Schools for Tomorrow Blog

A look at the results of universal preschool experiments in Oklahoma and Georgia should be enough even to shake Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s faith in the idea. At least that’s the impression I get reading the latest from the Reason Foundation’s Lisa Snell (H/T Joanne Jacobs):

Today, Oklahoma students have lower reading scores than they did when universal preschool was enacted in 1998. In 1992, Oklahoma’s fourth graders had an average scale score of 220, on a 0-to-500 scale, on the fourth grade reading test. By 2007, after years of universal preschool, that reading score had fallen slightly to 217.

In 1998, 19 percent of disadvantaged kids were proficient in reading on the NAEP. In 2007, after years of giving low-income children access to preschool, still only 19 percent were proficient in reading. For non-disadvantaged kids the news is worse. In 1998, 42 percent were proficient in reading, but in 2007 only 36 percent were.

In addition, the reading achievement gap between Hispanics and whites in Oklahoma is higher now than it was before universal preschool was enacted. In 1992, fourth grade Hispanic students had an average reading scale score of 207 (on a 0 to 500 scale). In 2007, that score had fallen to 198. The achievement gap between Hispanic and white students was 16 points 1992 and grew to 25 points in 2007.

Clearly any academic gains that preschool gives to low-income and minority students disappear once they enter our failing public schools. And Oklahoma isn’t alone.

In Georgia, reading scores for fourth graders have remained flat despite a large investment, starting in 1995, in a universal preschool system that enrolls 60 percent of the state’s kids.

Yes, I’m harping on a point I raised here a couple months ago, but someone has to be the voice of reason.

There is a serious problem to be acknowledged of fade-out with even the most successful preschool programs (not to mention the less successful ones). Yet when Obama asserts that every dollar spent on early childhood education yields 10 dollars in reduced dropouts and improved test scores, there simply isn’t enough skepticism out there.

I should hardly be surprised, though. The problem here seems to be less with the rationale of the argument than the vessel delivering it. If there is insufficient skepticism about Obama’s claims that he will begin providing care for the sick and stop the oceans from rising, it’s not hard to see why no one in the media can ask the hard questions about his universal preschool proposal.

But grown-ups serious about results over rhetoric, including education reformers that frequent this site, should be willing to give credence to a more critical analysis.

One week out from the start of the legislative session, Gov. Bill Ritter needs to be careful about what he’s promising Coloradans with his proposal to expand full-day kindergarten:

Ritter wants to spend $25 million in the 2008-09 school year, building to $100 million over six years, to send 22,000 more children to full-day kindergarten. School districts that want to offer full-day kindergarten would have to seek the funds.

The proposal, which grew out of Ritter’s P-20 Education Coordinating Council, has not found many outspoken detractors. (“Few have criticized the idea, but no one has a plan on how to fund it,” Ed Sealover wrote in the Colorado Springs Gazette today.)

But then along comes an analysis like this one from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), which carries out professional non-partisan research for the Washington State Legislature. WSIPP researchers carefully analyzed 23 academic studies in which the effects of full-day kindergarten on different groups of students could be isolated, and came up with the following conclusion:

Based on our analysis, it is clear that full-day kindergarten provides academic benefits by the end of the kindergarten school year but that the effects erode almost completely in grades one through three.

And:

Because full-day kindergarten is often offered to disadvantaged children, we also analyzed from five studies reporting on low-income and minority children separately. Exhibit 9 shows the results at kindergarten and later for these groups. The exhibit indicates that the short-term benefits decrease significantly, in a pattern similar to that of the entire sample.

And:

The lesson seems to be that for full-day kindergarten to generate long-term academic benefits, public policies need to examine how to sustain the early gains from any investments in full-day kindergarten.

Of course, this study is not the final word on the topic. But anyone purporting that an expansion of full-day kindergarten is the answer to our educational woes needs to address such findings head on. Namely, why should we use taxpayer funds to push thousands more Colorado kids into full-day kindergarten without knowing how to make it work and whether it can be done? Ask the education bureaucrats and union who stand to benefit the most from such a policy change.

In Washington State, the cost of switching to full-day kindergarten was estimated at $2,611 per pupil:

Without sustained benefits beyond the end of kindergarten, we would estimate no long-term financial benefits for full-day kindergarten. Thus, the net result is a negative benefit of -$2,611….

“The net result is a negative benefit”? Should this really be Ritter’s top priority for education policy?

Amid all the education predictions, projections, and proposals being buzzed about for 2008, which one is most important?  If you were king or queen and could pick just one reform, which would it be?

I’d put my money on universal preschool education.  Sure, I’ve caught our current P-20 fever too and know  that K-12 and higher ed are important.  But no dollar goes further than a preschool dollar in growing literate, successful kids. 

Universal preschool education is not only an effective use of our tax dollars, it’s morally unassailable.  Folks across the political spectrum point to an “uneven playing field” as the primary ill facing our public education system.  Universal preschool is one of the most effective playing field levelers we have, and that’s why it’s my one wish for 2008. 

Well, that and President Oprah.

Colorado’s not the only state looking to get more kids into preschool and kindergarten. (See Gov. Bill Ritter’s proposal for the 2008 legislature.)

The Washington Post reports that “Across the country, more governors and state legislators are pushing the expansion of pre-K as the key to education reform, believing that spending money upfront will decrease the amount spent later on special education and juvenile delinquency, according to Pre-K Now, an advocacy group.”

The Post story mentions Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia as jurisdictions pushing to put more kids in Pre-K.

“Pre-K has gained such traction because it’s the perfect storm of evidence, advocacy and leadership,” Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, told The Post. Check out her group’s website for research and other materials about Pre-K.