If Georgia ever hopes to close the achievement gap and brighten the
educational futures of its poorest children, it must get them into the
classroom earlier. That's the No. 1 recommendation of a groundbreaking
Georgia State University study of the state's universal pre-kindergarten
program.
"To close the school-readiness gap by the end of kindergarten, we are
going to need to get 3-year-old children into a language-rich environment
earlier," says GSU professor Gary Henry, who has led the state's research
investigations into both pre-k and the HOPE Scholarship.
His study of preschoolers across Georgia found that while the children
began school behind their peers nationally, they gain ground from the
beginning of preschool to the end of first grade. By the end of first
grade, Georgia's children exceed the national norms on their overall math
skills and their ability to identify letters and words.
However, about one-third of the children whose mothers didn't complete
high school repeated either kindergarten or first grade and scored far
lower on standardized tests, according to the findings. That's because
these children come from homes where they have little exposure to the
language and social skills essential to school success.
Pre-k teachers told Henry and other researchers that much of their time
goes to teaching students how to hold a fork or turn pages of a book,
basic skills that middle-class 4-year-olds arrive in class already
knowing.
With about 40 percent of Georgia children living in low-income households,
a statewide educational program targeting at-risk 3-year-olds would be
expensive. But those children are costing the state millions of dollars
now because many of them end up being held back or dropping out in high
school.
The GSU study also suggests that Georgia children are paying a price for
the state's failure to lower class sizes in first grade. The researchers
documented a slight downturn in the language skills of Georgia
first-graders relative to their peers around the country. They blame the
slippage on two factors: a redundancy of what's being taught in
kindergarten and first grade, and higher class sizes.
On average, the study encountered 22 students in first-grade classrooms,
while there were 18 in kindergarten rooms.
As the Legislature considers how to spend higher-than-expected revenues
next year, it ought to invest in programs proven to pay off: early
intervention for economically disadvantaged children, and smaller class
sizes.
