Gov. Bob Riley has said one of his 2008 legislative priorities is to see the state’s pre-kindergarten program expanded and be accessible to more 4-year-olds in the state.But are pre-K programs good for state children? A study released by a Birmingham-based research and education organization said the benefits of pre-K may not be universal.
The Alabama Policy Institute’s study, written by education consultant Krista Kafer, stated:
O The majority of low-income children experience only short-term positive impacts; there is little long-term impact from participation in early childhood education programs.
O By fourth- or fifth-grade, graduates of pre-K programs experience a “fade out” effect where short-term cognitive and academic benefits fade out after a few years.
O Preschool participation has no positive impact on children from middle- or high-income families, and in particular, has been shown to have an adverse affect on math skills.
O Over the past few years, several studies have found that early childhood education can have an adverse affect on the behavior of children from middle- to upper-income families.
The full report can be found online at www.alabamapolicy.org.
API president Gary Palmer said in a released statement, “Gov. Riley should be applauded for his commitment to improving the quality of education in Alabama. API supports Riley on pre-K programs for children from highly disadvantaged families, but based on our overview of available pre-K research, there is simply no benefit for the state to provide pre-K for children from higher income families.”
Palmer goes on to say the state should focus resources on children from highly disadvantaged families and on improving reading and math skills for children in fourth- through eighth-grades.
Jesse Cleveland, director of Talladega Head Start, said he believes a pre-K program would be great for the Talladega area. Cleveland said the Head Start program is working toward getting a pre-K classroom at the Eastside Head Start.
“We have applied for a grant to sponsor one class of 4-year-olds for pre-K opportunities in this community,” Cleveland said. “We have an available classroom for those students here.”
Cleveland said Head Start is a similar program to pre-K though pre-K requires its students to attend 180 days a year, prefers its teachers to have a bachelor’s degree and mandates no more than 18 students can be in a class, as well as a few other minor differences.
He said they hope to blend in pre-K with what Head Start is already doing and believes the program could benefit children from all economic backgrounds.
“We’re talking about students that may come from a very good household that are missing a lot of things because the parents are away working because of the economically distressed area we are in,” Cleveland said. “On the other hand, we have students who are not necessarily in poverty, but students who are very bright.”
The Head Start program already is teaching not only education but social and motor skills, according to Cleveland.
Head Start education manager Allison Edwards said she monitors students’ progress for two to three years while transitioning them into Head Start and then into elementary school. She said teachers saw better performance from students who had been in Head Start.
Margaret Morton, executive director of the Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement, is a strong proponent for local pre-K programs.
“To be honest, there’s pretty robust research that there are excellent long-term effects from high-quality pre-K programs. Alabama’s pre-K has been ranked in the top two in the nation,” she said.
Morton referenced long-term studies that have reported promising results for pre-K students such as the Perry Preschool Project, the Carolina Abecedarian Project and work from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child showing results that support pre-K.
“We don’t have the longitudinal studies in state because we have not been in pre-K that many years. There is a national body of work that would show gains have been made, though,” Morton said.
With more state funding going to pre-K programs, this may be a debate that has just begun.
