Making the Case

A Path to Equity: From Expanded Pre-Kindergarten Access to Success in Elementary School

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Do district policy changes that increase access to full-day school-based pre-kindergarten relate to improved 2nd grade academic outcomes? How? A study from Start Early, NORC at the University of Chicago, and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research examined these questions based on a set of Chicago Public School (CPS) policy changes that began […]

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What Happens After Preschool Matters for Sustaining the Preschool Boost

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Under what conditions do the benefits of large-scale public preschool last? How should elementary schools be designed to build on the gains in preschool? This post reviews recent studies of Boston Public Schools that find the quality of a child’s elementary school is a consistent predictor for whether the preschool “boost” lasts. The authors also

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Teachers, Schools, and Pre-K Effect Persistence: An Examination of the Sustaining Environment Hypothesis

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This paper provides compelling evidence that Tennessee PreK students who subsequently experienced “sustaining environments” – meaning they attended high performing K-3 schools and were taught by highly effective teachers – significantly outpaced their peers who also attended high performing schools and had highly effective teachers but who had not attended Tennessee’s Voluntary PreK program.

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North Carolina Should Focus on Early Childhood Learning in Order to Raise Achievement in Predominantly Disadvantaged School Districts

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To raise achievement in predominantly disadvantaged school districts, the Program Evaluation Division (PED) of the North Carolina General Assembly recommended focusing on early childhood learning, defined as the years birth through 3rd grade. The PED summarized their work: “predominantly disadvantaged districts that perform well [average or better on standardized state tests] are already demonstrating above

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How the Opportunity Gap in K-3 Teaching Is Failing Our Students

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This blog research about the quality of teaching in K-3. The punchline of the study is that dosage matters (year after year of consecutive good teaching) in closing achievement gaps. And, of great consequence, very few children receive consecutive years of good teaching during the early grades of elementary school (K-3). This is important as

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Effects of Sustained Quality in PreK, Kindergarten and First Grade in Dallas ISD

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This study, conducted in Dallas Independent School District (TX), shows that students in consecutive years of high-quality classrooms (PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade) outperform their peers in lower-quality classrooms. The district has adopted a data-driven instructional coaching approach that provides targeted support to early elementary teachers.

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Issues in PreK-3rd: Using Developmental Science to Transform Children’s Early School Experiences

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Four foundational elements of young children’s development underlie their competence and appear to predict their success in school from PreK through 3rd grade: self regulation, representation, memory, and attachment. Infusing knowledge about child development into the early education system would transform early schooling and help all children achieve and succeed. 

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