With dropout rates among African American youth soaring to historic highs, a new study shows conclusively that the earlier a black child is exposed to full-day, pre-kindergarten program, the better their chances are at succeeding and staying in school.
A study released by school officials in Montgomery County, Md., a prosperous suburb of Washington, D.C., reveals that African American students and boys in general, who attended full-day pre-kindergarten classes, outperformed their Head Start peers who had only half-day programs on reading benchmarks.
“Controlled for the demographics, and for their baseline performance, students who attended full-day pre-kindergarten did better than their counterparts not in full-day programs,” said Huafang Zhao, one of the researchers who wrote the report.
The prospect of Americans reaching President Obama’s ambitious goal of having the highest graduation rates in the world by 2020 may hinge on the expansion of full-day, pre-kindergarten classes nationwide.
Not surprisingly, the states that border the nation’s capital are found to be generous in pre-school spending. Maryland is listed as sixth in the country in terms of total preschool spending, while Virginia was 13th. The District of Columbia was not included in the rankings, but it has expanded public preschool programs in recent years.
The findings come at a time when Obama is urging educators to institute programs aimed at the youngest students as the surest way to close persistent gaps in performance between economic and racial groups.
Some indicators are showing that efforts are underway to ensure better scholastic performances by African American students. The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University shows that almost 40 percent of 4-year-olds attend some sort of public preschool program last year. Maryland, for one, requires every school district in the state to run at least half-day pre-kindergarten programs for children from low-income families.
–terry shropshire
