In defense of pre-K
What one study can — and can’t — tell us about education policy.
In The News Piece
U.S. Department of Education / CC2.0
March 23, 2022
Writing for Vox, Kevin Carey explains what the recent Tennessee pre-K study can - and can’t - tell us about education policy.
In January, a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University released a study that seemed to be a serious setback to the push for nationwide, universal pre-K programs. The study found that children who enrolled in a Tennessee pre-kindergarten program in 2009 and 2010 had worse test scores and behavioral outcomes as sixth graders than children who didn’t. The study was cast by pre-K critics as another blow to President Joe Biden’s struggling Build Back Better bill, but the ramifications were even bigger. Media outlets and pundits wondered: Is pre-K actually bad?