EFFECTS OF ATTENDING PREKINDERGARTEN ON KINDERGARTEN EMERGENT LITERACY SKILLS

Abstract

With the cost of intervening being less costly prior to school entry, one strategy being used to decrease the achievement gap is to provide access to quality preschool education for economically disadvantaged children prior to kindergarten entry (Bailet, et al., 2011; Lee, Zhai, Brooks-Gunn, & Han, 2014). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a district’s prekindergarten program on kindergarten emergent literacy skills as measured by Primary-Measure of Academic Progress. The population for this study consisted of 275 students who attended the district’s voluntary prekindergarten program and 724 prekindergarten students who did not attend the district’s voluntary kindergarten program. The study utilized the Annual Measurement Objectives (AMO) used by the Tennessee Department of Education to identify the subgroup comparisons. The emergent literacy skills were measured in September, January, and April. The subgroup’s RIT scores were compared to determine if a statistically significant difference was present between the achievement levels of the two group comparison. This casual comparative study used a multivariate analysis (MANOVA) to test each of the eleven null hypotheses at the .05 level of significance. The results found that economics were a key factor in determining significance. Attending the voluntary prekindergarten program did not have a statistically significant effect on economically disadvantaged students’ academic performance when compared to like peers or non-economically disadvantaged students. The results did show continued growth between each of the three administration of the assessments by all students. As a result, research should be continued to determine if prekindergarten is a viable solution to closing the achievement gap that exists prior to formal school entry.