Head Start or Public Pre-K: How Preschool Type Matters for Dual Language Learners in the U.S.

Partika, Anne; Partika, Anne

The share of young children in the U.S. who are dual language learners - young children who are learning and developing two languages at once – is continually increasing and currently comprises 1 in 4 U.S. children, many of whom are Spanish-speaking first- or second-generation immigrants. Although many DLLs become bilingual, which has numerous documented advantages, DLLs in the U.S. are also overrepresented in minority and poverty populations, have lower levels of parental education, and start kindergarten academically behind their monolingual peers. While the reasons for this gap in school readiness are not fully understood, the U.S. education system remains designed for monolingual English-speaking children and thus may not fully meet the needs of this growing population.

Encouragingly, participation in public preschool has been shown to be at least as advantageous for DLLs as for their English-speaking peers. However, no studies have examined which type of public preschool – Head Start or public school-based pre-K – may be more promotive of academic school readiness for DLLs. To fill this gap, the current study uses data from the Tulsa School Experiences & Early Development (SEED) Study to examine the differential effects of participation in Head Start versus public school-based pre-K on early literacy and math skills for low-income Spanish-speaking DLLs. Analyses rely on a difference-in-differences approach to control for fixed differences between groups and changes over time that are the same across groups. Preliminary analyses suggest that DLLs who attended school-based pre-K outperform their peers who attended Head Start on measures of both early literacy (B=.35, SD=.19, p=.06) and quantitative reasoning (B=.31, SD=.16, p=.05).

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

DC Accepted Papers Paper: Head Start or Public Pre-K: How Preschool Type Matters for Dual Language Learners in the U.S.

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