Impact of Pre-kindergarten Education on Elementary Student Achievement: Implications for School Leaders

The purpose of this study was to determine if pre-kindergarten attendance resulted in increased school readiness for kindergarten students; and if prekindergarten attendance resulted in higher student achievement for third grade students. Specifically, the data for this research was drawn from the pre-kindergarten program of a mid-size district in Houston, Texas. In terms of methodology, quantitative techniques and analysis were used to illustrate data collected from the research sample. A two-sided t-test was run on each group to model the relationship between pre-kindergarten attendance and school readiness as determined by TPRI and social screening; and, the relationship between pre-kindergarten attendance and academic success as measured by third grade TAKS. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression test was performed on each group to asses if gender and ethnicity further impacted the results of school readiness and academic success. The findings of this research showed that attending pre-kindergarten impacted school readiness in two areas and showed no impact in one area of the TPRI. The areas that showed a positive correlation were beginning letter sound identification and listening comprehension. The area that revealed no impact was blending onset rhymes and phonemes. Another notable finding is that students who had attended pre-kindergarten showed no significant edge in socialization as identified by the University of Texas Social Screener Survey. As for longer term success, pre-kindergarten attendance did not have a significant impact on third grade TAKS scores in neither reading nor math.