With funding from the Meadows Foundation, researchers at CHILDREN AT RISK engaged in a study to examine how participation in Texas public Pre-K is associated with performance on the 3rd Grade STAAR Reading assessment.
CHILDREN AT RISK tracked approximately 47,000 students from the 2010-2011 school year to the 2014-2015 school year. These students began public Pre-K in 2010 and completed 3rd grade in 2015. The study focused on five major urban school districts in Texas (Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio) and 12 additional school districts surrounding these metropolitan areas. Variables included student enrollment, district Pre-K expenditures, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
Overall, this study finds that, on average, economically disadvantaged students who attended high-quality public Pre-K in 2010 scored higher on the 2015 3rd Grade STAAR Reading assessment than economically disadvantaged students who did not attend public Pre-K or who attended lower quality public Pre-K.