A Legislative Finance Committee update of its ongoing analysis of the impact of prekindergarten on long-term student success was published this spring by the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, a publication of the National Institute for Early Education Research
The peer-reviewed article, “Measuring impact of New Mexico prekindergarten on standardized test scores and high school graduation using propensity score matching,” examines longitudinal data from a group of children who were in prekindergarten in 2006 and finds prekindergarten participation is associated with greater student success, including significantly improved reading and math proficiency at third, sixth, and eighth grades and a 9.7 percent increase in high school graduation rates.
LFC evaluators have been closely studying the effectiveness of early childhood care and education, and the 2006 prekindergarten cohort in particular, for almost two decades. The work published by the journal represents analysis of the long-term study of the prekindergarten cohort.
The General Appropriation Act of 2023, the state budget bill, appropriates almost $217 million for state-run prekindergarten for the budget year that starts July 1, an increase of $110 million over the current budget year and an amount that will allow the state to add thousands of prekindergarten slots across the state. Previous LFC evaluations have found New Mexico prekindergarten provides up to a $6 return on every $1 invested through reduced social costs and higher lifetime earnings.
“Knowing how our state-run prekindergarten program performs is important with that kind of surge in appropriations,” said LFC Deputy Director Jon Courtney. “As participation is scaled up, we will need to continue to look at program performance and classroom quality to ensure New Mexico’s children are benefiting from this investment.”
Courtney noted rigorous evaluation of the New Mexico prekindergarten program is especially important because a Tennessee study found low-quality prekindergarten programs can have a slightly negative impact on long-term student success, although studies in other states and localities, like that in New Mexico, show a positive impact.
The article is available at https://ijccep.springerope n.com/articles/10.1186/s4 0723-023-00112-9 and on the LFC website.