Introduction

Research on the relationship between children's early care and education and school readiness¹ has shown the potential importance of enriching learning experiences for young children, and the positive outcomes of early intervention for educationally disadvantaged children in particular ² (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2001; Barnett 1995; Haskins 1989). Although the literature is not without controversy (Gomby et al. 1995), and the influence of nonprogram factors (e.g., family background) on children's school readiness cannot be ruled out, a finding seems to emerge across studies: children in high-quality early childhood programs tend to develop better social and academic skills than their counterparts in poor quality programs (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2001; Love, Schochet, and Meckstroth 1996).

In addition, new research on kindergartners underscores the importance of enriching early learning experiences for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In particular, while children from disadvantaged backgrounds catch up with peers from more advantaged backgrounds on basic early literacy skills such as letter knowledge during the kindergarten year, the gap between these two groups widens on measures of more sophisticated knowledge and skills in reading (e.g., ending sounds) and math (solving simple addition and subtraction problems) (West, Denton, and Reaney 2000).

In recent years, attention has focused on how the public school system could increase its involvement in making high-quality programs available for prekindergarten children (Hinkle 2000). This attention on public schools is partially based on the assumption that in addition to a vested interest in school readiness, public schools have tremendous potential for drawing on existing resources to expand and improve prekindergarten programs (Dwyer, Chait, and McKee 2000; Hinkle 2000).

Public schools have access to several federally and state funded programs focused on the needs of at risk children, including those whose families do not speak English at home, who come from low-income households, or who have other special needs that place them at serious disadvantage when entering schools (Hinkle 2000). Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), public schools have access to federal preschool grants to make a range of education and related services available to children with disabilities. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, designed to aid educationally disadvantaged children, can also be used by education agencies and schools to improve the teaching and learning of young children in high-poverty schools and those who are at most risk of school failure. The largest federal program for young children from disadvantaged backgrounds-Head Start-is designed to better prepare poor children for school by providing free education and support services to children whose families are below the federal poverty level. Although the vast majority of Head Start programs either operate independently of the school and school district or collaborate with other community-based agencies in private settings, some may be located at school facilities and offered through school districts or state agencies ³ (Clifford, Early, and Hills 1999; U.S. General Accounting Office 1999).

Public school programs for children prior to kindergarten also receive funds from state initiatives for enhancing school readiness. State initiatives differ in the age groups that are served. In a 1999 review of state -level programs, 31 state initiatives were found to serve both 3- and 4-yearolds, 18 states limited their programs to 1 year prior to kindergarten, and 8 states had programs that served children from birth to age 5 (Schumacher, Greenberg, and Lombardi 2001).

This 1999 review found that states also differ in how they involve public schools in their early education initiatives. Although the majority of states opened up funds to a broad range of providers (including Head Start, public schools, and child care centers), 14 states restricted their initiatives either wholly or primarily to public schools. In many states, public schools, Head Start, and other early care and education providers partner to provide services to the children in the state (Schulman, Blank, and Ewen 1999; Schumacher, Greenberg, and Lombardi 2001). Despite the increased interest in the role of public schools in preparing children for kindergarten entry (Saluja, Early, and Clifford 2001), there is little information that differentiates public school programs from other early childhood education programs, including private schools, public and private day care centers, and Head Start programs.

This is partly because there is no centralized repository of prekindergarten data for classes in public or nonpublic schools, ⁴ and there is no common terminology for the various types of early education programs. Consequently, the existing data about public school involvement in early education programs are not uniform and often are clouded by varying definitions of programs and the age groups included in different data sources.

Definitional Issues

Public school prekindergarten is part of a fragmented array of early care and education programs that vary widely in focus, quality, content, organization, source of funding, relationship to the public school system, and government regulation (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2001). Many terms have been used interchangeably and/or inconsistently across studies to describe these various programs. Most researchers in the field use the term "center-based" programs to refer to all types of public and private programs that provide children with care and education in nonresidential settings during the years prior to kindergarten-including prekindergarten, Head Start, preschool, nursery school, day care centers, and other early childhood care (Hofferth et al. 1998). However, terms such as prekindergarten, preschool, and preprimary are sometimes used in a generic fashion to cover all or some center-based programs that serve children ages 3 to 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten. For the purpose of reviewing existing data on the role of public school involvement in early childhood education in this report, the term "public school prekindergarten" will refer to programs housed in public schools and/or classes at public schools that primarily serve children ages 3 to 4 who have yet to enter kindergarten. This definition is partially based on prekindergarten's primary focus on school readiness and the initiatives taken by many states to extend their programs to serve 3- and 4-year-olds (and, in some cases, 5-year-olds) who have not yet entered kindergarten. Based on their diverse needs, these children may be enrolled in either a program of general education or special education, or in some states, in a prekindergarten program that collaborates with Head Start.

Participation in Public School Prekindergarten

Most of the existing data on public school prekindergarten consist of estimates that do not differentiate prekindergarten from other early education programs and are based on surveys that collect information from parents. Federal surveys that collect periodic data on early education programs include the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the National Household Education Survey (NHES). Because the focus of these national surveys on early childhood education has been broad and a common terminology is lacking, it is difficult to get a clear picture of public school prekindergarten. Information from the providers of public school prekindergarten classes-schools or school districts-has been made available through other U.S. Department of Education surveys. The NCES annual Common Core of Data (CCD) surveys, for instance, routinely collect gradespecific information on enrollment in public schools. Based on state-level CCD data, Young (2002) reported that about 796,000 prekindergarten children were enrolled in public schools in the fall of 2000. These estimates were not comparable to earlier data on prekindergarten enrollment because of changes in reporting practices. For example, public schools in some states do not report the children enrolled in classes prior to kindergarten. In most of these cases, the classes are not usually referred to as prekindergarten; they may be funded and/or offered independently of the school; ⁵ or they may be funded by a combination of sources.

The existing information on early childhood education is inadequate for describing public school prekindergarten classes. Most of the data depend on reports from parents of children rather than agencies-schools, school districts, and state education agencies-that are in the best position to provide program information. In addition, information on public school prekindergarten is often combined with data from other early education programs, such as Head Start, that may operate outside of the public school system, and from other center-based programs. Moreover, even the existing data that focus specifically on prekindergarten enrollment in public schools (e.g., CCD) are limited in that they do not provide key information about class or student characteristics.

The limitations in these data sources underscore the need for information that quantifies the role of public schools in educating children prior to kindergarten (see methodology in appendix A for additional detail).

About This Study

In response to the lack of current data about prekindergarten classes in public schools and the children who are enrolled in such classes, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted the Survey of Classes That Serve Children Prior to Kindergarten in Public Schools for the Early Childhood Institute. This study, the first national data collection focused exclusively on prekindergarten classes offered by U.S. public elementary schools, ⁶ provides basic information on prekindergarten enrollment and more detailed information on student and class characteristics.

These data may help to inform policy about public school involvement in the education of the nation's youngest citizens. The study addressed several key questions:

• What percentage of public elementary schools nationwide had prekindergarten classes? What percentage offered general education and special education prekindergarten classes?
• How many children were enrolled in prekindergarten classes at public elementary schools? What were the age, racial, and ethnic characteristics of these children?
• How many prekindergarten classes were offered in public elementary schools , and how were they distributed between general education and special education? What was the average size of these classes?
• How many teachers were responsible for teaching prekindergarten classes, and what was their education level? How did their pay compare with that of other teachers in the school district?
• What percentage of public elementary schools provided transportation, meals, and extended day care to prekindergarten children, and what percentage of prekindergarten children received those services?

This study defines prekindergarten as public school classes that serve children prior to kindergarten entry, regardless of whether those classes were referred to as prekindergarten, preschool, or some other name. The classes included special education and general education classes. ⁷ To capture the broad range of classes that serve children prior to kindergarten in public schools, some of the information (e.g., student enrollment by age) was collected according to two broad and mutually exclusive types of classes:

• General education classes

  for children prior to kindergarten, including combined/inclusive classes, ⁸ Title I classes, Head Start classes that were part of a district-administered program, and any other classes primarily for 3- or 4- year-olds prior to kindergarten.

• Special education classes

  for children prior to kindergarten, including classes with 5-yearolds that had not yet entered kindergarten; for this study, special education classes were defined as classes that serve only children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

Classes that were primarily for children who were younger than 3 years and Head Start classes that were not administered by the school district were excluded (see methodology in appendix A for rationale).

The separation of selected survey questions by class type was based on the assumption that special education prekindergarten classes and children would differ from general education prekindergarten classes and children. For example, it was assumed that special education classes would be smaller and the children would tend to be slightly older. This assumption was based, in part, on pretest findings. Some pretest respondents, using a preliminary study definition of prekindergarten classes (i.e., classes primarily for 3- or 4-year-olds prior to kindergarten), excluded some special education classes prior to kindergarten because the classes enrolled children who were primarily 5 years or older.

The study was conducted through the NCES Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) during spring 2001. Approximately 2,000 public elementary schools ⁹ were included in the study sample.

Questionnaires were mailed to the principal of each sampled school, with a letter requesting that the questionnaire be completed by the school staff member who was most knowledgeable about the classes offered for children prior to kindergarten. A total of 1,843 schools responded to the survey, for a weighted response rate of 94 percent.

The questionnaire responses were weighted to produce national estimates that represent all special education and regular elementary and combined public schools in the United States. All comparative statements in this report have been tested for statistical significance using trend tests or t-tests adjusted for multiple comparisons, ¹⁰ and are significant at the 0.05 level. However, not all the significant differences are reported, because some are not of substantive interest or importance. In this report, some differences that appear large may not be statistically significant, due in part to the relatively large standard errors surrounding the estimates because of the small sample size. Appendix A provides a detailed discussion of the sample and survey methodology.

Most survey estimates presented in this report are shown at the national level and by selected school characteristics-school enrollment size, locale (i.e., city, urban fringe/large town, rural/small town), region (i.e., Northeast, Southeast, Central, West), percent minority enrollment, and poverty concentration (as defined by the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch). These characteristics are fully described in appendix A. It should be noted that percent minority enrollment and poverty concentration are based on school-level data, not on data from the prekindergarten classes that are the focus of this report.

Also, it is important to note that many of the school characteristics used for independent analyses may be related to each other. For example, school size and locale are related, with city schools typically being larger than rural schools. Similarly, poverty concentration and minority enrollment are related, with schools with a high minority enrollment also more likely to have a high concentration of poverty. Other relationships between analysis variables may exist. Because of the relatively small sample size used in this study, it is difficult to separate the independent effects of these variables. Their existence, however, should be considered in the interpretation of the data presented in this report.

Organization of This Report

This report presents information about general and special education prekindergarten classes in public elementary schools in 2000-2001. The discussion is divided into chapters that reflect the major topics addressed in the questionnaire. Chapter 2 highlights the characteristics of public schools that offered prekindergarten classes, and chapter 3 describes the children who were enrolled in those public school classes. Characteristics of the public school prekindergarten classes are presented in chapter 4, including information on the number of classes offered, the class schedule (e.g., full day versus half day), and the number of children enrolled in each type of class. Chapter 5 reports on the number of public school prekindergarten teachers and their credentials and salaries. Chapter 6 describes the student support services that public school prekindergarten children receive (e.g., school meals, transportation). Funding sources for public school prekindergarten classes are described in chapter 7. The concluding chapter summarizes the findings of the study. A detailed survey methodology (appendix A) and tables of standard errors for all data presented in this report (appendix B) are included as technical appendices. The questionnaire is presented in appendix C.

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¹ As used here, school readiness includes physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, cognitive general knowledge, approaches to learning, and language development. Federal and state/school district initiatives (e.g., Head Start and prekindergarten classes) focus primarily on school readiness.

² These outcomes include enhanced school achievement, improved social skills, reduced likelihood of placement in special education classes or retention in grade during elementary and secondary grades, and general well-being (Schulman, Blank, and Ewen 1999).

³ Some Head Start Programs located at public school facilities may lease space from the school and operate as completely independent entities outside of the public school system.

⁴ Public elementary and secondary education is administered by state and local boards of education, and traditionally a great deal of basic information has been gathered and reported about these schools and students (e.g., the Common Core of Data, Schools and Staffing Survey). Programs for children prior to kindergarten, however, have been provided by diverse groups and organizations, including public schools, private schools, churches, public and private day care centers, and Head Start programs. Although Kisker et al. (1991) examined early education settings in 1990, there has been no means for ongoing collection of data across the various providers.

⁵ This was very noticeable during the preliminary work for this study (e.g., feasibility calls, pretests, and pilot study). The Public Universe file of the CCD defines prekindergarten as a group or class that is part of a public school program, and is taught during the year or years preceding kindergarten (Bairu 2001). Based on this definition, some schools may not report classes or students prior to kindergarten because those classes may operate independently of the school.

⁶ Public special education and regular elementary and combined schools were included in the study sample. These schools are referred to as public elementary schools throughout this report. See methodology in appendix A for a detailed description of school types.

⁷ To improve readability, the term "general education classes" will be used throughout the report to refer to all classes that serve children prior to kindergarten, except special education classes (i.e., classes that serve only children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)).

⁸ Combined or inclusive classes have both general and special education students. In addition, some general education classes may include students who are at risk of developing a disability but do not yet have IEPs.

⁹ The sample of schools was drawn from the 1998-99 NCES CCD School Universe file. Therefore, only classes conducted in public school buildings-not those operated by public school systems but conducted outside of school buildings (e.g., those conducted in leased space at community centers or at private schools)-were included in the sampling frame.

¹⁰ The Bonferroni adjustment was used to adjust for multiple comparisons.

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