Georgia’s pre-K program boosts kindergarten readiness

Children who attend school-based sites in Georgia’s universal pre-K program start kindergarten better prepared than their peers who do not attend any Georgia pre-K, according to a new study from the University of Georgia. But those academic gains fade by fourth grade.

With his co-authors, Ishtiaque Fazlul, UGA assistant professor of international affairs and health policy and management in the School of Public and International Affairs, analyzed pre-K enrollment lottery data from a metro Atlanta school district. The findings highlight the short-term academic benefits of pre-K while raising questions about how to sustain those gains over time.

The study also found that low-income students benefited the most — suggesting that pre-K may be especially important for closing early achievement gaps.

“Our research shows that Georgia’s pre-K program gives children a strong start, but the challenge is maintaining those early advantages,” said Fazlul. “This study reinforces the importance of pre-K, especially for low-income families, while also showing that we need to think about how to better support students beyond pre-K.”

Big kindergarten gains, diminishing effects over time

The researchers measured the impact of enrollment on student performance by comparing students who attended Georgia’s school-based pre-K program after winning an enrollment lottery to those who applied but did not win the lottery and did not attend any Georgia pre-K site.

The study followed students from kindergarten through fourth grade and used data on math and reading test scores, school attendance and disciplinary infractions. The results showed that school-based pre-K attendees entered kindergarten scoring about 6 percentiles higher in reading and math on the Measures of Academic Progress test. However, those advantages faded by first and second grade, and by fourth grade, some attendees scored slightly lower than their peers.

Although the reason for this decline isn’t entirely clear, this pattern is common in pre-K research. “It doesn’t mean pre-K isn’t working, but it does raise important questions about how we sustain learning gains beyond early childhood,” Fazlul said.

The study was published in Economic Inquiry. Co-authors include Henry Woodyard and Tim Sass.