Do positive impacts of pre-k last?

Tennessee's Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (TN-VPK) is an optional full-day prekindergarten program for four-year-old children expected to enter kindergarten the following school year. Admission is based on a tiered admission process that gives first priority to children who are identified as at risk. In 2013, the Peabody Research Institute released two reports on the effects of this initiative: one showing results at the end of pre-k and one showing follow-up results at the end of kindergarten and first .... 

The study was a randomized controlled trial in which children applying to TN-VPK were admitted to the program on a random basis. The outcome measures used to assess the effects of the program were divided into two groups: One group consisted of measures of achievement in the areas of emergent literacy, language, and math; the second group included measures of student performance or status other than academic achievement.

During the course of the pre-k school year, findings showed that children who participated in TN-VPK gained significantly more on all of the direct assessments of academic skills than the children who did not attend. Positive effects were also found on kindergarten teachers' ratings of children's preparedness for kindergarten and, to a lesser extent, on their ratings of the children's classroom work behavior and social behavior. 

At follow-up at the end of kindergarten, the researchers found that the effects of TN-VPK on achievement measures had greatly diminished, and the differences between participants and nonparticipants were no longer statistically significant. Similarly, at the end of first grade, there were no statistically significant differences between TN-VPK participants and nonparticipants on these measures with one exception (a significant difference that favored the nonparticipant group on a Quantitative Concepts subscale). 

The authors say, "These diminished effects were not entirely unexpected in light of the findings in other longitudinal studies of the effects of early childhood programs on economically disadvantaged children. For preschool programs, a typical finding is that the cognitive effects are not sustained for very long after the end of the program... It should be noted that few of the programs, including TN-VPK, involved continuous, focused support in subsequent years for the gains made during the initial program year."

Johns Hopkins University 

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