State-Funded Pre-K and Children’s Language and Literacy Development
The Case of Covid-19
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9732133 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Burke Hadley (0000-0002-2880-6175, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, corresponding author), Siyu Liu (0000-0001-8049-7771, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL), Eunsook Kim (0000-0003-1054-1735, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL), Meaghan Mckenna (0000-0001-9430-415X, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 434-443 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Educational Researcher (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-189X • E-ISSN: 1935-102X |
| Publisher | American Educational Research Association (AERA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3102/0013189x231179111 |
| OpenAlex | W4379985029 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 28 |
Research on how COVID-19 school closures impacted the learning of young children is still sparse, and the broader implications of these findings have yet to be fully explored. In this study, we examine the impacts of COVID-19 school closures on language and literacy development in a state-funded pre-K program in a Florida school district. Using COVID closures as a natural experiment, we additionally explore the implications of these findings for the literature on the efficacy and dosage of state-funded pre-K programs. We used propensity score matching to compare children from the COVID cohort ( n = 1,211) to children from a pre-COVID cohort ( n = 1,167). Results revealed no significant difference on the Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS) assessment between the two cohorts at kindergarten entry. The COVID cohort had significantly higher scores on each of the individual subdomains of the FLKRS than the pre-COVID cohort, with especially large positive effect sizes for constrained literacy skills. Results indicate that COVID-19 closures did not have significant negative impacts on pre-K children’s language and literacy skills at kindergarten entry. Findings further suggest that state-funded pre-K programs with comparatively less funding and lower quality ratings may not provide adequate support for children’s language and literacy outcomes
Cohort · Cohort study · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Developmental psychology · Language development · Literacy · Mathematics education · Medical education · Natural experiment · Pedagogy · Propensity score matching · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Early Childhood Education and Development · Medicine · Psychology · Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
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Impacts of a Prekindergarten Program on Children's Mathematics, Language, Literacy, Executive Function, and Emotional Skills
The Early Food Insecurity Impacts of Covid-19
Full Matching in an Observational Study of Coaching for the SAT
Inference and missing data
The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects
Matching Methods for Causal Inference
Making sense of Cronbach's alpha
Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences
A Systematic Review of Propensity Score Methods in the Social Sciences
The differential effects of preschool
Threshold analysis of association between child care quality and child outcomes for low-income children in pre-kindergarten programs
Using full matching to estimate causal effects in nonexperimental studies
Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade
Variation in impacts of Tulsa pre-K on cognitive development in kindergarten
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |