Impacts of New Mexico PreK on Children’s School Readiness at Kindergarten Entry
June 1, 2008
by Jason T. Hustedt, W. Steven Barnett, Kwanghee Jung and Alexandra Figueras
June 2008
This is the second report from an ongoing NIEER study of New Mexico 4-year-olds who attended the state’s pre-K initiative. The new findings show that in its second year of existence, the New Mexico PreK program continued to improve language, literacy and math development for the children who attended the program.
The NIEER study found that as a result of attending the New Mexico program at age 4:
- Children’s vocabulary scores increased by about 6 raw score points due to their participation in the program, representing a statistically significant improvement. This outcome is particularly important because the measure is indicative of general cognitive abilities and predictive of becoming a successful reader.
- Children’s early math scores increased by more than 2 raw score points due to their participation in New Mexico PreK. This is also statistically significant. Early math skills assessed included simple addition and subtraction, basic number concepts, telling time and counting money.
- Children’s scores on early literacy rose by about 14 percentage points for children attending compared to those who did not attend. Children who attended New Mexico PreK knew more letters, more letter-sound associations and were more familiar with words and book concepts.
The study estimated the effects of preschool education programs on entering kindergartners’ academic skills. Researchers collected data from samples of preschool and kindergarten children with the assistance of the New Mexico Public Education Department and the Children, Youth and Families Department.
The Authors
W. Steven (Steve) Barnett is a Board of Governors Professor and the founder and Senior Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. Dr. Barnett’s work primarily focuses on public policies regarding early childhood education, child care, and child development.
Kwanghee Jung, an assistant research professor, brings to NIEER expertise in quantitative data analysis and is working on studies that analyze the effect of participation in state-funded preschool on children’s learning and development.
Dr. Figueras-Daniel was awarded a Young Scholars Program grant from the Foundation for Child Development to investigate coaching and professional development of Latina preschool teachers working with DLLs. At NIEER, she leads this study as well a project to develop a Latina leadership pipeline in ECE.