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Pre-K
report: Local flexibility works
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
May 19, 2003
Contact:
Beth Flannigan,
(404) 651-3574,
bflannigan@gsu.edu
Gary Henry,
(404) 651-2343,
gthenry@gsu.edu
ATLANTA — Allowing local pre-kindergarten administrators the latitude to make decisions about teachers and curriculum is working out fine for the students, Georgia State University researchers report.
Georgia’s pre-kindergarten policies allow pre-k centers to hire teachers with different levels of education and credentials, and to choose from several approved curriculums. Such decisions have no unilateral effect on the success of students, as judged by retention rates and test scores, according to a new state-funded study.
Students’ economic backgrounds have more influence on their educational success after pre-k than curriculum choice and teacher credentials, the study showed.
The latest findings are from the fifth and final year of a longitudinal study of Georgia’s pre-kindergarten program, commissioned by the Office of School Readiness in 1996. The data is based on an initial sample of 3,639 children who participated in pre-k during the 1996-1997 academic year and who, for the most part (85 percent), were enrolled in regular third-grade classes during 2000-2001.
Eighty-one percent of third-grade students involved in the study were expected to enter fourth grade on schedule.
Neither public nor private pre-k programs were found to be superior in predicting students’ school success.
“Program characteristics made only small differences in retention and test scores,” said Gary Henry, lead researcher on the study. “These differences are much less dramatic than some of the differences based on parental education or socio-economic status.”
The effects of different program characteristics were felt by different groups of children in different ways, complicating efforts to make sweeping program improvements that work for all children, Henry added.
“There is no magic bullet here,” said Henry. “No one thing is waiting in the wings to increase scores for all students, and no one program choice is negatively affecting success, so there is no reason to restrict local discretion.”
The study also showed:
- According to teachers’ assessments of their students, the children’s academic, social and communication skills peaked in the first grade and declined through second grade. “This decline could be due to any number of things, such as lack of readiness of some schools to build on the skills developed during pre-k, a decline in students’ performance, or higher expectations on the part of teachers in later grades,” Henry said.
- More children were enrolled in large classes during kindergarten (43 percent in classes of 23 or more students) than in any other year of school. By 2000-2001, the average class size had decreased to 20 students per class and only one-fifth were in classes of 23 or more.
- About 15 percent of the children were retained at least once by their fourth year of primary school.
- Compared to teachers, nearly twice as many parents (over 80 percent) expected their children to graduate from college or graduate school. Parents’ satisfaction with their children’s schools decreased, although slightly, each year of the study.
Read the full report: Georgia Pre-K Longitudinal Study: Final Report 1996-2001
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