HARRISBURG – A full 99 percent of children enrolled in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts in the 2008-09 school year finished the year with age-appropriate skills and behaviors or emerging skills and behaviors, according to year-end assessments.
Of those children, about 75 percent had age-appropriate literacy, math and social skills, while nearly 24 percent had emerging skills by year’s end. The results of the second year of Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts show the continuing commitment to quality early childhood education is paying off, Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said.
“Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is a program that all Pennsylvanians should be proud of because it represents a wise public investment in our commonwealth’s future success,” Secretary Zahorchak said. “We are making great progress in preparing our youngest learners for a lifetime of benefits.”
Second year results that followed children’s progress from the start of the school year also show:
• The number of children proficient in personal and social development nearly tripled – from 2,984 children at the start of the school year to 8,763 at the end of the year.
• Nearly four times as many children gained proficiency in language and literacy – from 2,164 children at the start of the year to 8,135 at the end of the year.
• More than four times as many children were proficient in mathematical thinking – from 1,792 children at the start of the year to 7,910 at the end of the year.
• Five times as many children were proficient in scientific thinking – from 1,429 children at the start of the year to 7,686 at year’s end.
Progress also was made in closing achievement gaps for English Language Learners and children with developmental delays or disabilities.
Spanish-speaking children were three times more likely than English-speaking children to begin the year without age-expected language and literacy skills. By the end of the year, Spanish-speaking children participating in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts had closed the gap, with both groups of children finishing the year with less than 2 percent lacking the age-expected language skills.
Among students with developmental delays or disabilities, there was an 83 percent decrease in the number of children without age-expected skills in language and literacy by the end of the school year.
“There is no question that Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is working,” Secretary Zahorchak said. “We have combined research-based, high-quality standards with high accountability to create these remarkable results for our children.
“School districts report that children from Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts classrooms are entering kindergarten with the necessary skills and requiring fewer special education services,” he added. “These impressive results benefit the child, the school and the community.”
Outcomes for PA Pre-K Counts students compare positively to outcomes in other states that have had pre-K programs in place for as long as 20 years.
Approximately 11,800 three- and four-year-olds in 62 counties across the state participated in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts in the 2008-2009 school year. Under the program, children are assessed three times during the year to gauge their progress.