The big picture
The Houston Education Research Consortium released research in November about how pre-K participation impacted students at public school districts across the Greater Houston area. In January, SISD announced the results for its pre-K programs, which mirrored trends across the region, according to the Kinder report.
SISD students who attended pre-K in the district showed more readiness for kindergarten—a trend also seen across the overall Houston region—but SISD’s Spanish-speaking students especially benefited from pre-K, showing more preparedness even compared to pre-K attendees in the region overall, according to the report. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism was higher for kindergarteners and first graders who didn’t attend pre-K—at SISD or anywhere in the Houston region—compared to students who did.
“Providing access to pre-K for all of our youngest learners is a testament to our dedication to supporting families and preparing students for success,” SISD Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa said via a Jan. 8 news release from the district. “We have seen the results firsthand, and we are determined to continue making early education a priority for our district.”
The study also looked into how SISD’s pre-K program impacted student scores on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, but found no significant effects, according to Kinder.
The specifics
According to Kinder’s report, kindergarten readiness for the 2021-22 school year:
- Was 62 percentage points higher among Spanish-speaking students who attended a SISD pre-K program versus students who did not, which is 15.4 percentage points more than difference for the overall Houston region
- Was 22.6 percentage points higher for English-speaking students who attended a SISD pre-K program versus students who did not, which is 1.7 percentage points less than the difference for the overall Houston region
- Was 8.3 percentage points higher among first graders who did not attend a SISD pre-K program in the 2019-20 school year compared to students who did, which is 2.6 percentage points higher than difference for the overall Houston region
- Was 7.9 percentage points higher for kindergarteners who did not attend a SISD pre-K program in the 2019-20 school year compared to students who did, which is 5.4 percentage points greater than difference for the overall Houston region
SISD is piloting new pre-K 3 programs—which began in August—at Lewis, McNabb and Winship elementary schools. In August 2021, the district expanded access to its tuition-free, full-day pre-K program.
Hannah Brol contributed to this report.
