MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Just two months after a Vanderbilt study questioned pre-K’s long-term effectiveness, a new report came out defending pre-K’s successes.
That being said, both reports recommend improving pre-K programs.
“What we really need to focus on is the quality of the programs, the curriculum, the pre-K,” said State Representative Mark White.
He represents Memphis and serves on the Southern Regional Education Board Early Child Commission.
The SREB is the organization that released the latest report.
The report argued in favor of improving and supporting pre-K programs, citing long-term gains like, “Pre-K participants are more likely to graduate from high school on time, earn more over their lifetimes and enjoy better health as they age.”
White said he believes pre-K can help teach Memphis kids to read better at a younger age.
“I thought that the report was much more in line with what we expected,” said Memphis’s Stand for Children Director Cardell Orrin.
Orrin said Stand for Children continues to support expanding access to pre-K to as many Mid-South kids as possible.
“I think that the pre-K education sets kids for the foundation that they need to enter classrooms,” Orrin said.
Orrin said he believes a recent Vanderbilt study, questioning the long-term success of pre-K, remains helpful in pointing ways they need to improve.
White agreed.
“We’re just saying that with the appropriate pre-K curriculum and quality teachers, we still feel like it is very useful and we don’t need to back off on it right now,” White said.
WREG spoke over the phone with Dr. Dale Farran, one of the researchers who did the Vanderbilt study.
We asked her about the SREB report.
She said a report of this size does not come out in reaction to another study.
She said the SREB report consolidated a lot of research from over the years and did not necessarily tell the states what they need to hear.
Farran, along with Dr. Mark Lipsey, recently researched evidence for the benefits of state pre-K programs.
They found, “Children and education policy makers are not being well served by a perpetuation of magical thinking about poorly defined state run pre-K programs.”
