What happens when students get a chance to attend a full-day of a Head Start prekindergarten program instead of a half day? They are more likely to become better readers and to need less in the way of special education services once they get to kindergarten, according to a study released by Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
“This report reinforces the power of full-day pre-kindergarten for our at-risk students,” said Superintendent of Schools Jerry D. Weast said in a press release about the report. “Our citizens recognize that a commitment to preparing students for college and the work world must begin at the earliest grade levels and continue throughout a child’s elementary and secondary education.”
Montgomery County is an interesting one to watch when it comes to early learning, because the sprawling school district includes both locally funded pre-kindergarten classes as well as Head Start classes that are federally funded and are aimed at four-year-olds who meet income eligibility guidelines. It would be interesting to spend some time in those classrooms and find out how the different programs differ, and how the teachers are trained. Why are they getting such good results?
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at 12:21 am
Is a report of just one year of a program in schools that voluntarily chose to participate a predictor of long term results? Is that sufficient for research on education issues?
There are 131 elementary schools in Montgomery County and only 10 had full day Pre-Kindergarten in this report. The 10 schools chose to participate in the all day Pre-K program. The schools were not randomly assigned this pilot.
This paper only discusses the first year of a very small program in schools that signed up to participate in an all day pre-K program.
This report ends with the standing of these students after kindergarten.
Here is the direct link to the report:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2010/10.04.30%20Pre%20K%20report.pdf
Here is one of the recommendations from this report (see page 26):
“Replicate the outcome study on a different student cohort to see if the observed findings are replicable. Also, evaluate the long-term impact of full-day pre-K program in later grades.”
While Superintendent Weast’s statement above makes for a great sound bite, this report does not substantiate his statement.
This report stands for the progress that can possibly be made by some children at the end of kindergarten (please see data as not all groups of children were better served by all day pre-K) when those children were in the first year of a pre-K all day program when their school administrators chose to participate in the program.
at 3:15 am
Left out of the study: how many students in the full-day preschool program were students with disabilities who already had IEPs?
Seems a little too early to be declaring victory by MCPS: the “full day” pre-K was only implemented in 10 schools. These schools were self-selected, not random assignment. And if the first year of the program was school year 2007-08, that means that at BEST MCPS had only 2 years worth of information from 10 schools. What was the level of special education services for the kids in the full day pre-K, or do most of the kids with disbilities in pre-k go to OTHER MCPS programs, regardless of income?