T HE E FFECTS OF P REKINDERGARTEN ON C LOSING THE A CHIEVEMENT G AP IN B ALTIMORE C OUNTY P UBLIC S CHOOLS Alyssa DiMeglio and Allison Cook Towson University Spring 2014

B ACKGROUND Noted over the years that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have struggled academically in school President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Head Start program Since 1965, a variety of preschool and early learning programs have been implemented nationally and globally to aid the academic and social progress of students from various backgrounds Despite the lack of research for the specific BCPS program, Baltimore County Public Schools’ Superintendent Dallas Dance has proposed a one million dollar increase in spending to expand the prekindergarten program

S TATEMENT OF P URPOSE The purpose of the study is to determine whether the Baltimore County Public Schools prekindergarten program is closing the achievement gap between students who are economically disadvantaged from their more advantaged peers.

L ITERATURE R EVIEW Pigott and Israel’s findings showed children enrolled in a Head Start program scored higher than those who are the same age and socio-economic status, but not enrolled in a Head Start program the year prior to Kindergarten Another study completed by Magnuson, Ruhm, & Waldfogel found larger associations related to academic achievement among those children who were economically disadvantaged Burger published a meta-analysis of recent early childhood care and education studies from Europe, North America, and Asia which found positive association between preschool attendance and cognitive outcomes for students who are economically disadvantaged

H YPOTHESIS The prekindergarten program within Baltimore County Public Schools will help to close the achievement gap between those defined as having low socioeconomic status and high socioeconomic status. The hypothesis will be measured by comparing each group’s performance on a pretest and posttest using the Woodcock Johnson III in the areas of math, language, and literacy.

P ARTICIPANTS Baltimore County Public School System Birth date between 9/2/09 and 9/1/10 4 schools randomly chosen from each of the 5 zones 20 students randomly chosen from each school Total of 400 students, 200 low socio-economic background and 200 high socio-economic background To qualify as low SES, student must be eligible for free or reduced meals

M EASURES Woodcock Johnson III achievement test Teacher will receive training prior to administration 3 subtests: emergent literacy skills, emergent language skills, and emergent math skills 1 measure was selected from each subtest: Letter-word identification Picture vocabulary Quantitative concepts

P ROCEDURES Woodcock Johnson will be administered within first 2 weeks of school 15 minute break between subtests Students will attend prekindergarten program September – May Open Court program Pearson Investigations Woodcock Johnson will be administered again in May 15 minute break between subtests

D ESIGN A casual-comparative design will be utilized in this study. Two groups that differ in their socio-economic status will be compared using their performance on the Woodcock Johnson III achievement test in the areas of literacy, language, and math.

D ATA A NALYSIS At the beginning of the school year: Average score for each measure will be calculated for each group of participants (low SES and high SES) The difference between the two scores will be noted At the end of the school year: Average score for each measure will be calculated for each group of participants (low SES and high SES) The difference between the two scores will be noted If the measures of central tendency between the two groups are closer together at the end of the school year than they were at the beginning of the school year, the data would help to support the hypothesis that enrollment in pre-kindergarten does help to close the achievement gap

D ATA A NALYSIS ( CONTINUED ) The t-test will allow us to determine whether the scores are significantly different. The t-test will evaluate the real difference between the means of the groups with the difference projected by chance if the null hypothesis is true We will utilize a box and whiskers graph in order to display our data visually. The box and whiskers graph will show the distribution of data (including the first quartile, third quartile and the median), as well as the outliers.

T IMELINE 1 year Request for permission in May 2014 Woodcock Johnson pretest in September 2014 Attendance in prekindergarten September May 2015 Woodcock Johnson post-test in June 2015 Data analysis at conclusion of data collection in June 2015

A NTICIPATED R ESULTS Participation in the BCPS prekindergarten program will help to close the achievement gap between students with high and low socioeconomic status. If the hypothesis is supported, the study would encourage BCPS officials to continue funding the expansion of the prekindergarten program and confirm that the curriculum is an effective means of closing the achievement gap. Future studies could be conducted in other counties within Maryland to evaluate their prekindergarten programs to determine if their programs effectively help to close the achievement gap between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.