Eric.ed.gov – Children’s Outcomes and Classroom Quality from Pre-K through Kindergarten: Findings from Year 2 of Georgia’s Pre-K Longitudinal Study

This report focuses on the results of the second year of this longitudinal study–the 2014-2015 Georgia’s Pre-K Program Evaluation. The purpose of this evaluation study was to examine initial longitudinal outcomes related to school readiness for children and the quality of their classrooms from pre-k through kindergarten. The primary evaluation questions addressed included: (1) What are the learning outcomes through kindergarten for children attending Georgia’s Pre-K Program; (2) What factors predict better learning outcomes for children; and (3) What is the quality of children’s experiences in pre-k and kindergarten? To address these questions, the evaluation study included a sample of 1,169 children (139 Spanish-speaking dual language learners/DLLs) attending a random sample of 199 Georgia’s Pre-K classrooms in year 1, and 1,034 of these children (118 Spanish-speaking DLLs) who were attending kindergarten in year 2. Researchers conducted individual child assessments near the beginning and end of each year to examine growth in children’s skills. The assessment measures covered multiple domains of learning, including language, literacy, math, and general knowledge, and teacher ratings of behavior skills. For the DLL subsample, parallel assessments were conducted in both English and Spanish. Researchers also conducted observations of the quality of teacher-child instructional interactions using the CLASS in both pre-k and kindergarten classrooms attended by this sample. In addition, information about characteristics of the classrooms, teachers, and children was gathered from teacher and parent surveys and from existing statewide pre-k program data. Child/family characteristics, classroom/teacher characteristics, and classroom quality were examined as moderators of children’s growth in skills. Children who attended Georgia’s Pre-K Program made significant gains on almost all measures from entry into pre-k through the end of kindergarten. They demonstrated significant growth across all domains of learning (based on regression results): Language/literacy skills (WJ-III Letter-Word Identification, WJ-III Sound Awareness, WJ-III Word Attack, Naming Letters Task), Math skills (WJ-III Applied Problems, Counting Task), General knowledge (Social Awareness Task), and Behavior skills (SSiS Social Skills). Two areas that showed no changes over this time period were WJ-III Picture Vocabulary and SSiS Problem Behaviors, which had scores around the population mean at both time points. In general, children showed consistent gains on many of the norm-referenced measures (WJ-III and SSiS), with average scores at or slightly below the population mean of 100 at the beginning of pre-k and slightly to somewhat above the mean (from about 0.2 to almost 1 SD higher) by the end of kindergarten. Growth on these measures indicates that children progressed at an even greater rate from their entry into Georgia’s Pre-K through the end of kindergarten than would be expected for normal developmental growth.