Immediate academic gains from early-childhood programs often fade as children move into upper elementary school. But a new study suggests math supports in the earliest grades may build on each other over years to create longer-term benefits in math achievement and attendance.
In the latest report of an ongoing evaluation of the Making Pre-K Count and High 5s math programs in New York City schools, the research group MDRC found neither program on its own led to significant, sustained math gains by 3rd grade. Yet students who participated in both the preschool and the kindergarten interventions performed significantly better in math and were less likely to miss school by grade 3, compared with students who did not participate.
In the study, students in 2013-14 were randomly assigned within their public schools to participate in standard preschool and kindergarten or the preschool math curriculum alone or with High 5s, a kindergarten enrichment program in which math tutors each met with three to four children for 30-minute math “clubs” three times a week, either during a free period or outside of school.
The enrichment sessions focused on games, songs, and other activities to help students practice geometry, pattern recognition, and other math concepts, rather than basic counting drills in the standard classes.
Shira Mattera, the study author, said the results suggest “the effects seem to be particularly pronounced for children with the most room to grow.”
Students who started preschool with lower-than-average language and attention skills showed math gains by 3rd grade equal to a quarter to a third of a standard deviation. Two years of math enrichment in preschool and kindergarten were enough to produce 3rd-grade math gains large enough to close about 40 percent of the math performance gap between low- and high-income 4th graders.
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