Is Pre-K the best place for us to have impact?
We recently did a high-level survey of the K-12 education system to start learning about where there’s the best potential for us to have meaningful impact. From digging in to learn about K-12 education, we learned that there is a significant income achievement gap between poor students and their richer peers that is evident as early as Kindergarten. Many leaders believe that early pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education interventions can be effective in closing this income achievement gap. As a result, efforts have increased over the last several decades to enroll more low-income students in pre-K programs. Learning about this made us wonder: is pre-K education the place for us to have the most meaningful impact on the long-term success of students?
Pre-K’s effects
Pivotal studies have shown extremely positive results of pre-K early education on the short-term: early childhood development and school readiness, particularly for low-income students. Other studies have shown long-term effects: that pre-K students have a higher likelihood to graduate and a lower likelihood to commit a crime, need special education, or repeat a grade. There has been contention around whether these effects fade-out over time. As a reaction to this, there has been a growing movement called PreK-3, which promotes a more systematic, long-term model focused on improving reading and math abilities from pre-K to 3rd grade.
What’s important for Pre-K to be successful?
As you might expect, the quality of pre-K teachers matters a lot. Many pre-K advocates believe there is room for improvement here — teachers should at minimum have a bachelor’s degree, need to be better trained and better paid. Additionally, pre-K (similar to K-12 education) is more effective when parents are more involved and on board. Lastly, as alluded to above, pre-K interventions and efforts likely need to continue into elementary school to have more ongoing benefits. This is difficult to accomplish since preschools and elementary schools are currently managed as independent entities.
How many kids are in pre-K today?
A total of 5M are enrolled in both public and private preschools (includes kids from ages 2–5). Of these 5M, only 1.3M students are enrolled in public preschool programs. Public pre-K enrollment has increased two-fold in the past two decades, but there are still not enough publicly funded programs to support the number of low-income students we have. The stat most often cited when advocating for more public pre-school programs is that only 40% of all 4-year olds are enrolled in publicly funded preschools. Children from low-income families are less likely to be enrolled in preschool than their more affluent peers and are most likely to attend low quality preschool programs.
Is tech used in Pre-K?
- First of all, is tech appropriate in pre-school classrooms?
Most experts agree that technology is not appropriate for kids under the age of 3; however, many believe that kids can start exploring technology at age 3, in situations where it enhances curriculum. Early childhood educators in a survey responded positively about tech’s role in the classroom when used to document children’s learning or for individualized learning. - Do preschools have access to technology?
Access to technology in school correlated with income levels of the students’ families. The type of technology schools do have tends to be digital cameras, laptops/computers, and TVs as opposed to more modern devices such as tablet computers and e-readers. In preschools where technology is used, digital cameras and computers were most commonly used about once a week. - Lastly, how well does tech work in the classroom?
Teachers seem to feel that there are significant barriers to using tech in the classroom, citing lack of technical support and lack of professional development.
Pre-K may not be our best starting place.
While preschool addresses a critical time period and there is room for improvement, we don’t think that technology is the best way to address these needs. Also, in terms of experimenting with technology in the classroom, preschool does not seem like the best place to start given the smaller population of kids enrolled, limited access to technology, and the teachers’ use of technology. The latter two issues can be challenges in some K-12 classrooms as well, but there are many more children in K-12 and they increasingly have more agency to self-direct and use technology independently. Given this research, we’ve decided to start our adventures in K-12 schools instead of preschool.
