Students in the Houston area who attended public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs are showing positive academic outcomes in early elementary school, according to recent reports from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The reports also reveal that while enrollment in public pre-K has mostly recovered to pre-pandemic levels, attendance remains an ongoing issue.
The research highlights that children who attended public pre-K programs were better prepared for kindergarten compared to those who did not participate. Furthermore, these students were less likely to be chronically absent in their early school years. Emergent bilingual students—those whose primary language at home is not English—who attended public pre-K, also showed higher scores on English proficiency tests than their peers who did not attend.
Courtney Thrash, a researcher at the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), emphasized the importance of pre-K, saying, “Our findings align with decades of research that show how vital pre-K is for early childhood development and setting children up for future success in school.”
Regarding enrollment and attendance, the study shows that while the number of children enrolled in pre-K programs has largely rebounded since a significant drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, daily attendance is still lower than pre-pandemic levels. Pre-K enrollment in the Houston area fell by 22% between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years but has since largely recovered. However, the attendance rate has not fully returned to pre-pandemic numbers. In the 2019-20 school year, attendance was nearly 95%, but it dropped to 89% by the 2021-22 school year—below the threshold considered acceptable.
“While enrollment bounced back, many students who would have benefited from pre-K missed out on potential academic progress,” Thrash noted. “Increasing both enrollment and regular attendance is crucial for these students’ long-term success.”
The researchers called for targeted outreach efforts to ensure that specific communities, such as emergent bilingual and Spanish-speaking families, as well as households with children who have a history of frequent absenteeism, are better supported.
The data used for the study came from the Texas Education Agency’s Public Education Information Management System, the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, and the Texas Student Data System’s Early Childhood Data System. The reports were authored by HERC researchers Lebena Varghese and Courtney Thrash, with contributions from Lizzy Cashiola.
These findings underscore the critical role of pre-K programs in preparing students for future success while highlighting the ongoing challenges of attendance that need to be addressed.
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