Oklahoma Pre-K Program Found Effective

By Linda Jacobson

Oklahoma's five-year effort to make prekindergarten available to all 4-year-olds in the state is paying off, especially for Hispanic and African-American children, a new evaluation shows.

Conducted by researchers at Georgetown University, in Washington, the study focuses specifically on the prekindergarten program provided by the Tulsa public school system—the state's largest district, with 40,800 students and more than 1,600 pre-K children.

The findings show that, on average, children's test scores increased 16 percent after participating in the one-year program, with the greatest gains made in cognitive and language skills. Smaller increases in motor skills were found, but no significant improvements in...