The Effects of Gender, at-Risk Status, and Number of Years in Preschool on Children's Academic Readiness

Abstract

While there has been a number of studies examining the effects of preschool as intervention for children of economic poverty and special needs children, there has not been research examining the effects of preschool education for the general population of children. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of years of preschool, gender, and at-risk status on children's readiness for first grade. 4539 children participated in the study. 104 children started public school at three-years-old (K3), 1234started school at age four (K4) and 3201 started at age five. At-risk status was determined using the Cooperative Preschool Inventory (Caldwell, 1974) and first grade readiness was determined using the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT; Nurss & McGauvran, 1974). Results of the analyses indicated that children who entered the public school preschool program at K3 or K4 scored significantly higher on the MRT than children who entered at K5. Additionally, the findings indicated that if children started at K3, by the end of kindergarten there was no difference between the at-risk and not-at-risk children's scores on the MRT. This was not true for the K4 or K5 groups. The discussion focuses on two issues. First, the relationship between the benefits of preschool and continuity of programs, and second, that "regular" preschool education may serve as intervention for those children who require it, if attended long enough.