Rice Kinder Institute report: Houston area pre-K programs boost early elementary success

Pre-k classroom photo

Students who attended pre-K programs at public schools in the Houston area are seeing benefits in early elementary school, according to new reports from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. In addition, enrollment in pre-K in the Houston area has mostly rebounded from prepandemic levels, but challenges with attendance remain.

Pre-K classroom photo
Photo credit: 123rf.com. 

The two reports reveal that students who attended public pre-K in the Houston region were more likely to be ready for kindergarten than students who did not. In addition, students who attended public pre-K were less likely to be chronically absent in early elementary school. Also, emergent bilingual students, — or students whose home language is not English — who attended public pre-K, were more likely to score higher on the English proficiency test in early elementary school than those who did not.

“Our findings are consistent with decades of research that underscore the pivotal role pre-K plays in early childhood development and setting kids up for success in school,” said Courtney Thrash, a researcher at the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) and one of the reports’ authors.

When it comes to enrollment and attendance, the researchers found that pre-K enrollment has mostly rebounded since dropping during the COVID-19 pandemic but that daily attendance was still lower than before the pandemic. Between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, pre-K enrollment in the Houston area dropped 22% but has mostly recovered. Though the average student attendance rate was nearly 95% in 2019-20, in the 2021-22 school year the attendance rate fell to 89%, which is below what is considered chronically absent.

“While enrollment was down during the pandemic, many students who could have benefited from pre-K have missed out on potential academic gains,” Thrash said. “In addition, enrollment only matters if students attend school regularly. Boosting enrollment and attendance of students who enroll is critical.”

The researchers said special efforts should be made to reach out to specific communities, including emergent bilingual students and Spanish-speaking households as well as parents of children who frequently miss school days.

The researchers used Public Education Information Management System enrollment and attendance files provided by the Texas Education Agency and files from the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System and the Texas Student Data System’s Early Childhood Data System for the reports. All of these files were accessed through the University of Houston’s Education Research Center.

“Benefits of Participation in Public Pre-K for Students in the Houston Region” was authored by HERC researchers Lebena Varghese and Thrash. “Enrollment and Attendance Patterns in Public Pre-K in the Houston Region Before, During and After the Passage of HB3 and the COVID-19 Pandemic” was authored by Thrash and Lizzy Cashiola.

The reports are online at https://kinder.rice.edu/research/pre-k-enrollment-and-early-elementary-outcomes-briefs-1-and-2.

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