A University of Virginia study has shown that the Virginia Preschool Initiative improves the performance of participating students when they get to kindergarten and first grade.
The study is the first peer-reviewed analysis of the program, which started in 1996. The program offers not just preschool for at-risk 4-year-olds, but also transportation, health and social services.
The study was conducted by Francis Huang and Marcia Invernizzi of the Curry School of Education.
Researchers used data from more than 60,000 students at 1,000 public schools across the commonwealth. About 11,000 of the students participated in the initiative.
The students were more literate than those who didn’t attend any kind of preschool and were less likely to have to repeat kindergarten.
The difference between participants and those who had no preschool faded over the two years researchers studied, but did not completely disappear.
“A possible factor explaining the diminished improvements is that instead of the effects of preschool attendance fading out, other students catch up,” Huang said in a news release.
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