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Study: PreK Program Pays Off in Academic Development

New Mexico's preK initiative is paying off for its four-year-old participants in greater improvement in early language, literacy, and math development.

That's among the findings of a study, "The Effects of the New Mexico PreK Initiative on Young Children's School Readiness," released Aug. 2, 2007 by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. The research was conducted by Jason T. Hustedt, W. Steven Barnett, and Kwanghee Jung.

"The New Mexico PreK Initiative is producing positive results across multiple measures for the state's children," said Barnett, NIEER director. "The effects found in this study are the first link in a chain that has been found by other studies to produce improvements in long-term school success and economic benefits."

Barnett also said, "The message in our findings for people who run state and federal preschool education programs is that they need to be of high quality if they're going to make a real difference for children's school readiness."

In 2006, the New Mexico program served 2,200 4-year-old children. Funds are distributed equally between the Public Education and the Children, Youth and Families departments. Participating providers include public schools as well as private centers such as Head Start, child care facilities, faith-based centers and tribal programs.

The study is the latest addition to a large body of research that shows that high-quality preschool programs can lead to increases in school success, higher test scores, fewer school dropouts, higher graduation rates, less special education, and lower crime rates.

Here's a brief summary that includes a link to the full study, which is available online at the NIEER Web site.