Arkansas’ state-funded pre-kindergarten program is narrowing the achievement gap between children from affluent families and children from poor families - not only as the children move through kindergarten - but also into the early elementary grades, according to two studies the Arkansas Department of Human Services released Friday.
“The good news is that, in literacy, in math and verbal-acquisition skills, children are continuing to show gains when they have attended a high quality pre-K program like Arkansas Better Chance,” Tonya Russell, director of the agency’s Childcare and EarlyChildhood Education Division, said at a Friday news conference.
The Arkansas B etter Chance program sets education standards and provides funding for pre-kindergarten classes that serve about 25,000 children, mostly 4-year-olds, from low-income families. The programs are mostly housed in public schools and in privately owned centers across the state. About $111 million in state and federal money is spent annually on the program.
Russell, speaking in an activity-filled pre-kindergarten class at North Little Rock’s Amboy Elementary School, welcomed the results of the studies as an indication oftaxpayer money well spent.
“It allows the state to really stand solid on the investment that we have made,” Russell said, noting that Arkansas lawmakers have resisted making reductions to the program.
“At a time when other states have made cuts, Arkansas has remained committed,” she said.
The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University researched the long-term effects of the Arkansas Better Chance program as participating children moved from first through fourth grades.
“Positive effects were found at the end of first and second grade for language,math, and literacy, and at the end of third grade for literacy,” according to the study of children through the 2009-10 school year.
The study, which used comparative statistics to assess the benefits of program participation, described positive results as “modest” but “meaningful.”
“These effects are more pronounced when including only children who did not attend another preschool program in the comparison group than when additionally including children who attended a pre-school program other than the ABC initiative,” the study summarized. That suggested that otherpreschool programs also produced achievement gains, but that those gains were not as large as the state’s program.
The Rutgers study also suggested that the drop-off in achievement differences after third grade between pupils who attended the state pre-kindergarten program and those who did not attend was because of an early-elementary-grades emphasis on raising the achievement levels of low-performing pupils. That would disproportionately help children who did not attend the state program, the study said.
“While effective, these efforts are expensive and may include extra teacher time in the classroom, remedial programs and even special education,” the study said. “These efforts may gradually reduce the test score advantages for the ABC children in later years, but at a substantial cost.”
The study also found that the former Arkansas Better Chance pupils were less likely to repeat a grade by the end of the third grade than those who did not attend a pre-kindergarten program.
The Rutgers study was funded by the state and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
A second study done by the Arkansas Research Center, which was established with a grant received by the Arkansas Department of Education and does data research for multiple state agencies, looked at the Arkansas Better Chance program’s effect on kindergarten readiness of children.
Using the results of an evaluation given to every kindergartner entering public school, the study showed that a larger percentage of children from low-income families who had attended pre-kindergarten programs met skill standards than their peers who did not attend pre-kindergarten. The skill categories are general knowledge, oral communication, written language, math concepts, work habits and attentive behaviors.
Students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals were characterized as low- income in the study. A family of four with an income of $43,568 would qualify for those meals.
In 2012, 70 percent of economically advantaged students with no known pre-kindergarten experience showed satisfactory development on the general knowledge subtest, according to the center’s research. Only 41 percent of economically disadvantaged students without pre-kindergarten did the same. But for low-income children who attended Arkansas Better Chance programs, 50 percent showed satisfactory development on the general knowledge subtest, according tothe analysis.
Sarah Argue, early childhood education project director at the Arkansas Research Center, said the center is using the data to help the Division of Childcare and Early Childhood Education identify strengths and areas in need of improvement in the pre-kindergarten program. The benefits of pre-kindergarten go beyond helping children through school, Argue said.
“We know through national studies that there is a huge economic benefit to pre-K,” she said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/11/2013