Kindergarten readiness data, released last week by the Texas Education Agency, sheds light on the value of attending pre-K readiness assessments are administered at the beginning of the year and include early academic skills like letter recognition, vocabulary, and counting. Additionally, students are assessed on emotional regulation and gross and fine motor control. For teachers these assessments help them tailor instruction and support. For researchers like us, the data sheds light on how well public pre-k is doing in setting a strong foundation for our littlest learners.
The results are clear: attending pre-K sets a strong foundation for success. Students who are eligible and attend public pre-K are twice as likely to be kindergarten ready as eligible students who do not attend.
The year-over-year trend shows rapid progress since the pandemic for eligible students who enroll in public pre-k. In fact eligible students who enroll (who qualify based on criteria like being emergent bilingual, economically disadvantaged, homeless, or in foster care) actually show the same kindergarten readiness rates as students who are not, closing a historically large and persistent gap.
Emergent bilingual (EB) students benefit greatly from public pre-K. Kindergarten readiness rates for EB students that attended public pre-K the year prior was 43 percentage points higher than for EB students who did not attend. This data suggests that early language exposure– in both English and dual language classrooms that are available across the city– sets a strong foundation for academic skills.
41,000 students are eligible but not enrolled in tuition-free pre-K
More than 71,000 children across Houston are eligible for free pre-K because they meet at least one criteria, including being emergent bilingual (EB) or economically disadvantaged (EcoDis). Yet, only 41% of eligible students enrolled in pre-K for the 2023-24 school year—a slight uptick from the previous year but still not back to pre-pandemic levels. This means while 27,000 children attended free pre-K, 41,000 remained unenrolled.
Pre-K enrollment rates have remained stagnant over the past five years. While all 11 ISDs in our region have rebounded at or above their 2020-21 enrollment, which were at an all-time low due to the pandemic, few ISDs have yet to experience enrollment rates rebound above pre-pandemic highs. Alief, Channelview, Cypress-Fairbanks, Klein, and Spring ISDs are notable exceptions with enrollment rates at or above 2020, with enrollment data captured prior to the pandemic.
Some of the most common reasons families cite for not enrolling in public pre-K include:
lack of knowledge about available programs
challenges navigating the enrollment process,
lack of access to transportation,
concerns about safety, and
perception that school should begin at 5 years of age.
