In 2011-2012, the Georgia legislature funded a series of ongoing studies to evaluate Georgia's Pre-K Program. The first study, conducted in 2011-2012, was designed to examine children's learning outcomes during pre-k, the factors that predict better outcomes, and the quality of children's experiences in Georgia's Pre-K classrooms based on a random sample of 100 classrooms and 509 children within those classrooms. The second study, conducted in 2012-2013, was designed to investigate the effects of participation in Georgia's Pre-K on children's school readiness skills, and whether those effects are similar for different groups of children. This study utilized a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to compare children who had and had not attended the program, and included 1,181 children (611 treated and 570 untreated). The third study, occurring from 2013-2021, involves a longitudinal design to follow a sample of children from pre-k through fifth grade, in order to examine the short- and long-term learning outcomes for children who attended Georgia's Pre-K as well as the quality of their preschool and school experiences. The longitudinal study began with a sample of 1,169 children (139 Spanish speaking dual language learners/DLLs) attending a random sample of 199 Georgia's Pre-K classes in the first year of the study. Eight-hundred fifty-seven children (109 Spanish-speaking DLLs) were followed into third grade.
The purpose of this evaluation study was to examine longitudinal outcomes for children related to key academic and social skills as well as the quality of their classrooms from pre-k through second grade. The primary evaluation questions included:
- What are the learning outcomes through third grade for children who attended Georgia's Pre-K Program?
- What factors predict better learning outcomes for children?
- What is the quality of children's instructional experiences from pre-k through third grade?
Different from previous years' reports, this report includes a sub-study that incorporates a comparison group of children who did not attend any pre-k program. This report focuses on third grade outcomes, but it also includes pre-k to third grade outcomes collected during the 2013-2014 to 2017-2018 school years and a comparison sub-study of children who did not attend any pre-k.
You may also see a summary of the findings.
