Youngsters enrolled in state-financed prekindergarten programs showed significant gains in verbal, reading, and mathematical skills over students not enrolled in the programs, a study has found.
“The Effects of State Prekindergarten Programs on Young Children’s School Readiness in Five States” is available from the National Institute for Early Education Research.
According to the study, conducted by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., children attending state-funded preschool programs had gains of 31 percent in vocabulary, 44 percent in mathematics skills, and 85 percent in print awareness over children in other prekindergarten programs that were not state funded.
The study covered a one-year period and included 5,000 preschool and kindergarten children in Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
