Research Paper about TN-VPK

đź“ŚCategory: Education
đź“ŚWords: 1025
đź“ŚPages: 4
đź“ŚPublished: 03 April 2022

Pre-K has been part of many states’ educational structures for years; the reasoning behind this is to prepare children for the rigors of kindergarten and the rest of their educational learning as they grow up. This study was done focusing on the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K (TN-VPK) service that is provided by the state of Tennessee to children who are three to five years old. While there was a study, Perry Preschool and Abecedarian demonstration projects, that showed that pre-K education was beneficial, there were many variables that held that particular study back such as the question of long-term effects (Bailey et al., 2017). Many other studies have attempted to look into the benefits of pre-K, but many have had issues with their accruing of information. One study from Early et al. involving Georgia’s universal pre-K showed that those who attended pre-K did better “on third grade reading and math scores for low-income families, but negative effects for pre-K participants from higher income families,” however there were issues with that study (2019). Most of the problems stemming from there being no pre-test on math and reading skills to judge ability before the start of pre-K (Durkin et al., 2022). The paper hopes to look into a longitudinal study on how students did academically who attended pre-K into sixth grade (Durkin et al., 2022). The study measured children’s scores at the beginning and the end of pre-K, with many improvements for children who started with lower scores at the beginning of pre-K. The study’s research question was does pre-K provide statistically significant differences between the experiment group, who participated in TN-VPK, and the control, those who did not. 

Summary of Methods 

This was a randomized longitudinal cohort study (Johnson & Christensen, 2020). The study was looking at over 2,990 children over ten years (Durkin et al., 2022). The sample was generated randomly by those who were admitted into the TN-VPK and those who were put on the waitlist. All 2,990 children in the study were male and comprised of many different races, however specific numbers for the racial composition of the study participants were not given. The study used 79 oversubscribed TN-VPK and was done with classes from 2009-10 and classes in 2010-11 (Durkin et al., 2022). The children were put into either a waitlist for the control group or were placed into TN-VPK class as the experimental group (Durkin et al., 2022). It is unknown what type of care or education the control group received during the study (Durkin et al., 2022). For the study participants all of the data collection involved looking into primarily the scores that the experimental and control received on their state exams, the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) and TN Ready. Other data that was collected was attendance in school during the school year, how often the experimental or control group had disciplinary issues in school, grade level, school rule violations, and those with individualized education programs (Durkin et al., 2022). 

Sample

This was a longitudinal study looking at over 2,990 male children. The longitudinal study design followed the children from their time in pre-K up to 6th grade. It would use 79 oversubscribed TN-VPK applicants one from the 2009-2010 to 2010-2011 years. The two resulting groups were randomly put into two separate groups 1,997 students who were in the TN-VPK and the remaining 993 were part of the control who did not participate in the study (Durkin et al., 2022). The control consisted of those who were assigned which started at 1,138, subtracted by 389 who were crossovers, and an addition of 244 who were no-shows in the experiment group giving us 993 for the control. To be considered for the sample the participants must have been “(1) be eligible for free or reduced price lunch, (2) be 4 years old by September 30 of their pre-K year, (3) be applicants to an oversubscribed TN-VPK program site that successfully randomized admission decisions, (4) not have applied for out-of-classroom special education services prior to pre-K enrollment, and (5) have a record in the state education database for at least one year of attendance in a Tennessee public school between pre-K and third grade,” to be part of the study (Durkin et al., 2022). The sample did not mention how many of the children were Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, or other. 

Measures

The measurements were done using scores from the Tennessee standardized achievement exam such as the TCAP and TNReady, similar to the TAKS test or STARR in Texas. Measurements also used were school disciplinary occurrences among the experimental and control group, school rule violations, grade level, individualized education programs for special education, were also used to measure students throughout the years while the study was being done (Durkin et al., 2022).

Summary of Results

The results from the study showed that children who did attend TN-VPK performed worse than those who did not go through TN-VPK. These results came from measuring the students’ scores in grade 3 and again in grade 6. The control group was shown to do better in reading, math, and science. The control group did better in those areas in math, reading, and science. The control group continued to do better and improved their scores, than the TN-VPK group (Durkin et al., 2022). These results were statistically significant with a p < .05. Children who participated in the TN-VPK scored worse than children who did not. The scores of children who attended TN-VPK scores were statistically significant. Hispanic children who were part of the TN-VPK performed worse than children that were in the control group (Durkin et al., 2022). Besides the grades from Tennessee State Exams, there was also the use of school attendance with students who did not participate have differences with attendance in that they attended school more; these findings were statistically significant (Durkin et al., 2022). Also, students who attended TN-VPK had more disciplinary infractions (i.e., expulsions, out-of-school suspension, inside-school suspension, and others) these were statistically significant (Durkin et al., 2022). 

Summary of Conclusions and Implications

The conclusion drawn from the study was that pre-K provided by TN-VPK does not provide long-lasting effects that are often assumed about pre-school (Durkin et al., 2022). This provides many questions regarding how pre-school should be viewed as a necessity in early childhood for academic success. The largest implication from this study is that the TN-VPK does not create what is hoped from children who attend preschool. The article calls into question the proponents of pre-k and brings into question the long-term effects of preschool for children as they age. However, these results might only be for Tennessee, and is not saying this applies to every state that has voluntary preschool for children (Durkin).

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