title: Head Start at ages 3 and 4 versus Head Start followed by state pre-k: Which is more effective?
abstract: As policy-makers contemplate expanding preschool opportunities for low-income children, one possibility is to fund two, rather than one year of Head Start for children at ages 3 and 4. Another option is to offer one year of Head Start followed by one year of pre-k. We ask which of these options is more effective. We use data from the Oklahoma pre-k study to examine these two 'pathways' into kindergarten using regression discontinuity to estimate the effects of each age-4 program, and propensity score weighting to address selection. We find that children attending Head Start at age 3 develop stronger pre-reading skills in a high quality pre-kindergarten at age 4 compared with attending Head Start at age 4. Pre-k and Head Start were not differentially linked to improvements in children's pre-writing skills or pre-math skills. This suggests that some impacts of early learning programs may be related to the sequencing of learning experiences to more academic programming.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Jade Marcus
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Farkas
authors.affiliation: University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burchinal
authors.affiliation: University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Deborah Lowe
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Vandell