Learning More by Measuring More: Building Better Evidence on Pre-K Programs by Assessing the Full Range of Children's Skills. Measures for Early Success

N

11

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Preschool Education; Preschool Children; Program Effectiveness; Outcomes of Education; Skill Development; Reading Skills; Literacy; Writing Skills; Language Skills; Mathematics Skills; Achievement Tests; Kindergarten; Elementary Education

Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test; Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

Decades of research on early care and education have shown that four-year-old children who enroll in prekindergarten (pre-K) programs start kindergarten scoring higher on assessments of academic skills than those who do not. A handful of long-term follow-up studies of pre-K have also found that these programs can have lasting beneficial impacts on critical outcomes into adulthood, such as educational attainment, employment, and income. In the large majority of studies, however, pre-K researchers have only been able to follow students through elementary school. This brief looks at examples of additional, sometimes less frequently measured types of skills that pre-K programs may help boost in the short term and sustain over the longer term. It then presents evidence from existing studies of pre-K programs conducted by MDRC and other researchers that shows how measuring a broader set of outcomes is key to a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits of pre-K programming. The brief concludes with recommendations for ongoing investment in the creation and collection of measures that go beyond the ABCs and 123s, to better understand the lasting effects of early care and education and to strengthen future programming

ERIC

2022

ED617725