Scientists from UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development
Institute have released their new study of NC Pre-K, the state’s program to
prepare four-year-olds for success in kindergarten. According to FPG’s report,
students enrolled in NC Pre-K show significant gains across all areas of
learning.
“Children are progressing at an even greater rate during
their participation in NC Pre-K than expected for normal developmental growth,”
said senior scientist Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, who leads the FPG team that has
evaluated the program and provided it with recommendations for more than a
dozen years. “Our research found growth in language and literacy skills, math
skills, general knowledge, and social skills.”
NC Pre-K was designed to be a high-quality program to serve
at-risk children. Since the program’s inception as “More at Four” in 2001, it
has served over 255,000 four-year-olds.
Throughout this time, FPG researchers have provided annual
updates on NC Pre-K’s outcomes. The NC Department of Health and Human Services
funds these evaluations and reports the results to the state legislature each
year.
“The pattern of developmental growth we found during the
2012-2013 school year is consistent with earlier findings,” said
Peisner-Feinberg. “In general, the quality of NC Pre-K has remained relatively
stable over time across many measures.”
She said that NC Pre-K also has seen steady improvement in
teacher education and credentials, with a higher proportion of teachers now
holding BA degrees and the appropriate licenses than in past years. “The
average class size was 16 children, and most classrooms were at the highest
licensing levels—four-star and five-star,” she added.
The new findings on NC Pre-K add to a growing body of
evidence about the benefits of quality pre-kindergarten programs, including
Peisner-Feinberg’s recent evaluation of Georgia’s pre-k program, which revealed
positive effects for all children, regardless of gender and income level.
Peisner-Feinberg said the new findings from 99 randomly
chosen NC Pre-K classrooms suggest that while participation in North Carolina’s
program is beneficial for all groups of children, it may be especially valuable
for some students.
“Children with lower levels of English proficiency made even
greater gains than their peers in some skills,” she said, adding that students
who are “dual-language learners” showed significant growth for all skills
measured in English and for most skills measured in Spanish.
Peisner-Feinberg’s earlier research in North Carolina
revealed that children enrolled in the state’s pre-k program continued to make
gains even after leaving it. At the end of third grade, children from
low-income families who had attended pre-k had higher reading and math scores
on the North Carolina end-of-grade (EOG) tests than similar children who had
not attended the state’s program.
“FPG’s 13-year history of bringing researched-based
recommendations to North Carolina’s pre-k program has helped the program
maintain its quality as it has grown,” Peisner-Feinberg said.
“The state has examined the evaluation findings to ensure
that all children are benefitting from NC Pre-K and to consider areas where
they might improve practices,” she added. “It’s been very positive from our
perspective to see the program make such good use of our research.”
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