Connecticut Prekindergarten Regression Discontinuity Impact Evaluation

Connecticut Prekindergarten Regression Discontinuity Impact Evaluation
The Connecticut Legislative General Assembly & The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

With a large volume of literature pointing to the beneficial impact of pre-kindergarten, researchers, educators, and policymakers are now raising questions about what works for whom. This study addresses these questions by examining the short-term impact of Connecticut’s state-funded pre-kindergarten program. This study used a regression discontinuity design to examine the causal impact of attending Connecticut’s state-funded pre-kindergarten program overall, and by race/ethnicity and income across four different outcomes (reading, oral language, vocabulary, and mathematics). Impact evaluation questions included:

  1. Do children who are just eligible (based on birthday cutoffs) and attend the Connecticut pre-kindergarten program enter kindergarten with better literacy, language, and mathematics skills than those who just missed being eligible and did not attend the program?
  2. Do pre-kindergarten program effects vary by student race/ethnicity or family income?

Partner / Institution affiliation

The Connecticut Legislative General Assembly & The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Funding source

State of Connecticut

Additional resources

The following resources are available for those wishing to know more about this impact evaluation:

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