being on grade level in their reading comprehension, and less likely to be referred for special education programs. Furthermore, Kohart (1995) saw that although current research has not shown prevailing effects of the preschool experience on overall achievement scores, it does indicate a positive effect on language related skills, particularly for males. This study examined the relationship between language related achievement test scores between those first graders with preschool experience and those without. Subjects from Antwerp Elementary in Antwerp, Ohio, a small rural community, where 19 first-graders who had attended preschool and 39 who had not. Scores from the Primary I level of the Metropolitan Achievement Test, sixth edition, were compared between the two groups. Analyses revealed that there was no significant difference among the two groups of children. The results suggest that language achievement test scores are not indicative of preschool effectiveness. Richman (1995) examined the relationship of parental attitudes and parental warmth to child academic skills and self-perceptions of competence. Suggests that although parental warmth was not significantly correlated with parental attitudes about early academics, and neither academic attitudes nor warmth predicted child achievement on an Academic Skills Inventory, high correlations were found between parental warmth and self-efficacy. On the other hand, Smith (1994) investigated the progress of black students. Although both blacks and whites have made important gains in education over the past two decades, it is apparent that blacks continue to trail whites in many areas. These findings outline some of the educational differences between blacks and whites. Black children still start school with less preschool experience than white children. Gaps in the academic performance of blacks and whites appear as early as age 9 and persist through age 17. Despite substantial gains made recently by blacks, their scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test still lag behind those of whites. Black students are still more likely to drop out than whites, although the gap is closing. Black students are also more likely than their white peers to face a disorderly learning environment, even though black and white students have similar attitudes about the teaching quality in their schools. Both black and white high school graduates are following a more rigorous curriculum than a decade ago, but black high school graduates are still less likely to take advance science and mathematics courses. The educational aspirations of black and white students are similar, but blacks are less likely to make an immediate transition to college and are less likely to have completed college by ages 25 to 29 years. Blacks have lower literacy levels than whites as adults. Next, Zill (1992) researched the trends in family life and children's school performance. Education professionals have long known that family background is a stronger predictor