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 2013-2020, involves a longitudinal design to follow a sample of 1,169 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.
This report focuses on the results of the fourth year of the longitudinal study, through second 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 second grade for children who attended Georgia’s Pre-K Program?,
- What factors predict better learning outcomes for children?, and
- What is the quality of children’s instructional experiences from pre-k through second grade?
You may download the executive summary of the findings and/or the full report.
