Promoting School Readiness in Oklahoma

Children who attended the Tulsa pre-K program improved their school readiness in all developmental areas compared to children who did not participate. The impact of the program tended to be larger for children who qualify for the full free-lunch program, and for Hispanic and African American children than for white children.

Topic/Goal:

To examine the effects of Oklahoma’s public UPK program on the school readiness of children who attended the program in Tulsa during the 2000-2001 school year.

Method:

The study uses several different methods to estimate effects and performed several different analyses on a large sample (over 2000) in the Tulsa school system. The first method used is a straightforward statistical analysis comparing kindergarten children who did and did not attend the preschool program, controlling for family background differences. The others are more sophisticated techniques that take advantage of the age cut-off for school attendance to compare children who attended the program in 2000-01 to those who would attend a year later.

Program Profile:

• All of Oklahoma’s 543 school districts are eligible to receive state funding for preschool provided to four-year-olds. In 2002-03, 65% of all four-year-olds participated statewide. Most programs are provided directly by the public schools, but 18% of the children are served in Head Start or private programs that collaborate with the public schools.
• Oklahoma’s high-quality preschool program includes the following standards:
  • Licensed teachers with a Bachelor’s degree and certified in early childhood education;
  • Preschool teachers receive the same compensation as other public school teachers;
  • Maximum class size of 20; and staff/child ratios of no greater than 1:10

Major Study Findings:

• The effects on school readiness are largest for language skills and, then, cognitive development. There were also positive effects found within the domains of social/emotional and motor skills.
• While the study found school readiness improvements when looking at all children, the gains were greatest for African American, Hispanic, and low-income children. No gains were found for white and higher-income children. Researchers acknowledge, however, that limitations of the test used may have resulted in underestimating effects for these children.
• Tulsa pre-K children scored up to 1.9 points higher than children who did not attend Tulsa pre-K, a difference which is the same as how far behind a poor child is from their non-poor peer.
• Positive effects of the full-day program were larger than effects of the half-day program for both Hispanic and African-American children.
• These results are highly consistent with the effects of other high-quality preschool programs and results of other rigorous evaluations of state preschool programs.

For more information: http://www.crocus.georgetown.edu/oklahoma.html