What if you miss the first year of an aligned curriculum?

Key Findings:

1. Aligning Pre-K and kindergarten may be an important strategy for sustaining the Pre-K boost. However, it is possible that efforts to align kindergarten with Pre-K might disadvantage students who did not attend the aligned Pre-K year.
2. We used data from 290 students who did not attend Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) Pre-K program (Pre-K non-attenders) and then enrolled in public kindergarten that was either aligned or unaligned with the Pre-K curriculum.
3. We found that BPS Pre-K non-attenders made equivalent gains in their math, language, literacy, and executive function skills regardless of whether or not they attended an aligned kindergarten program.
4. While attending both an aligned Pre-K and kindergarten is ideal for helping students smoothly transition from one grade to the next, our descriptive findings suggest that efforts to sustain the Pre-K boost for those who attend do not systematically disadvantage Pre-K nonattenders.

• Boston Early Childhood Research Practice Partnership