Public preschool boosts academic skills in kindergarten, but little is known about whether that boost lasts to third grade because many studies stop directly assessing children after kindergarten. The current study tests for sustained associations between preschool attendance and an array of repeatedly measured, directly assessed language and math skills; we do this separately for public pre-K and Head Start, the two major publicly funded preschool programs. We draw on a large, racially diverse sample of children from families with low incomes in Tulsa, OK (N = 689, Mage at 3rd = 8.5 years). Using propensity score weighting, we compare children who attended school-based pre-K or Head Start to those who did not attend preschool. Both school-based pre-K and Head Start attenders outperformed preschool nonattenders on numeracy in third grade. There was weaker evidence of a sustained preschool advantage on language and literacy skills, and no evidence that associations differed by preschool program.

中文翻译：

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公立学前班预计三年级的学术技能会更强

公立学前班可以提高幼儿园的学术技能，但人们对这种提升是否能持续到三年级知之甚少，因为许多研究不再直接评估幼儿园后的儿童。目前的研究测试了学前教育出勤率与一系列反复测量、直接评估的语言和数学技能之间的持续关联；我们分别为公共学前班和启蒙教育（两个主要的公共资助学前教育项目）执行此操作。我们抽取了来自俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨低收入家庭的大量、种族多样化的儿童样本（N = 689，M3岁年龄= 8.5 年）。我们使用倾向得分加权，将参加学校学前班或启蒙教育的儿童与未参加学前班的儿童进行比较。三年级时，在校参加学前班和启蒙教育的学生的算术成绩均优于未参加学前班的学生。没有较弱的证据表明学前班在语言和识字技能方面具有持续优势，并且没有证据表明学前班项目之间的关联存在差异。