In their annual report on state preschool programs, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) declares that North Carolina has a swell pre-K program. In fact, North Carolina and Alabama were the only states to met all 10 of the NIEER quality standard benchmarks. (North Carolina has the edge on ‘Bama because our preschool program names rhyme and theirs don’t.) North Carolina ranks fifth in the nation in the amount of money, per child, poured into preschool programs.
As John Hood points out in today’s Daily Journal, the benefits of pre-K schooling often fade out over time.
A February 2007 study by Dr. Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute found that children who received an advantage by attending a preschool program in Arizona did not retain that advantage by the time they reached the fifth grade. This ?fade out? effect has been documented in national studies, as well. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a project of the federal National Center for Education Statistics, concluded that, by the end of the third grade year, children who attended a full-day preschool program did not retain their slight academic edge over children who attended a half-day preschool program.
