The Effectsof Oklahoma's ndergarten UniversalPre-Ki Programon School Readiness
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THEEFFECTS OKLAHOMA'S PRE.KPROGRAM OF UNIVERSAL ON SCHOOL READINESS: AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
WilliamGormley, Ted Gayer,DeborahPhillips, Jr., and BrittanyDawson Parentsand publicofficials are increasingly concerned aboutthe schoolreadiness young children. In recentyears, of state governments have boostedtheir supportfor pre-K programs. Severalstates,includingOklahoma,have opted for pre-K,making pre-Kavailable allfour-year-olds a voluntary universal to on basis.At the sametime,the federalgovernment, through the No Child Left BehindAct, has imposednew testing requirements public schools,to determinewhether on studentsas a wholeand particular subgroupsof studentsare makinggood academicprogress.Thesetrendshave heightened interestin the effectiveness pre-K programs. of pre-Kprogramis of specialinterest The Oklahoma becauseit enrollsa higherpercentage four-year-olds of than any preK programin the U.S. lt is also of particular interest, becauseit is basedin the publicschoolsand becauseit placesstrong emphasis highquality:all leadteachersmust havea collegedegreeand must be early-childhood on certified; recruitand to retainoutstanding individuals, they are paid at the same rate as other publicschoolteachers. In September 2003 we administered nationally-normed to 1,567pre-Kstudentsand 3,149kindergarten a test students in Tulsa,Oklahoma. Nearlyhalf of the kindergarten studentshad participated the Tulsapre-Kprogramduringthe 2002in 03 schoolyear. All of the pre-Kstudents were aboutto beginthe Tulsapre-Kprogram. We administered three subtestsof the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement Test(WJ-ACH-lll):Letter-Word ldentification (whichmeasurespre-reading (whichmeasures skills);Spelling(whichmeasurespre-writing skills);bnd Applied'Problems pre-numeracy young children. skills). We specifically chosesubteststhat are thoughtto be appropriate relatively for We comparedkindergarten studentswho had just completed Tulsapre-K (our treatmentgroup)to pre-K students who were about to begin Tulsa pre-K (our controlgroup). We includedstatistical controlsfor gender,race/ethnicity, socioeconomicstatus(as measuredby eligibility a free lunch),mother'seducation, for and date of birth. Our researchstrategyhelps to correctfor selectionbias, because both our treatmentgroup and our controlgroup selected Tulsapre-K. Moreimportantly, Tulsausesa strictbirthday because cut-offfor eligibility, can controlfor selection we "old"Tulsapre-Kchildren "young" bias by statistically comparing to Tulsakindergarten children who were in Tulsapre-Kthe previous academicyear.The observable characteristics thesetwo groupsare quitesimilar, of whichgivesus greaterconfidence that their unobservable characteristics also similar. are
OKLAHOMA PRE.K PROGRAMAT A GLANCE
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Available all four-vear-olds, to irrespective income of Becameuniversal. 1998 fall Fundedbv stateqeneralrevenues All fundinqflowslhrouqh oublicschools All lead te"achers mustJ-raVeB A degreeand must be early-childhood-certified a All leadteachersare paid at publicschoolwages Maximumchild/staff ratio: 10/'1 Maximum orouosize: 20 Collaborations with Head Startoroqramsand dav care centerspossible 91 percentof all Oklahomaschboltistrictspartiiipate particip'ate, program 60 percentof all Oklahomafour-year-olds eitherdirectlyor througha Head Startcollaborative
Our key findingsare presented below.
OverallEffects: Pre-Reading, Pre-Writing, and Pre-Math
For studentsas a whole, the overall effectsof the Tulsa pre-K programare: a 52 percentgain in the Letter-Word ldentification score;a 27 percentgain in the Spellingtest score; and a 21 percentgain in the Applied Problemstest test score. That is the averagechangein each test scoreattributable the Tulsapre-Kprogram,above and beyondthe gains to that naturally occuras the childages one year(see Figure1).
F i g u r e1 : Overall Effects of Tulsa Pre-K Program
Spelling Test
Appired Problems
Tulsa pre-K students experience statistically signficant gains on all three tests
Figure2: Effectsof Tulsa Pre-KProgramby Race/Ethnicity Student of
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statistically experience students and blackstudents fromtheTulsapre-Kprogram.Hispanic Ail racial and ethnicgroupsbenefit gainsfor two of significant statistically gains for all three tests. NativeAmericanand white studentsexperience significant a Hispanic studentsexperience 79 percent impressive.Specifically, students are especially threetests. Gainsfor Hispanic percentgain in Spelling, a 54 percentgain in Applied Problems,above and gain in Letter-Word and ldentification, 39 a 2). the gainsthat occuras the childagesone year(see Figure beyond
TULSA PUBLICSCHOOLSAT A GLANCE
r r r I r : with 41,048studentsin 2002-03 Tulsa PublicSchoolsis the largestschooldistrictin Oklahonra, percent Hispanic; black;13 percent white:36 percent is bodyof TulsaPublicSchools diverse:41 The student '1percentAsian NativeAmerican; 9 percent program participate, eitherdirectlyor througha Head Startcollaborative 60 percentof Tulsafour-year-olds program 2001 fall TulsaReads inaugurated fall2003 Inaugurated TulsaCountsprogram testedSeptember 2003 Students
Figure 3: Effects of Tulsa Pre-K Program by Free Lunch Program Status of Student
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backgrounds benefitfromTulsapre-K. fromdiverse socio-economic Students
Effects of Tulsa Pre-K Program by Free Lunch Program Status of Student
students) for eligible a free lunch(the poorest groLlps from the Tulsapre-Kprogram.Students benefit All socio-eccnomic who lunchand students gainsfor all threetests, for a reduced-price whrle str-rdents eligible experience statistically significant gairts two of threetests(see Figure1)) for significant statistically lunchexperience mustpay for a full-price
Figure4: Test Score Gains Attributableto Tulsa Pre-K Program
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TestScoreGainsAttributableto TulsaPre-K Program
Evaluators sometimesmeasureeffectsizes by comparing the test scoregain coefficient the standarddeviation the to for controlgroup. This helps to facilitate comparisons across studiesby creatinq commonmetric. Effectslzesfor the Tulsa a Pre-K programaie quite substantial, comparisonto other in -0.79 studies: o f a s t a n d a r d d e v i a t i o nf b r L e t t e r - W o r d ldentification; of a standard 0.64 deviation Spelling; 0.38 for and of a standarddeviation AppliedProblems(see Figure4). for
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Letter-Wordldentification Spelling Test Applied Problems
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Age-Equivalent Scoresfor Children Test Exposedto TulsaPre-K
Fora hypothetical childwho just madethe pre-Keligibility cutoffby one day (bornon September1 of the relevanfveai) and anotherhVpothetical child who iust missedthe ore-K eligibility cutoff'byone day (born on September of tne Z relevantyear), it is possibleto convertraw test scores into age-equivalent test scores. As Figure 5 reveals,the child eiposed to Tulsapre-K is substanh-allv betteroff.'Whereas t h e c h i l d n o t y e t e x p o s e d t o T u l s - ao r e - K f a l l s b e l o w national normsi5.0) for all threetests,ttie childexposed to T u l s a p r e - K e i c e ' e d s n a t i o n a ln o r m s i n L e t t e r - W o r d l d e n t i f i c a t i o a n d e q u a l s n a t i o n a ln o r m s i n S p e l l i n q . n Expressed bit differbntly, a Tulsa pre-K yieldstest scoie gains of approximately even mbnthsfor Letter-Word s s a [ d e n t i f i c a t i o n i, x m o n t h sf o r S p e l l i n g , n d f o u r m o n t h s for AppliedProblems.
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Figure 5: Age-Equivalent Test Scores for Children Exposed to Tulsa Pre-K and Children Not Exposed to Tulsa Pre-K
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Noter Age,equ va ent scores are expressed in
Spelling
Studenls In Tulsa pre K advance several months beyond othe. students
A U T H OR S NOTEAND ACKNOW LEDGM ENTS '
The authorsof this reportare: WilliamGormley, Professor Government Jr., of and PublicPolicy,Georgetown University; Ted Gayer, AssociateProfessor PublicPolicy, of Georgetown University; DeborahPhillips, Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University; Brittany and Dawson, who recently completed Master's PublicPolicy at her in Georgetown niversity. U The authors wouldliketo thankthe Foundation ChildDevelopment, National for the Institute Early for Fducation Research, the Pew Charitable and Trusts theirgenerous for financial support.The authors aloneare responsible the contents this report. for of The fulltext of this reportis available through Centerfor Research Children the U.S.(CROCUS) the on in at Georgetown University. The web siteis. georgetown. u. http:/iwww. crocus. ed