Preschool program bridges the achievement gap, Stanford study shows

Low-income elementary school students who participated in a San Mateo County preschool program in California performed as well as - and at times better than - their peers who, for the most part, attended private preschool, a new Stanford study reveals. The study, released late last year by the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at the Stanford Graduate School of Education , has gained new urgency in light of President Barack Obama's proposal to expand early childhood education. The study followed three cohorts of graduates from a pilot program, called Preschool for All, as they enrolled in kindergarten and continued into the first and second grades in the Redwood City School District. After adjusting the data to control for differences in student characteristics, researchers found that children who participated in Preschool for All matched or outperformed their peers in five report card subjects - math, listening/speaking, reading, writing and work study skills - as well as on standardized tests in math and English Language Arts. Preschool for All was a five-year demonstration project funded by the First 5 San Mateo County Commission and administered by the San Mateo County Office of Education from 2004 to 2009. The program provided free, high-quality preschool to children living within the boundaries of the Redwood City School District. It targeted threeand four-year olds who have traditionally lacked access to quality preschool - students who are low-income, Latino, English language learners, and who have a parent who did not complete high school.