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Highlights From the Evaluation of Georgia's 2013 Rising Kindergarten and Rising Pre-Kindergarten Summer Transition Programs

Early, D. M., Maxwell, K. L., LaForett, D. R., Pan, Y., Kraus, S., & Hume, K.
May
2014

Georgia is known nationally for its universal pre-kindergarten program (Georgia’s Pre-K), available to all four-year-old children in the state from all income levels. Since the program’s inception in 1993, over 1.2 million children have been served. Due to the success of Georgia’s Pre-K, the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) has expanded its pre-k services by offering Summer Transition Programs. Beginning in the summer of 2010, the program has been available each summer to rising kindergartners—that is, children starting kindergarten the following fall—and it has enrolled both children who did and did not attend Georgia’s Pre-K during the preceding year. Starting in 2013, services were expanded once more to offer a summer program for rising pre-kindergartners, that is, children who would be attending Georgia’s Pre-K at the end of the summer. The overall goal of both summer programs is to support children’s transitions and development, particularly their early literacy skills, through the last few months before kindergarten or pre-kindergarten entry.

The purpose of this report is to summarize the evaluation findings from these two summer programs. This evaluation was conducted through a partnership between DECAL and researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Child Trends. The study design, measures, and procedures were developed jointly.

Citation

Early, D. M., Maxwell, K. L., LaForett, D. R., Pan, Y., Kraus, S., & Hume, K. (2014). Highlights from the evaluation of Georgia's 2013 Rising Kindergarten and Rising Pre-Kindergarten Summer Transition Programs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute.