The cognitive advantage that Big Lift preschoolers had over children who did not attend preschool at the start of kindergarten persisted into early elementary school

The Big Lift™ (Big Lift) is a preschool to third-grade initiative designed to boost literacy skills and ensure that children are reading proficiently by the third grade. First launched in 2012 by the County of San Mateo, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the San Mateo County Office of Education, Big Lift comprises more than 300 community organizations. The initiative targets preschool through third-grade students in seven school districts in San Mateo County, California, that have below-average third-grade reading levels. Big Lift seeks to improve third-grade reading through a set of four coordinated and integrated "pillars": High-Quality Preschool, Summer Learning, School Attendance, and Family Engagement.

As part of a multiphase, independent evaluation of the Big Lift initiative, researchers at the RAND Corporation are undertaking a series of descriptive reports on participation and achievement outcomes over multiple years. To date, RAND researchers have completed two outcome studies, both focusing on the Big Lift pillars for which data are available: High-Quality Preschool and Summer Learning. The first study in this series examined the early education experiences and kindergarten readiness outcomes of children in the 2016–2017 kindergarten class — in four "Cohort 1" districts — who received Big Lift services.

The second study in this series, summarized here, builds on these initial analyses. RAND researchers examined kindergarten readiness outcomes of children in the 2017–2018 kindergarten class in the Cohort 1 districts and in three additional "Cohort 2" districts. The researchers also followed up on the 2016–2017 kindergarten class by documenting their reading skills at the end of kindergarten and the start of first grade in the fall of 2017.

Key Findings

Kindergarten readiness of children in Big Lift districts

• Big Lift preschoolers in the 2017–2018 kindergarten class were more kindergarten-ready than demographically similar peers who did not attend preschool and less kindergarten-ready than children who attended other preschool programs.
• When comparing demographically similar peers, children in the 2017–2018 kindergarten class who attended two years of Big Lift were more kindergarten-ready than children who attended only one year of Big Lift preschool.

Early elementary school reading scores of children in Big Lift districts

• Big Lift preschoolers in the 2016–2017 kindergarten class had higher reading scores at the end of kindergarten and start of first grade than children who did not go to preschool, and they had reading scores that were on par with children who went to other preschool programs, accounting for demographic characteristics.
• This suggests that the cognitive advantage that Big Lift preschoolers had over children who did not attend preschool at the start of kindergarten persisted into early elementary school.

Reading scores and summer learning experiences following kindergarten of children in Big Lift districts

• Children who attended the Big Lift Inspiring Summers program in the summer after kindergarten had reading levels at the start of first grade similar to children who went to other summer programs and children who did not attend any summer programs, accounting for demographic characteristics.