The Value of Preschool

ByAccountabaloney May 20, 2021May 20, 2021

Should a newly published report out of Boston, regarding the long term effects of preschool, influence recent changes to Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program? Short answer: Yes.

During the past legislative session, Florida Representatives, Erin Grall and Vance Aloupis, were finally able to pass HB419, which provided much needed attention to Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten and Early Learning programs. Governor DeSantis signed the bill on May 4th, 2021. Among other things, changes were made to the programs’ governance structures, moving the responsibility for overseeing the VPK and School Readiness programs, including rulemaking authority, to the State Board of Education (FLBOE). For both Representatives Grall and Aloupis, I believe, this was a labor of love – both are fully committed to improving early childhood education.

Unfortunately, this being Florida, both representatives were able to be convinced that more test-based accountability was necessary for that improvement:

HB419 requires the Commissioner of Education to design and implement, starting in the 2022-2023 program year, a coordinated screening and progress monitoring program to assess emergent literacy and mathematics skills for VPK through grade 3 students [A similar bill, SB7011, signed by DeSantis on the same day as HB419, expanded this coordinated screening & progress monitoring system to VPK program through 8th grade.]. Test scores will be used to identify students who may be performing below grade or developmental level and to provide the outcomes and learning gains data for the VPK performance metric.
The bill phases in a new VPK accountability system. Beginning in the 2022-2023 program year, the accountability system will based on a performance metric that includes student outcomes (test scores), learning gains, and observations of child-teacher interactions. Beginning in the 2023-2024 program year, the accountability system must assign VPK providers a performance designation.
“The designations are “excellent,” highly proficient,” “proficient,” “emerging proficiency,” and “unsatisfactory”; however, the DOE may adopt comparable designation terminology so long as letter grades are not used.”
There will be a payment differential for VPK providers based upon provider designations and VPK providers failing to meet the minimum performance designation will be placed on probation and require corrective action, including the use of DOE-approved VPK curriculum.
Providers remaining on probation for 2 years or more will find their contracts temporarily suspended or terminated.

So, a high stakes, test-based accountability system will be created for our youngest learners. “Deficient” 4 year olds will be identified for interventions and private VPK providers may see their programs terminated based on preschool test scores.

What could go wrong?

There are many early childhood experts who argue against test-focused, standards based preschool.

Defending The Early Years, a non-profit founded by early childhood education experts, advocates for active, developmentally appropriate, play-based approaches to learning and are concerned about the over-emphasis on standardized testing in our youngest learners:

“The current emphasis on standards and testing has led many schools to over-focus on assessment at the expense of meeting children’s developmental needs and teaching meaningful content. Play and activity-based learning have been disappearing from many early childhood classrooms, and – along with them – children’s natural motivation and love of learning.”

The recently released Boston study focused on the long term effects of preschool:

The Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool in Boston

Guthrie Gray-Lobe, Parag Pathak, and Christopher Walters

SEII Discussion Paper #2021.05
May 2021

ABSTRACT

We use admissions lotteries to estimate the effects of large-scale public preschool in Boston on college-going, college preparation, standardized test scores, and behavioral outcomes. Preschool enrollment boosts college attendance, as well as SAT test-taking and high school graduation. Preschool also decreases several disciplinary measures including juvenile incarceration, but has no detectable impact on state achievement test scores. An analysis of subgroups shows that effects on college enrollment, SAT-taking, and disciplinary outcomes are larger for boys than for girls. Our findings illustrate possibilities for large-scale modern, public preschool and highlight the importance of measuring long-term and non-test score outcomes in evaluating the effectiveness of education programs.

You can read the report here. The authors were able to measure significant long term benefits associated with public preschool attendance:

Preschool enrollment INCREASED college attendance, as well as SAT test-taking and high school graduation.
Preschool enrollment DECREASED several disciplinary measures including frequency of suspensions and incidence of juvenile incarceration.
NOTABLY: The was NO IMPACT on student achievement in elementary, middle, or high school.

The authors concluded: “More generally, our results highlight the importance of considering non-test score and long-term outcomes when assessing the effectiveness of education programs.”

Representative Grall and Aloupis should take note. In Boston, preschool enrollment led to significant and important student outcomes WITH NO EFFECT on standardized test scores, yet Florida is preparing to rank and reward preschools based, almost entirely, on standardized test scores…

A review of the study in Forbes predicts the impact of Florida’s HB419:

But let’s not gloss over the above findings. Because by the standards we’ve been using for twenty years to measure school/teacher effectiveness, the preschools failed. Their teachers were ineffective. In some states, under some programs, the “bottom” of those preschools would be opened up for turnaround or takeover, maybe handed off to some charter operator. Op-eds would be written about how “student achievement” had stalled, and the programs had failed to boost “educational attainment.”

HB419 has been signed into law. By 2022, it calls for a test-focused accountability system which, by 2023, will be used to label and punish preschools who fail to impact test scores. Teachers will be labeled as ineffective. Four year olds will be labeled “deficient.” Private business will suffer. And, inevitably, preschools will respond by over-focusing on assessments at the expense of play based learning and meeting young children’s developmental needs.

The Boston study tells us that, without improving test scores, preschool attendance can and does have significant and profound long term impacts on children. Will preschools designed to chase test scores have the same impact? Why is Florida willing to take this risk with our youngest learners?