The Effects of Universal Preschool on Grade Retention

Nationwide, the percentage of four-year-olds enrolled in state-supported
preschool programs has more than doubled since the early 2000s as states
dramatically increased their investments in early childhood education.
Florida's Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Program (VPK), which began in 2005, has
been a national leader with respect to preschool access. 

This paper provides the first evidence of the program's impacts. The paper measures the effect of VPK participation on the likelihood that children are retained at any point between kindergarten and third grade.

The results indicate that VPK did not lead to changes in the likelihood that children complete the third grade without ever being retained. The authors do find, however, that VPK led to a change in the timing of retention. Specifically, the program led to a drop in the likelihood that children were retained during the kindergarten year, but this drop was counteracted by increases in retention in subsequent school years.