Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR) is released annually and contains a wealth of data on our schools. This includes data on enrollment and academic achievement. In this blog post we examine pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) enrollment and Kindergarten Readiness data within the Houston-region.
Note that this data reflects the 2022-2023 TAPR and we’ll update our analysis in January for the 2023-2024 school year..
Understanding Pre-Kindergarten Eligibility
Prior to exploring Kindergarten Readiness trends, it is important to understand the ins and outs surrounding pre-K eligibility and enrollment – which has the ability to positively impact Kindergarten Readiness rates. In Texas, public school districts are required to offer free, pre-Kindergarten programs if there are 15 or more eligible children in the district who are four-years-old on or before September 1st of the school year. Additionally, school districts are not required to provide pre-K programs for eligible three-year-olds, however, they may choose to do so.
A child is considered eligible for free, public pre-K if they meet at least one of the following eligibility requirements:
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A family is eligible for a national free or reduced-price lunch program
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A child doesn’t speak or understand English
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A family doesn’t currently have a home or is looking for a permanent home
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One parent or guardian is on active duty in the armed forces
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A child is currently or was previously in foster care
One parent or guardian is eligible for the Star of Texas Award
However, this does not mean that children who do not qualify for free, public pre-K cannot attend, because ultimately, a school district may choose to offer a tuition-based pre-K program to children and families who are ineligible for free pre-K.
Throughout this analysis and blog post, we refer to students who are eligible for free, public pre-K as “eligible” students, and those who are ineligible for free pre-K and pay for tuition-based pre-K, as “not eligible” students.
What Does It Mean To Be Kindergarten Ready?
When a child enrolls in Kindergarten, they take a beginning of year reading screener to determine if they are Kindergarten Ready. This screener is approved by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and focuses on vocabulary, letter names, and spelling.
Ultimately, a child is considered Kindergarten Ready if they meet the“on track” benchmark for all three subtests of vocabulary, letter names, and spelling. This benchmark criteria for Kindergarten Readiness is also determined by the TEA.
Key Findings Overview:
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Currently, the average Houston-region eligible pre-K enrollment rate is 39%, slightly below pre-pandemic eligible pre-K enrollment levels of 41%.
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Students who were eligible and attended pre-K were 2x more likely to be Kindergarten Ready across Houston than those who were eligible and did not attend pre-K.
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Across all Houston-region ISDs, Black, Hispanic, emergent bilingual (EB), and economically disadvantaged (EcoDis) students who attended pre-K were more likely to be Kindergarten Ready than their peers who did not attend pre-K.
Pre-K Enrollment
After a significant decrease in pre-K enrollment during the pandemic experienced across the nation and Houston, recent pre-K enrollment data shows that the number of eligible three- and four-year-olds enrolling in pre-K has been slowly increasing within the Houston-region. Specifically, the combined eligible three- and four-year-old pre-K enrollment increased 1% in 2023, following a 5% increase between 2021-22.
In 2023, 39% of eligible three- and four-year-olds across the Houston-region were enrolled in pre-K, with Spring Branch and Houston ISDs enrolling the highest percentage of eligible students.
Kindergarten Readiness
There are significant benefits to enrolling children in high-quality pre-K programs and Houston-region Kindergarten Readiness data highlights just that.
On average, 54% of children in the Houston-region were considered Kindergarten Ready in 2023. When compared by race/ethnicity, Black and Hispanic students were more likely to score below the regional Kindergarten Readiness average than their Asian and white peers.
However, Black and Hispanic students who were eligible and attended free, public pre-K, were 2x more likely to be Kindergarten Ready compared to eligible Black and Hispanic students who did not attend pre-K.
Similarly, when comparing other student groups, Economically Disadvantaged (EcoDis) and Special Education (SPED) students were more likely to score below the regional Kindergarten Readiness average. Whereas, Emergent Bilingual (EB) students were more likely to score above the regional Kindergarten Readiness average.
When exploring trends amongst eligible Emergent Bilingual (EB) and Economically Disadvantaged (EcoDis) students who attended pre-K, they also were 2x more likely to be Kindergarten Ready compared to their eligible EB and EcoDis peers who did not attend.
Specifically, amongst the Houston-region, 3-in-4 Emergent Bilingual (EB) students who attended pre-K were Kindergarten Ready, compared to 3-in-10 EB students who did not attend pre-K.
Likewise, Economically Disadvantaged (EcoDis) students who attended pre-K were Kindergarten Ready at about 2.5 times the rate of their EcoDis peers who did not attend pre-K.
Ultimately, students who were eligible and attended pre-K were 2x more likely to be Kindergarten Ready compared to their peers who were eligible for pre-K and did not attend.
Furthermore, children who were eligible and attended pre-K were the most likely to be Kindergarten Ready compared to all student groups.
Implications and Takeaways:
The impact of enrolling in and attending pre-K is profound. High-quality early childhood programs dramatically improve Kindergarten Readiness rates, especially for pre-K eligible students, including Emergent Bilingual and Economically Disadvantaged students.
Specifically, there is an opportunity for pre-K enrollment efforts to focus on eligible Black and Hispanic students who were shown to significantly benefit from attending pre-K compared to their eligible peers who did not attend pre-K.
In the future, districts can strive to allocate resources towards developing high-quality pre-K programs, early education talent development, and leveraging partnerships with child care providers to ultimately increase the number of eligible students who enroll in pre-K.
Future legislative efforts should continue focusing on early education, including, expanding the Early Education Allotment to include pre-K, incentivizing partnerships with child care providers, and evaluating ways to improve the quality of pre-K. This would provide additional funding support for full-day pre-K programs and ideally, increase the number of eligible students who enroll in pre-K and support them to be Kindergarten Ready.
View Our Analysis
A Few Notes About Our Analysis:
The Good Reason Houston geography includes 11 Houston-region ISDs and the charters which fall within those ISD boundaries. Typically, ISDs and charters are included in our analyses, however, due to charters offering very limited pre-K programming, charters were excluded from our analysis.
Additionally, due to changes in the Kindergarten Readiness scoring methodology for the 2022-23 school year, Kindergarten Readiness scores may not be directly comparable to prior years.
