Tennessee's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program

There is a significant body of scientific evidence that supports investing in quality pre-k education:

Children who participate in high-quality early childhood education programs:

arrive at school with better language skills and get along better with their peers;
are 40% less likely to need special education or be held back a grade; and
are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college, and be employed.

Several longitudinal studies have shown that high-quality programs for children as young as three can return more than $7 to society for every dollar initially invested in increased earning for participants and reduced costs on special education, welfare dependency, and crime.

Tennessee’s Pilot Pre-K program initial evaluation by the State of Tennessee Department of Education indicated that graduates from the program score significantly higher on the first grade TCAP achievement test than other economically disadvantaged students in Tennessee and higher than the state average. Click here to view the full report.

The National Academy of Sciences reviewed three decades of developmental research and evaluations of early childhood education interventions, concluding that for children in poverty early childhood education is associated with significant short-term cognitive development gains; mid-term benefits such as higher academic achievement, lower rates of grade retention, and decreased referral for special education services; and long-term benefits such as greater likelihood of high school graduation, increased lifetime earnings, lower rates of welfare dependence, and decreased likelihood of involvement with the criminal justice system. Source: Shonkoff, Jack P.; Phillips, Deborah A., eds. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: the Science of Early Child Development. Washington , D.C. : National Academy Press.

A 2004 Economic Policy Institute publication by economist Robert G. Lynch found that smart investments in comprehensive high quality early childhood development (ECD) programs would more than pay for themselves – generating more than $2 in returns to taxpayers for every $1 invested, with the total benefits to society from ECD investments exceeding a return of 8 to 1. Source: Lynch, Robert G. 2004. Exceptional Returns: Economic, Fiscal, and Social Benefits of Investment in Early Childhood Development. Washington , D.C. : Economic Policy Institute.

A RAND Corporation publication, Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions, supports the proposition that carefully targeted early childhood interventions can yield measurable benefits in the short run and that some of those benefits persist long after the program has ended. The analysis also found a preschool program to have quantifiable per-child public benefits and savings of twice the per-child cost of the program. A few of those benefits include:

Gains in emotional or cognitive development for the child, typically in the short run, or improved parent-child relationships.
Improvements in educational outcomes for the child.
Increased economic self-sufficiency, initially for the parent and later for the child, through greater labor force participation, higher income, and lower welfare usage.
Reduced levels of criminal activity.
Improvements in health-related indicators, such as child abuse, maternal reproductive health, and maternal substance abuse.

A YaleUniversity analysis of evaluations of state-funded preschool programs reports that 12 of 13 evaluations found statistically significant positive impacts on attendance and all 13 evaluations found statistically significant lower rates of grade retention. The findings indicate that although evaluations of state-funded preschool programs vary widely, enough data is present to suggest pre-k programs positively impact children in a number of areas including attendance, grades, and achievement test scores.

The Carolina Abecedarian Project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for poor children. Children from low-income families received full-time, high-quality educational intervention in a childcare setting from infancy through age 5. Each child had an individualized prescription of educational activities. Educational activities consisted of "games" incorporated into the child's day. Activities focused on social, emotional, and cognitive areas of development but gave particular emphasis to language. Children's progress was monitored over time with follow-up studies conducted at ages 12, 15, and 21. The young adult findings demonstrate that important, long-lasting benefits were associated with the early childhood program. This Web site includes major findings, policy implications and publications.

The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project developed a high-quality educational approach nearly 40 years ago focusing on 3- and 4-year-olds at risk for school failure. The longitudinal study has found that not only was the project effective as an educational intervention, it also demonstrated other positive outcomes, including a significantly lower rate of crime and delinquency and a lower incidence of teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency. By the age of 27, program participants were nearly three times as likely to own their own homes than the control group and less than half as likely to be receiving public assistance. The Web site includes program outcomes, early childhood risk factors for delinquency, and program and policy implications:

The Chicago Child-Parent Center Program is a large-scale school-based preschool and early school-age intervention for low-income children that emphasizes parent involvement and the development of literacy skills. Studies have indicated that program participation beginning in the half-day preschool program is associated with higher school achievement, higher rates of school completion through age 20, lower rates of school dropout, lower rates of juvenile arrest for violent and non-violent charges, and with less need for school remedial services. A cost-benefit analysis of the Chicago Child Parent Center(1) finds $7.14 in total societal benefits for each $1 investment in the preschool program.

The Effects of Universal Pre-K in Oklahoma: Research Highlights and Policy Implications by William T. Gormley, Jr. and Deborah Phillips indicate positive effects for all children who attend high-quality, universal preschool in Tulsa Oklahoma especially in the areas of language, cognitive and motor skills and reinforce the positive effects of high quality preschool found in other studies.

Early Childhood Education: How Important are the Cost-Savings to the School System? by Clive Belfield at the Teachers College at Columbia University focuses not primarily on the academic advantages that ECE may generate for the children who participate, but on the medium-term cost-savings to a state education system from investing in Early Childhood Education such as reducing the incidence of special education; preventing grade repetition; improving educational productivity; and enhancing children's well-being. The report also sets the cost-savings into the full context of education policy and considers the long-term benefits to a society committed to providing every child with a ‘sound basic education’, with particular focus on New York state. Download full the report at