Each fall, StriveTogether brings education and community leaders from across the country together for its Cradle to Career Network Convening. This year’s gathering took place Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Baltimore, where Good Reason Houston and Spring Independent School District presented how our partnership used data to open pre-K classrooms for 3-year-olds.
The session, “The Pre-K Proof Point: A District-Intermediary Case for Pre-K3,” was led by Courtney Durbin, director of quantitative research and data analytics at Good Reason Houston; Clarissa Lobo, manager of district partnerships at Good Reason Houston; and Dr. Jennifer Bassett-Alvarez, director of early childhood and primary curriculum, instruction and professional learning at Spring ISD. More than 30 attendees joined, and several told the team it was their favorite session of the day.
Why pre-K3, and why Spring ISD
Across the Houston region, about 42,000 children who qualify for free public pre-K are not enrolled. In Texas, a child is eligible when they meet the age requirement and at least one state criterion, such as coming from a low-income household, learning English, having a parent on active military duty, being in foster care or experiencing homelessness. The Texas Education Agency publishes the full eligibility criteria.
The stakes are high: Eligible children who enroll are almost 2.5 times more likely to meet early literacy and numeracy standards than eligible children who do not enroll.
Spring ISD’s data pointed to a specific opportunity. The district already enrolled more than 80% of eligible 4-year-olds in pre-K. Even so, kindergarten readiness trailed the region and families had limited access to high-quality child care. The district was also navigating declining enrollment overall as new school options opened nearby.
With most eligible 4-year-olds already in classrooms, the larger opportunity was a year earlier. Starting at age 3 gives children more time in a high-quality program before kindergarten. It also connects families with the district sooner, in an area where they have few child care options and a growing number of school choices.
Leaders needed to decide where to add seats for 3-year-olds with two goals in mind: a strong foundation for the district’s earliest learners, and confidence among families that Spring ISD would set their children up for success from pre-K through 12th grade.
Spring ISD partnered with Good Reason Houston to co-create a pre-K3 enrollment expansion strategy through data analysis, strategy advising and implementation support.
A four-phase framework for districts and intermediaries
Good Reason Houston works as an intermediary, an organization that brings school systems, higher education, employers and other partners together to improve outcomes for students. With Spring ISD, we worked through a data-to-action framework built around questions that district and intermediary partners can ask of their own data.
- Data collection and orientation. The team mapped enrollment and eligibility trends, identified nearby early learning providers, and analyzed seat fill rates and staffing at every campus.
- Storytelling proof points. Comparing kindergarten readiness by campus, district and region surfaced the headline: Expanding pre-K for 3-year-olds was the district’s biggest opportunity. Most eligible 4-year-olds were already enrolled and readiness still trailed the region, so an earlier start offered the most room to grow.
- Translating data for decision-making. Findings were tailored for district leaders, families and funders, then turned into decisions on program design, outreach, staff training, registration and funding.
- Sustainability and knowledge management. Pre-K3 outcome data did not exist yet, so the partners built it. A checklist of 11 early skills, such as counting and recognizing letters, tracked 3-year-olds’ progress at the middle and end of the school year. The team is also following those students into pre-K4.
Good data showed Spring ISD where, how and under what conditions pre-K3 expansion could work. Together, we identified data points around need (who is eligible, who is ready) and capacity (providers, seats, staff). Need data pointed the expansion toward 3-year-olds. Capacity data, paired with community interest and campus commitment, determined which campuses would open classrooms.
Inside the session
After walking through the framework, the presenters turned it over to the room. In an activity called the Pre-K Data Jigsaw, small groups reviewed real Spring ISD data snapshots, chose an audience (families, funders, district decision-makers or government officials) and wrote a short case for pre-K expansion.
One snapshot showed how much pre-K attendance matters. In 2024, 56% of eligible students who attended Spring ISD pre-K arrived ready for kindergarten, matching the rate for students who were not eligible. Among eligible students who did not attend, 21% arrived ready. Pre-K was working for the students it reached. Districtwide readiness still trailed the region, which is why the partnership focused on giving children an additional year.
Each table tailored its talking points to its audience, and the takeaway was the same across the room: The power of pre-K is clear, and programming should reach as many students as possible.
Participants were eager to learn more. They asked how to build data systems that connect student progress from pre-K to elementary school, how to make the case for pre-K to school boards when funding is limited, and how to create their own measures of student growth where none exist.
What happened in Spring ISD
Spring ISD opened pre-K3 classrooms at Link, McNabb and Winship elementary schools, and early results are promising.
The skills checklist gave the district its first look at how 3-year-olds were progressing. Between the middle and end of the 2025-26 school year, the share of pre-K3 students meeting the number identification benchmark rose from 50% to 70%. The share who could write their first name rose from 8% to 43%.
Students who attended pre-K3 also started pre-K4 ahead. At the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, 71% of pre-K4 students who had attended pre-K3 met the letter naming benchmark, compared with 39% of students who were new to pre-K. In math, the figures were 90% and 53%. By the end of the year, both groups had grown and students who attended pre-K3 remained ahead in every area measured.
“Pre-K3 in Spring ISD is about creating opportunity earlier,” Bassett-Alvarez said. “It gives families access to high-quality learning during a critical stage in their child’s development and gives students the chance to build strong academic, social and emotional foundations from the very beginning.
“For many families, having access to pre-K3 can also help them feel more connected to the school system earlier and better understand how to support their child’s learning at home. For our teachers, it creates an opportunity to identify strengths and needs sooner, build relationships with families earlier, and make an impact that can follow students throughout their educational journey.
“What excites me most is that we are not simply preparing children for pre-K4 or kindergarten. We are investing in their long-term success by giving them more time to develop the skills, confidence and love of learning they need to thrive as they move through school.”
The partnership produced four lessons for other districts and intermediary organizations:
- Start with the decision. Knowing the choices leaders faced shaped which data to pull.
- One story, many audiences. The same proof points were framed differently for each audience.
- Demand is only the start. Community interest, pre-K3-ready facilities and campus commitment decided where seats went.
- No data? Build it. The skills checklist created the evidence needed for pre-K3 expansion.
What we brought home
Throughout the convening, Durbin and Patrick Gill of Good Reason Houston’s Research, Data and Impact team connected with data leaders from across the national StriveTogether network. Their conversations covered AI use in place-based partnership work, navigating complex stakeholder landscapes when establishing data partnerships, and ways to authentically incorporate community voice into data decision-making. They are especially excited to keep talking with new connections at UP Partnership in San Antonio and Spartanburg Academic Movement in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Lobo and Bassett-Alvarez connected with fellow educators and organizational leaders and attended sessions that support their work in Houston, including “Literacy Ecosystems: Reaching Every Adult Who Reads with Children” and “Consultancy in Action: Turning a 5-Year Strategic Plan into Measurable Results.”
What’s next
About 600 children are now enrolled in new pre-K3 classrooms across four Houston-area districts working with Good Reason Houston. A 2025 Good Reason Houston survey of more than 900 families across 11 school districts found that 82% of parents with a future pre-K-eligible child plan to enroll, while 1 in 4 families had not heard of any pre-K option. Next steps include gathering more family feedback on hopes and barriers to enrollment and using it to target outreach.
Read the our pre-K research report, “Our Youngest Learners, Our Brightest Futures,” to learn more.
