Investigating the Virginia Preschool Initiative's Role in Preparing Students for Kindergarten

Abstract

Although many children enter kindergarten having some form of preschool experience, the quality of these experiences differs greatly among the programs that are available to families. This variability can create school readiness gaps, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Isaacs, 2012). Children not being ready for school has come to the attention of stakeholders around the country and in the Commonwealth of Virginia. According to a state-wide study, approximately 30% of the students entering Virginia's schools either were not ready academically and/or behaviorally (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission [JLARC], 2017). Fortunately, the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) program was created to give students with the greatest risk of school failure an opportunity to overcome potential learning obstacles.

The general purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a state-funded prekindergarten program in a rural school division in Central Virginia. Specifically, this study examined academic and behavioral data for four cohorts of kindergarten students to determine if students who participated in the VPI program performed better on school readiness measures compared to their peers without any preschool or prekindergarten experience. Two-tailed t-tests were used to determine if any significant differences existed on measures of literacy, mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills between students who attended a state-funded prekindergarten program to their peers without any prekindergarten or preschool experience.