January 2022
This month, we're highlighting a study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill research team that sheds light on factors that influence American states to adopt publicly-funded prekindergarten (pre-K).

While public pre-K programs have become almost ubiquitous in the United States, five "hold out" states remain. 

Expanding access to high-quality early childhood education to all children in the U.S., namely state-funded pre-K programs for 4-year-olds in the year before kindergarten, may be an important step in improving children’s academic success and narrowing opportunity gaps — especially among those from historically marginalized groups.

Researchers examined the likelihood that a state will adopt a pre-K program in a specific year during the period 1983-2017.

Four key predictors were identified:

  1. Percentage of Republicans in the state legislature
  2. Legislative professionalism
  3. Unemployment rate
  4. Geographic diffusion

Learn more about the study in the blog and map linked below.
Study finds factors that influence states’ adoption of pre-K programs
Factors that influence states' adoption of public pre-K

Research by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill team sheds light on factors that influence American states to adopt publicly-funded prekindergarten (pre-K). The historical analysis found legislative partisanship, legislative...

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earlylearningnetwork.unl.edu
Related to the blog linked above, the following map shows American states that have adopted public pre-K to date, in a series of waves.

Overall, 37 states adopted a pre-K program between 1983-2017, starting with Maine and West Virginia in 1983 and ending with Montana and North Dakota in 2017.
The Early Learning Network, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, leverages its expertise, resources and geographic diversity to help narrow opportunity gaps and maintain early learning success as children transition from preschool to third grade. Together, network researchers from universities and organizations across the U.S. are examining current policies and practices, identifying malleable factors associated with early learning and achievement, and developing tools to assess early learning instruction, interactions and environments. Learn more at earlylearningnetwork.unl.edu.
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