Scaling high quality: An implementation study of Boston’s Universal Pre-K expansion to community-based programs

Abstract While evidence on the effects of publicly funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) on maternal employment remains mixed, little is known about its broader impacts on families’ economic well-being. This study examines the effects of New York City’s 3-K for All (3 K) initiative—a universal pre-K program for 3-year-olds—on maternal employment, income-to-needs ratio, and material hardship. Leveraging the staggered rollout of 3 K across school districts, I employ a difference-in-differences framework and event-study design using data from the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker (2017–2023), a longitudinal survey of NYC families with young children. In the full sample, 3 K availability was associated with a 3.9–percentage point increase in maternal employment and a 7.8–percentage point reduction in material hardship, with effects concentrated when children were age-eligible for 3 K. No detectable effects were found on the income-to-needs ratio. Subgroup analyses reveal that partnered families experienced increases in maternal employment and reductions in material hardship. Several other subgroups—low-income families, families with younger children, and U.S.-born parents—also experienced declines in material hardship, even in the absence of statistically significant gains in employment or income. These findings suggest that universal pre-K can enhance families’ consumption-based well-being through multiple pathways, not limited to increases in maternal labor supply or family income.

In this article, early childhood intervention (ECI) and inclusion in the universal Swedish welfare system is in focus. The framework emphasizes a child and family centered approach that focuses on supporting all children’s development and learning in a preschool for all children, child health services welcoming families and children, child habilitation centers for children with disabilities and their families in the ecosystem for ECI. An important principle is proportionate universalism, that is, that every child and family should have equal opportunities regardless of income level, and that they are provided with support in relation to needs. In this article, a special focus is on the universal preschool for all children, which is an important part of ECI. Even though Sweden is regarded as one of the best countries to raise children in the world, a main concern is whether the Swedish welfare system and ECI retain the capacity and capability to provide the support that is required to meet the needs of all children and to live up to consistent and broad criteria for inclusion from a societal to an individual perspective. The conclusion is that Sweden has a robust system for ECI in many ways, but there is a need for integration and coordination of the services in the ecosystem, and a strong growth of research to provide evidence-based knowledge about inclusive practices across the organizations involved.

Abstract Providing support for children’s home languages is a critical component of high-quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). We examine the types and availability of Pre-K programs for emergent bilingual children and their families under New York City’s (NYC) Universal Pre-K program. Currently, in the hyper-diverse linguistic landscape of NYC where the majority of children come from homes where a language other than English (LOTE) is spoken, bilingual Pre-Ks only represent 6% of all programs. This study describes Pre-K program types available in NYC that offer Dual Language (DL) or Enhanced Language Support (ELS) to the large populations of emergent bilinguals. We analyze the number of programs within each borough and compare these with census tract data on the percentage of children who speak a LOTE at home. Our findings show that the number of Pre-K bilingual programs offered is grossly inadequate and, in most cases, is not significantly correlated to the percentage of LOTE children in the corresponding Pre-K neighborhoods. Only within the borough of Manhattan are bilingual DL programs significantly associated with neighborhoods with high percentages of LOTE children. In the other boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, the higher percentages of LOTE children are served by ELS. Lastly, we compare the ratings of quality across Pre-K programs in each of the NYC boroughs. We present data demonstrating the inequity of access to high-quality programs that meet the community needs and discuss policy implications and recommendations.

ABSTRACT China updated its early learning goals to support school readiness in collaboration with UNICEF Going Global project to enhance educational quality. It also introduced a new type of universal private preschool to promote educational equity. This study investigates how these preschools implement early learning goals, an important yet under-researched area for improving education quality and equity. Using activity system analysis within cultural-historical activity theory, data were gathered through document reviews and in-depth semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders. Themes were identified across six core activity system components: subject, object, tools, rules, community, and division of labour, revealing related contradictions. Supports are found in collegiality, playful learning, university collaborations for in-service training, and robust monitoring systems. The findings highlight challenges such as poor working conditions, limited professional development opportunities, and complexities in parent engagement. These findings highlight key areas for quality improvement in preschools and identify potentially globally relevant practices. Moreover, the activity system analysis methodology employed in this study offers a replicable framework for practice-based educational research.

This study unearthed the dissonance between policymaking and reality and how these incongruences contribute to furthering racial injustices in New York City’s (NYC) Universal Pre-K (UPK). As one of the most ambitious initiatives of its kind, NYC’s UPK expansion provides a valuable model for other systems, offering important lessons from its implementation. Through an examination of early childhood and care teacher compensation discourse, policymaker rhetoric is juxtaposed with the on-ground perceptions of teachers, advocates, and administrators. Utilizing Critical Policy Analysis and drawing on both Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory and Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) social construction and policy design theory, we critically analyzed 66 documents, including hearings, media reports, and advocacy documents, as well as 240 social media posts from 2014 to 2022. Our analysis revealed a disconnect between policymakers’ narratives and the realities that educators faced under inequitable compensation policies, highlighting the widespread impact of these policies across every layer of NYC’s early care and education ecosystem. Findings exposed policymakers’ bias towards specific groups, perpetuating racial disparities in NYC’s highly segregated early childhood system, and signaling UPK’s role in amplifying existing inequities.

Background/Objectives: Preschool hearing screening is justified by the risk of late onset hearing loss, the high prevalence of otitis media with effusion in school-aged children, and the critical timing just before children begin formal reading and learn to write. This study describes the results of the annual preschool hearing screening program in Campo Maior from 2007 to 2025 (nineteen years) and correlates the audiological referral to the otoscopy findings by the otolaryngologists. Methodology: Retrospective study using clinical records from nineteen years of preschool hearing screening. Results: Screening identified 310 children (29% of 1068 screened) requiring referral to an ENT specialist. Of the 217 referred children evaluated by ENT, 198 (91.2%) had confirmed pathology or healthcare needs of medical intervention. A statistically significant positive association (r = 0.254, p < 0.05) existed between abnormal otoscopy findings and Type B or C2 tympanograms (versus Type A or C1). Hearing loss occurring with Type A tympanograms (0.8% unilaterally, 0.3% bilaterally) may suggest sensorineural hearing loss. Conclusion: This study reinforces the importance of universal preschool audiological screening for all children, particularly for children facing geographic barriers to healthcare. Community-based interventions facilitated by social solidarity associations can play a crucial role in mitigating healthcare access disparities across populations.

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study investigates how the impact of district-provided pre-K programs on kindergarten readiness outcomes can depend on the counterfactual availability of early childhood education, using data from a large school district in Georgia. Students in the school district participated in a variety of different pre-K programs, with participation rates varying meaningfully across geographic communities within the district. Using reconstructed lotteries based on waitlists from oversubscribed programs, there is no evidence for an average impact on measures of kindergarten readiness for a treatment group of students attending district-provided pre-K. However, there are large, positive effects of district pre-K concentrated in some geographic communities within the school district. District Pre-K is most effective in less-advantaged communities, where the control group students are more likely to attend another subsidized pre-K program or no pre-K at all. Practice or Policy: Taken together, these results contribute to the growing literature on the role of counterfactual conditions in understanding the effectiveness of early childhood education. Future research on pre-K programming should continue to examine counterfactual conditions.

To assess the level and determinants of knowledge, attitude, and practice for eye and vision screening of preschool children among parents in Al-Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. Parents of kindergartners were surveyed in 2023. Questions relating to knowledge (10), attitude (5), and practice (5) of vision screening were asked. Answers were graded on a five-point Likert scale, where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 5 indicates strong agreement; results were analyzed with regard to family demographics and child refractive status. A total of 214 parents were surveyed, representing 214 households. Level of knowledge was good or very good in 66.2%, attitude was positive in 41%, and practice was acceptable in 72.2% of respondents. The median knowledge score was 4.0 (IQR, 3.5-4.0), median attitude score was 3.0 (IQR, 3.0-4.0), and median practice score was 4.0 (IQR, 3.0-4.0). Education and family income were associated with practice scores (P <0.001 [Kruskal-Wallis H test]). Refractive error status of the father was significantly associated with a positive attitude toward eye and vision screening of preschool children (P = 0.015 [Kruskal-Wallis]). Main sources of knowledge included ophthalmologists (49.5%), social media (16.4%), Google search (10.7%), and optometrists (10.7%); preferred sources of knowledge were ophthalmologists (60.3%) and optometrists (22.4%). Social media, computers, primary health care center staff, and opticians were less desired sources of information. Parental knowledge on eye and vision screening for children in Al-Qassim Province has room to improve, and negative attitudes must be addressed. Practice for eye care in preschoolers was promising for adoption of universal preschool vision initiatives.

Universal Pre-K as Economic Stimulus: Evidence from Nine States and Large Cities in the U.S

Using newly available data from Tulsa, Oklahoma—home of a renowned and much-studied universal public preschool program—we investigated associations between public preschool attendance and a wide range of third grade school administrative outcomes collected in the post-COVID-19 era. We explored associations between preschool attendance and school outcomes in our full sample of students (all of whom were from low-income households) as well as in our sizable subsample of dual language learners. Public preschool was unrelated to state standardized test scores, grade retention, and special education status. However, for dual language learners only, public preschool attendance predicted substantial reductions in third grade (post-COVID-19) absenteeism. Given skyrocketing rates of absenteeism when schools reopened after COVID-19—rates that are especially large for students from low-income and minoritized backgrounds such as those in our sample—these results hold special importance and may suggest a potentially overlooked response to a rising problem.

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool: Evidence from the Arab Population in Israel

Digitalisation has changed communications dramatically over the last 20 years. This has entailed that preschool documentation of children and their activities, previously communicated with enrolled families, have become part of a mass distribution of social images. Thereby photographs, which initially aimed to involve the families in their children's education, are made visible to larger groups in society. This article examines digitally circulated photographs from three preschools in Sweden and, using critical image analyses, relates them to visibility, transparency and participation. The results show that digitally circulated photographs mediate a normative image of a universal preschool child, where the extended visibility of the preschool does not seem to make children's different interests, characteristics and standpoints visible. In fact, the children themselves are, in order to protect them, almost made invisible in the photographs. The discussion of this article concerns the ethics of a mass distribution of images where children are portrayed as a uniform group, and raises the fact that children become dependent on adults to interact with the photographs. Aims of marketing seem to become superior to aims of involvement, and preschools are able to tailor their communications to reach certain audiences. Thereby digital communication seems to contribute to increasing rather than decreasing inequalities among children.

Many states and communities have invested in public early childhood education programs to improve children’s readiness to enter school and narrow achievement gaps in later grades. This study asked whether and how Wisconsin’s universal state-funded prekindergarten program, Wisconsin 4K, has improved student achievement and helped to reduce the achievement gap. Using publicly available data from 2002–2003 to 2013–2014, the study examined the effects of the program, which features high participation rates and part-day delivery modes. The results showed that Wisconsin 4K enhanced third-grade reading achievement but not math achievement in the participating districts. Its effects were larger for non-White and economically disadvantaged students than for their White and affluent counterparts. The policy implications for large-scale universal pre-K are discussed.

Public PreK programs are an increasingly popular policy tool to equalize early learning opportunities. Programs can be universally available or targeted to support children’s readiness. At the intersection of early childhood and K-12 education, their hybrid status can be difficult for families to negotiate. Based on interviews completed in 2018, we describe how parents in a universal PreK program decided whether and where their child would attend PreK, comparing parents who chose school sites with those who did not. The part-time nature of the program was a barrier to many families, prompting us to ask whether a program is authentically universal if it is not accessible to all.

Public health policy interventions are associated with many important public health achievements. To provide public health practitioners and decision makers with practical approaches for examining and employing evidence-based public health (EBPH) policy interventions, we describe the characteristics and benefits that distinguish EBPH policy interventions from programmatic interventions. These characteristics include focusing on health at a population level, focusing on upstream drivers of health, and involving less individual action than programmatic interventions. The benefits of EBPH policy interventions include more sustained effects on health than many programs and an enhanced ability to address health inequities. Early childhood education and universal preschool provide a case example that illustrates the distinction between EBPH policy and programmatic interventions. This review serves as the foundation for 3 concepts that support the effective use of public health policy interventions: applying core component thinking to understand the population health effects of EBPH policy interventions; understanding the influence of existing policies, policy supports, and the context in which a particular policy is implemented on the effectiveness of that policy; and employing a systems thinking approach to identify leverage points where policy implementation can have a meaningful effect.

Public preschool enhances consequential long-term education, economic, and health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. One much-hypothesized—but rarely tested—explanation is that preschool predicts improved executive functioning (EF) in middle childhood. Our study provides empirical support linking preschool to middle childhood EF. We draw on a large, racially-diverse sample of children from low-income families in Tulsa, OK (N = 685, Mage at 3rd = 8.5 years), home to a nationally-recognized universal public preschool program administered in school-based pre-k and Head Start classrooms. Using propensity score weighting, we compare the 3rd grade EF skills of children who attended school-based pre-k or Head Start to those who did not. School-based pre-k attendance predicts better impulse control and working memory skills in 3rd grade (d = .35–.37); Head Start attendance predicts better working memory (d = .47). This evidence highlights public preschool’s potential to promote the EF skills of diverse children from low-income families into middle childhood.

The study aims to investigate the evolution of preschool education policy in China, which plays a vital role in early childhood development. It required the government’s intensified focus since 2010 on enhancing both access and quality standards of preschool education, which illuminated through the lens of historical policy shifts and their implementation. This study is grounded in the PRISMA guidelines and involved a thorough literature search, selection based on stringent criteria, and a robust data extraction and coding process. The analysis reveals that the Chinese government increasingly perceives preschool education as a fundamental public service, which has been established in revised policies and targeted endeavors to bridge the urban-rural areas of China. The study concluded that persisting challenges, notably in the equitable distribution of resources, enrollment inequalities, and optimal teacher-to-child ratios, especially in rural areas. Despite these challenges, the significant strides made, and the policy impetus reflect the prioritization of preschool education within China's national agenda. The review encapsulates the complexities of policy evolution, its tangible successes, and the pathways for achieving universal and high-quality preschool education.

Families are the ultimate recipients of the effects of policy, but seldom get a seat at the policymaking table. This study investigated how parents perceive the impacts of unequal teacher compensation policies on New York City’s (NYC) Universal Pre-K (UPK) expansion. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory and Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) theory of social construction and policy design to create a rich conceptual framework, this qualitative study analyzed parents' voices through document and social media discourse analysis expanding from 2014 to 2021, and semi-structured interviews (n=15). Participants reflected the demographic diversity found in NYC, the largest school system in the country. The data analysis occurred in three sequential stages: (a) content analysis of documents, (b) thematic analysis of interview data, and (c) compilation of findings from these analyses to draw comprehensive conclusions. Findings revealed that while parents had limited engagement with policy, they were able to articulate the detrimental effects of compensation policies—particularly the effect of teacher turnover on their daily lives—with a disproportional effect on parents of racially minoritized backgrounds or living in low-income neighborhoods. The rich interviews unearthed the dissonance between the policy’s intent and its effect on perpetuating racial and socio-economic biases. Recommendations for advocacy and engagement are provided.

Impact of the Chicago universal pre-kindergarten expansion: Effects on pre-kindergarten capacity and enrollment and implications for equity