Dive Brief:

• A new study of the academic benefits of Tennessee preschools conducted by Vanderbilt University finds that public preschool programs don’t appear to positively influence students’ academic outcomes.
• The five-year-long study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, looked at Tennessee’s voluntary state-funded preschool program and the elementary school outcomes for students who went through it.
• Researchers found that the academic benefits of preschool faded as students entered grade school, a phenomenon that had been suspected but not documented with the level of rigor of this study.

Dive Insight:

The consequences of the study for Tennessee’s program could be severe. Gov. Bill Haslam was awaiting the study’s results to decide whether he would put forward a proposal to expand the state’s preschool program. Some national experts have lauded the study for going against conventional wisdom on preschools.

But the study’s authors came to a different conclusion. While their research found initial positive impacts from preschool that faded quickly and potentially even reversed, they advise that more research is needed to understand what exactly is causing that “fade-out.” Other national experts have said that the results indicate the need to raise the quality and quantity of preschool offerings in order to boost those outcomes.