Effects of a State Pre-kindergarten Program on the Kindergarten Readiness and Attendance of At-Risk Four-Year-Olds

The effect of public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) on the short-term outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds is well established; however, the mechanisms for this effect are not well understood. Of the many factors that influence how pre-K participants progress during and after kindergarten, one understudied factor is the effect of pre-K participation on kindergarten attendance. The effects of absenteeism are cumulative, and habits established early in the school years are likely to affect later school outcomes. Thus, if pre-K improves kindergarten attendance, participants may be poised for later school success. To begin to test this hypothesis, we conducted a quasi-experimental study to examine the kindergarten readiness of 19,490 children and attendance records of 39,113 children who either were enrolled in Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) or were placed on waitlists because their GSRP sites were full. Using variants of multilevel modeling, we found, as expected, that GSRP children performed better than waitlisted children on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Examination of kindergarten attendance records found that waitlisted children were more likely to be absent than their counterparts who participated in GSRP, with particularly strong effects for children who were Black, economically disadvantaged, or English Language Learners.