The Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013: Evaluation of the Operations and Effectiveness of the Program
Executive Summary
Introduction
Meta-analytic research on public preschool programs concludes that quality programs can have a positive impact on important outcomes that benefit society. Examples of these long-term outcomes include improved test scores and high school graduation rates, as well as decreases in K-12 grade repetition, special education, and crime.*
In 2013, the Mississippi Legislature passed the Early Learning Collaborative Act to help ensure that all of Mississippi’s children have access to quality early childhood education and development services through a voluntary prekindergarten program for four-year-olds. State law requires that the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) provide annual reports on the program to the Legislature and that the PEER Committee review those reports and conduct an independent evaluation of the program’s operations and effectiveness.
Background
The Legislature contemplated funding the prekindergarten program on a phased-in basis, appropriating $9 million for fiscal years 2014 through 2016 for the first phase. Of this amount, MDE distributed approximately $8.4 million to eleven early learning collaboratives and retained $450,000 for administrative costs. The eleven collaboratives (including fifty-three providers) served approximately 1,580 students in the 2014-15 school year, the first full year of the program’s operation.
MISS. CODE ANN. Section 37-21-51 (1972) gives MDE responsibility for administering the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the prekindergarten program, including the application process and awarding of funds. This section also states that effectiveness of the program is to be determined by the school readiness of participants. MDE determines “school readiness” by administering a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment near the end of the school year and setting a target score on that assessment.
Evaluation of Program Operations and Effectiveness
After the first full year of implementation of the Early Learning Collaborative Act, the average performance of students in non-collaborative publicly funded prekindergarten programs was better than the average performance of students in the collaboratives by a statistically significant amount. MDE should conduct the research and analysis necessary to identify those factors most associated with positive student outcomes and ensure that all students enrolled in the collaboratives receive the quality programming necessary for school readiness.
PEER found significant room for improvement in the implementation and effectiveness of the Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013.
Regarding MDE’s implementation of the act:
Regarding program effectiveness, according to PEER’s independent evaluation, after the first full year of implementation, prekindergarteners in the program’s participating collaboratives achieved the end-of-the-year target score on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment less often than children enrolled in other public prekindergartens, after adjusting for initial score differences. Also, there was an extremely wide range of end-of-school-year assessment pass rates by program provider, by collaborative, and by curriculum.
To improve the effectiveness of the program, MDE must conduct the research and analysis necessary to identify those factors most associated with positive student outcomes and ensure that all students enrolled in the collaboratives receive the quality programming necessary for school readiness.
* The Legislature of the State of Washington created the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) in 1983 to carry out practical, non-partisan research that answers relevant policy questions. WSIPP has developed a model to evaluate the costs and benefits of a wide range of public policies and programs, including Pre-K to 12 education, that affect many different outcomes. The institute follows a meta-analytic framework to assess systematically all relevant evaluations on a given topic (e. g., state and district early childhood education programs) meeting the institute’s high-quality standards and computes an average effect on each measured outcome from all of the credible studies so identified. WSIPP’s benefit-cost analyses, including estimated average effect sizes by outcome measured, are available on its website: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov.