In this joint op-ed, Sam Odom and Ken Dodge explain how research shows NC Pre-K is associated with much better child outcomes than Tennessee's pre-kindergarten program.

Excerpt: "At the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg and colleagues have conducted evaluations of NC Pre-K for 13 years. In one recent study, they found that at the end of preschool and into kindergarten, children in NC pre-K make significant progress in vocabulary and math, as compared with a norm group. Also, children who had the lowest English proficiency at the beginning of the NC pre-K year benefited the most... In another study, they found that the reading and math scores at the end of third grade for children were modestly higher for the NC pre-K group as compared to a group who had not attended the program. That is, the effects for NC pre-K do not 'fade out' as they had for children in the Tennessee study. Also, for the poorest children, fewer children were identified as having a disability at third grade, as compared to children not attending NC pre-K..." more