Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Research Center Investigates Effects of Universal Pre-K

COURTESY DEBORAH PHILLIPS Professor of psychology Deborah Phillips co-directs the Center for Research on Children in the United States, which received three grants for its universal pre-K research in Tulsa.
COURTESY DEBORAH PHILLIPS
Professor of psychology Deborah Phillips co-directs the Center for Research on Children in the United States, which received three grants for its universal pre-K research in Tulsa.

The Georgetown University Center for Research on Children in the United States received three new grants in support of its long-term investigation of the effects of universal pre-kindergarten, continuing a partnership with Tulsa, Okla. public schools that began in 2001.

The grants from the Foundation for Child Development, the Heising-Simons Foundation and an unspecified third foundation will further CROCUS’s research on the long-term impact of a universal pre-K program, which offers free and voluntary enrollment in pre-K for all children in participating school districts, following up on preliminary research that the center had conducted in coordination with the Tulsa region since 2001.

The new research will focus on this year’s eighth-grade class, who had enrolled in pre-K in the fall of 2005. It will assess educational, social and behavioral aspects of student’s lives with respect to those not enrolled in the universal program.

“After taking a break for a few years, we decided to revisit Tulsa and continue our research because there is considerable debate in the public arena and in the scholarly community over whether the short-term positive effects of a strong early childhood education program persist or fade out over time,” CROCUS Co-Director and McCourt School professor of public policy William Gormley said.

Tulsa became the focus of the study in 2001 because of its diversity and potential for replication, and almost three-fourths of four-year-olds in Tulsa are enrolled in pre-K.

“The Tulsa pre-K program also offered the opportunity to learn what a relatively high-quality program (e.g., with well-educated teachers, paid on the public school wage scale, with reasonable teacher: student ratios) could accomplish ​for a highly diverse population of children with regard to both economic and race-ethnic-linguistic characteristics,” CROCUS Co-Director and professor of psychology Deborah Phillips wrote in an email.

To conduct the study and its further research, the center brought the Georgetown University Department of Psychology together with the McCourt School of Public Policy, then the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Gormley noted that the variety of approaches were critical to the quality of the center’s research.

“From the outset, our evaluation has been multidisciplinary, drawing simultaneously from several social science disciplines, including economics, psychology, political science and public policy analysis. To understand something as complex as early childhood education, it is vital to take a multidisciplinary perspective,” Gormley said.

In 2008, CROCUS reported to Science Magazine that children who participated in Tulsa’s school-based pre-K program were nine months ahead of peers in pre-reading skills, seven months ahead in pre-writing skills and five months ahead in pre-math skills because of the program.

“Gains for English language learners whose parents speak Spanish at home were especially dramatic,” Gormley said.

The research received national attention, garnering recognition from the Department of Education and the White House. President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for universal pre-K programs around the country, most recently in a September speech at Northwestern University.

“The peak moment may have been when President Obama mentioned the Tulsa research in his 2014 State of the Union Address,” Phillips said. “Both Bill [Gormley] and I do the work we do because we hope it can influence public policy on behalf of children.”

To capitalize on the study, CROCUS contacted more than 2,000 eighth-graders whom they had initially tested in kindergarten for their short-term effects study. In collaboration with the Tulsa public schools and three neighboring school districts, they then gathered data on each student’s academic outcomes, school-related behavior and attitudes toward school in collaboration with the Tulsa public schools and three neighboring school districts.

“In the fall, we collected survey data on our original participants who are now in seventh and eighth grade. We were able to gather data on socio-emotional outcomes, which are very much unique in the pre-K literature. We also are in the process of analyzing school administrative and survey data,” CROCUS postdoctoral fellow Sara Anderson said.

Philips said that the results of the upcoming students would have significant implications for the future of childhood education in the country.

“This is a question of keen national interest because it goes to the heart of whether investments in early childhood education are worth it — whether they ‘pay back’ over time in expenditures on, for example, grade retention, special education, absenteeism and, ultimately, graduation rates and employment success,” Phillips wrote.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *