Enrolling students in kindergarten and other early education programs may have little effect on their future success, according to a new study by economics professor Elizabeth Cascio. The study, which appears in this spring's edition of Education Next, also concluded that kindergarten may be more beneficial for white students than black students.
The study analyzed the relative success of students born between 1954 and 1978 in 24 states that began funding universal kindergarten programs after 1960. The sample included students who attended elementary school before and after the implementation of kindergarten programs, according to the study.
Cascio found that while kindergarten enrollment increased by an average of 30 percent after funding initiatives began, kindergarten attendance had very little effect on students' later achievement. White students who attended kindergarten had a 2.5 percent reduction in high school dropout rates compared to those who did not attend, and no correlation was found between kindergarten attendance and an increase in income after high school, according to the study.
Black students gained almost no benefit from kindergarten, according to the study. Black students who attended kindergarten were actually slightly more likely to drop out of high school and be unemployed than those who did not, although the differences were not statistically significant, Cascio said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
The only marked difference that Cascio found was a 22-percent drop in incarceration rates for white adults who were enrolled in kindergarten as children. However, there was no equivalent change among black adults, according to the study.
The study stated that the most likely explanation for the disparities between white and black students was that students enrolled in kindergarten were less likely to participate in Head Start, the federally funded early-education program. Cascio found that states where kindergarten programs were established also saw a 25 percent decrease in Head Start enrollment among black five-year-olds, which essentially eliminated their presence in the program.
In the study, Cascio wrote that while the data is difficult to assess, the shift away from a relatively successful federal program may have contributed to the lack of progress among black students.
Cascio told The Dartmouth that there was "no definitive" explanation for the lack of substantial benefits for children, but also said that the programs within the study were largely half-day programs focused on socialization rather than academic skills.
The study comes as many school districts are beginning to consider the expansion of their programs to include universal preschool. Cascio said that her research is partially intended to show how the successes or shortcomings of previous initiatives might translate to those of proposed programs.
"If we want to look at the [potential] long-term effects of proposed programs, it is useful to look at the long-term effects of past programs," she said.
Cascio said, however, that exact parallels cannot necessarily be drawn, as the programs currently being proposed involve longer days and a more academic focus than the older kindergarten programs in the study. The situation today is also much different from that of the 1960s and '70s, Cascio said, because enrollment in preschool today is higher than that of kindergartens in previous years.
Ultimately, Cascio's study concluded that if universal preschool were instituted, two possible outcomes could result. The benefits might be even lower due to the wider use of existing programs, or they might be higher due to the stronger academic focus of the proposed programs.
"The truth will only be discovered in the years to come," Cascio wrote in her study.
