{"id":29151,"date":"2018-01-12T10:38:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T16:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29151"},"modified":"2018-01-12T14:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T20:24:19","slug":"research-on-tulsa-program-suggests-statewide-pre-k-has-long-term-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/01\/12\/research-on-tulsa-program-suggests-statewide-pre-k-has-long-term-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Research on Tulsa Program Suggests Statewide Pre-K Has Long-Term Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29154\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29154\" alt=\"Preschool teacher, Irene Castell, works on counting with a small group of students. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preschool teacher, Irene Castell, works on counting with a small group of kids.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Kids are scattered around the preschool classroom at Zarrow International School in Tulsa. It\u2019s loud and chaotic, but it\u2019s organized. Some students paint pictures; others write out the letters of the alphabet. The small group sitting around teacher Irene Castell is learning to count and compare numbers.<\/p><p>Castell says many kids would not learn these skills if they stayed home, or went to daycare.<\/p><p>\u201cWe always hear back from teachers of kindergartners, \u2018We can always tell who\u2019s been to pre-K,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/382576556&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>Georgetown University Professor Bill Gormley has studied the effects of Tulsa\u2019s preschool program for 16 years. Initially, his research focused on the short-term benefits. He found <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/320\/5884\/1723.full?ijkey=9fON.EIKV6mQA&keytype=ref&siteid=sci\">quite a few<\/a>, but as his research continued, Gormley wanted to know if those benefits did, too.<\/p><p>In 2015, Gormley and a colleague published a paper on whether pre-K\u2019s positive impacts lasted to the third grade \u2014 when students take their first round of state tests. The researchers didn\u2019t have access to a lot of data, but they found that preschool\u2019s boost on reading scores had <a href=\"https:\/\/georgetown.app.box.com\/s\/xjobsl8q1ejbu20etgr9vinkg98rjc2q\">fizzled out.<\/a><\/p><p>This finding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/education\/commentary\/universal-pre-k-may-not-be-good-it-sounds\">led some policy analysts<\/a> to question whether Oklahoma\u2019s pre-K program was worth the $140 million annual price tag.<\/p><p>And for years, that\u2019s where the debate \u2014 and the research \u2014ended. Until now.<\/p>\n<h3>New data<\/h3><p>Gormley published a <a href=\"https:\/\/georgetown.app.box.com\/s\/kkv3d717lib52clh9w4t3wns50ivcaxs\">new paper<\/a> in December 2017 tracking the effects of Tulsa\u2019s preschool program into the seventh grade. This time he had a lot more data with which to work. He looked at GPAs, test scores, grade retention, enrollment in honors courses and absenteeism, among other things.<\/p><p>\u201cThe bottom line,\u201d he says, \u201cis that we have found that the positive effects of Tulsa\u2019s early childhood education program do persist over time.\u201d<\/p><p>Gormley found that students who were in pre-K perform better on standardized math exams, are more likely to enroll in honors courses and are 26 percent less likely to have been held back a grade level down the road.<\/p><p>He says the grade retention data is particularly important.<\/p><p>\u201cGrade retention has been shown in a lot of other studies to have negative consequences for kids,\u201d he says. \u201cTherefore any policy intervention that reduces grade retention is worth celebrating.\u201d<\/p><p>Also, apart from the higher math test scores, Gormley says kids who attended pre-K were more likely to take Algebra I early, or before the eighth grade.<\/p><p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s potentially a big deal because looking down the road that should mean that when these students graduate from high school\u2026 they will be more likely to have taken an advanced math course than other students,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>Gormley is not sure why the reading scores didn\u2019t stay boosted, but guesses it\u2019s because verbal skills depend on so many outside influences, like parents and peers. Math skills, on the other hand, are impacted mostly by teachers.<\/p>\n<h3>Skeptics remain<\/h3><p>Gormley says similar results are likely across the state because Oklahoma pre-K programs are strictly governed. There can\u2019t be more than 20 kids in a class, for example, and teachers must have a bachelor\u2019s degree and a certificate in early education.<\/p><p>These requirements make the program expensive, but Gormely calculates that for every $1 the state puts into preschool \u2014 it saves up to $4 in the long run.<\/p><p>Some Oklahoma lawmakers, however, question the investment, including State Sen. Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.<\/p><p>Treat introduced legislation in 2015 that would have defunded the state\u2019s preschool program. He says he wasn\u2019t trying to get rid of pre-K entirely, but change it from being a mandatory, state-funded program, to one that schools could pay for using their own property taxes \u2014 if they chose.<\/p><p>\u201cMy hope was to shift that financial burden to the local district then shove more money in the state funding formula so we could increase our per-pupil expenditures for K-12,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>Treat says he hasn\u2019t read Gormley\u2019s newest study entirely yet, but will. Regardless, he&#8217;s still skeptical.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a serious public policy concern,\u201d he says. \u201cOklahoma has the oldest universal pre-K program, and it\u2019s heralded around the country as a huge success. I want to make sure that we really are as successful as we say we are.\u201d<\/p><p>Treat wants to see more long-term research, and he wants to know if pre-K has effects that can last through high school.<\/p><p>Gormley, the Georgetown professor, says that\u2019s the next thing he plans to study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kids are scattered around the preschool classroom at Zarrow International School in Tulsa. It\u2019s loud and chaotic, but it\u2019s organized. Some students paint pictures; others write out the letters of the alphabet. The small group sitting around teacher Irene Castell is learning to count and compare numbers.Castell says many kids would not learn these skills [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[753,855,752,174],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29151"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29162,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29151\/revisions\/29162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}