Nationwide, there is great interest in the role public schools play in early childhood education. School districts are increasingly investing in pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten as key strategies for enhancing school readiness and closing the student achievement gap. [For a more thorough discussion of the benefits of high quality early childhood education, please go to Policy on the menu above.]

Because anecdotal information suggests that school districts in Washington state are increasingly investing in early childhood education, EOI decided to research the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten offerings of the State’s 296 school districts. Our goal is to increase understanding of the role that Washington’s public schools are playing in early childhood education and contribute to the emerging discussions and decisions about universal preschool and full-day kindergarten in Washington State.

Information on pre-kindergarten and kindergarten offerings by school districts in Washington State was obtained in the following way:

• In the spring and summer of 2002, a telephone survey was conducted of the state’s 296 school districts. Every effort was made to talk to the district staff most knowledgeable about the district’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs. Depending upon the size of the district, respondents included superintendents, directors of district early childhood education programs, elementary school principals, kindergarten teachers and other staff.

• This EOI survey was supplemented by a survey of King County school districts conducted by the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health as part of its work on early childhood development. The Public Health Department used the EOI survey instrument for its survey, resulting in comparable data.

• Additional information was obtained from school district websites, newspaper articles and reports on school district use of Initiative 728 funds for pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten.

For the purposes of this research, the following definitions of school district pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs were used:

The following information was collected about each school district’s full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs:

K-12 Enrollment: Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) “October 2001 Headcount.”

K Enrollment: OSPI “2001-2002 Form P-105, District Summary,” April 2002 Note: This figure refers to the district's total kindergarten enrollment (including both half- and full-day kindergarten).

Students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch program: OSPI, “Public School Districts Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Status by District,” October 2001 Note: While the percentage of students in the free/reduced price lunch program is not a direct measure of poverty, it is at present the best existing measure and is used extensively throughout comparable research literature.

Students meeting state standards (4th grade WASL): OSPI, “Education Profile, WASL Scores by District,” 2002. Note: Blank cells indicate no scores were reported. Scores are not reported when fewer than 10 students are tested to protect student confidentiality.

Students of Color/Migrant Students/Bilingual Students: OSPI, “Education Profile, Demographic Information by District,” 2002. Note: For the purposes of this research, students of color were defined as the percentage of non-white students in a district. This includes the categories of African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and Native American.

Kindergarten and pre-kindergarten program description and attributes: The vast majority of this information is taken from the results of the telephone survey conducted with school districts by EOI in spring 2002. When available additional information was taken from school district websites, newspaper articles, and the 2001 collection, “Testimonials on the Impact of Initiative 728” from the League of Education Voters.

This survey could not have been completed without the efforts of Rebecca Glander, EOI Research Associate, and her faculty advisor, Russ Lidman at Seattle University. EOI also greatly appreciates the support of the following people and organizations:

Ruby Takanishi and the Foundation for Child Development

and

Seattle-King County Department of Public Health