Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

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.

Keywords

child development early childhood literacy quasi-experimental analysis regression analyses

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arpino

Cannas

(2016). Propensity score matching with clustered data. An application to the estimation of the impact of caesarean section on the Apgar score. Statistics in Medicine, 35(12), 2074-2091. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.6880

Barnett

W. S.

Jung

(2020). Young children’s home learning and preschool participation experiences during the pandemic. https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NIEER_Tech_Rpt_July2020_Young_Childrens_Home_Learning_and_Preschool_Participation_Experiences_During_the_Pandemic-AUG2020.pdf

Barnett

W. S.

Jung

(2021). Seven impacts of the pandemic on young children and their parents: Initial findings from NIEER’s December 2020 preschool learning activities survey. https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/NIEER_Seven_Impacts_of_the_Pandemic_on_Young_Children_and_their_Parents.pdf

Barnett

W. S.

Jung

Friedman-Krauss

Frede

E. C.

Nores

Hustedt

J. T.

Howes

Daniel-Echols

(2018). State prekindergarten effects on early learning at kindergarten entry: An analysis of eight state programs. AERA Open, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858418766291

Bassok

Engel

(2019). Early childhood education at scale: Lessons from research for policy and practice. AERA Open, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419828690

Bassok

Weisner

Markowitz

A. J.

Hall

(2021). Teaching young children during COVID-19: Lessons from early educators in Virginia. EdPolicyWorks at the University of Virginia. http://bit.ly/see_partnerships_teaching_covid

Burchinal

Vandergrift

Pianta

Mashburn

(2010). Threshold analysis of association between child care quality and child outcomes for low-income children in pre-Kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(2), 166–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.10.004

Curriculum Associates (2020). Understanding student needs: Early results from fall assessments. https://www.curriculumassociates.com/-/media/mainsite/files/i-ready/iready-diagnostic-results-understanding-student-needs-paper-2020.pdf

Dore

R. A.

Purtell

K. M.

Justice

L. M.

(2021). Media use among kindergarteners from low-income households during the COVID-19 shutdown. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 42(8), 672–676.

10.

Dunning

(2012). Natural experiments in the social sciences: A design-based approach. Cambridge University Press.

11.

Durkin

Lipsey

M. W.

Farran

D. C.

Wiesen

S. E.

(2022). Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade. Developmental Psychology, 58(3), 470–484. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001301

12.

Friedman-Krauss

Barnett

W. S.

Garver

K. A.

Hodges

K. S.

Weisenfeld

G. G.

Gardiner

B. A.

(2020). The state of preschool 2020. https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/YB2020_Full_Report.pdf

13.

Green

K. M.

Stuart

E. A.

(2014). Examining moderation analyses in propensity score methods: Application to depression and substance use. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(5), 773–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036515

14.

Hadley

E. B.

McKenna

Soto-Boykin

(2022, April). Early childhood teachers’ use of digital apps for language and literacy instruction during COVID-19 [Poster presentation]. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

15.

Hansen

B. B.

(2004). Full matching in an observational study of coaching for the SAT. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 99(467), 609–618. https://doi.org/10.1198/016214504000000647

16.

(2021). Three test-score metrics that all states should report in the COVID-19-affected spring of 2021. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/andrewho/files/threemetrics.pdf

17.

Huang

F. L.

Invernizzi

M. A.

Drake

E. A.

(2012). The differential effects of preschool: Evidence from Virginia. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.03.006

18.

Huff

(2020). National data quantifies impact of COVID learning loss; raises questions about at-home testing. https://www.curriculumassociates.com/-/media/mainsite/files/i-ready/ca-impact-of-covid-learning-loss-fall-2020.pdf

19.

Johnson

A. D.

Markowitz

A. J.

Hill

C. J.

Phillips

D. A.

(2016). Variation in impacts of Tulsa pre-K on cognitive development in kindergarten: The role of instructional support. Developmental Psychology, 52(12), 2145–2158. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000226

20.

Kilbride

Hopkins

Strunk

K. O.

(2022). Michigan’s fall 2021 benchmark assessments. https://epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Benchmark_Report_April2022.pdf

21.

Kuhfeld

Lewis

Meyer

Tarasawa

(2020). Comparability analysis of remote and in-person MAP Growth testing in fall 2020. https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2020/11/Technical-brief-Comparability-analysis-of-remote-and-inperson-MAP-Growth-testing-in-fall-2020-NOV2020.pdf

22.

Kuhfeld

Soland

Lewis

Ruzek

Johnson

(2022). The COVID-19 school year: Learning and recovery across 2020-2021. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221099306

23.

Lipsey

M. W.

Weiland

Yoshikawa

Wilson

S. J.

Hofer

K. G.

(2015). The prekindergarten age-cutoff regression-discontinuity design: Methodological issues and implications for application. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(3), 296–313.

24.

McGinty

Gray

Partee

Herring

W. A.

Soland

(2021). Examining early literacy skills in the wake of COVID-19 spring 2020 school disruptions: Virginia Fall 2020 statewide screening findings and implications. https://literacy.virginia.edu/sites/g/files/jsddwu1006/files/2022-03/PALS_Fall_2020_Data_Report_5_18_final.pdf

25.

McKenna

Soto-Boykin

Cheng

Haynes

Osorio

Altshuler

(2021). Initial development of a national survey on remote learning in early childhood during COVID-19: Establishing content validity and reporting successes and barriers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 49, 815–827. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01216-y

26.

Meloy

Gardner

Darling-Hammond

(2019). Untangling the evidence on preschool effectiveness: Insights for policymakers. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Untangling_Evidence_Preschool_Effectiveness_REPORT.pdf

27.

Miller

L. C.

Bassok

(2019). The effects of universal preschool on grade retention. Education Finance and Policy, 14(2), 149–177. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00248

28.

Naff

Williams

Furman-Darby

Yeung

(2022). The mental health impacts of COVID-19 on PK–12 students: A systematic review of emerging literature. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221084722

29.

Niles

M. T.

Bertmann

Belarmino

E. H.

Wentworth

Biehl

Neff

(2020). The early food insecurity impacts of COVID-19. Nutrients, 12(7), Article 2096. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12072096

30.

Patarapichayatham

Locke

V. N.

Lewis

(2021). COVID-19 learning loss in Texas. https://www.istation.com/Content/downloads/studies/COVID-19_Learning_Loss_Texas.pdf

31.

Pishgar

Greifer

Leyrat

Stuart

(2021). MatchThem: Matching and weighting after multiple imputation. R Journal, 13(2), 292–305. https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2021-073

32.

Renaissance Learning. (2020). How kids are performing: Tracking the impact of COVID-19 on reading and mathematics achievement. https://renaissance.widen.net/s/wmjtlxkhbm

33.

Rosenbaum

P. R.

Rubin

D. B.

(1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41–55.

34.

Rubin

D. B.

(1976). Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 63(3), 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/63.3.581

35.

Shadish

W. R.

Steiner

P. M.

(2010). A primer on propensity score analysis. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 10(1), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.nainr.2009.12.010

36.

Storey

Zhang

(2021). A meta-analysis of COVID learning loss. EdArXiv. https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/qekw2

37.

Stuart

E. A.

(2010). Matching methods for causal inference: A review and a look forward. Statistical Science, 25(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1214/09-STS313

38.

Stuart

E. A.

Green

K. M.

(2008). Using full matching to estimate causal effects in nonexperimental studies: Examining the relationship between adolescent marijuana use and adult outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 44(2), 395–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.2.395

39.

Tavakol

Dennick

(2011). Making sense of Cronbach’s alpha. International Journal of Medical Education, 2, 53–55. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd

40.

Thoemmes

F. J.

Kim

E. S.

(2011). A systematic review of propensity score methods in the social sciences. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 46, 90–118. https://doi.org//10.1080/00273171.2011.540475

41.

van Buuren

. (2021). Multivariate imputation by Chained Equations. R Documentation. https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/mice/versions/3.13.0

42.

van Huizen

Plantenga

. (2018). Do children benefit from universal early childhood education and care? A meta-analysis of evidence from natural experiments. Economics of Education Review, 66, 206–222.

43.

Weiland

Greenberg

Bassok

Markowitz

Guerrero Rosada

Luetmer

Abenavoli

Gomez

Johnson

Jones-Harden

Maier

McCormick

Morris

Nores

Phillips

Snow

(2021). Historic crisis, historic opportunity: Using evidence to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on young children and early care and education programs. https://edpolicy.umich.edu/sites/epi/files/uploads/EPI-UI-Covid%20Synthesis%20Brief%20June%202021.pdf

44.

Weiland

Yoshikawa

(2013). Impacts of a prekindergarten program on children’s mathematics, language, literacy, executive function, and emotional skills. Child Development, 84(6), 2112–2130. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12099

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.22 MB

State-Funded Pre-K and Children’s Language and Literacy Development: The Case of COVID-19

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material