This summary was developed using Microsoft Copilot on 05/17/2025 and edited by Charlotte Sutcliffe, Duke undergraduate research assistant.
Carr, R. C., Jenkins, J. M., Watts, T. W., Peisner-Feinberg, E. S., & Dodge, K. A. (2024). “Investigating if high-quality kindergarten teachers sustain the pre-K boost to children’s emergent literacy skill development in North Carolina.” Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14076
Background
This study explores whether high-quality kindergarten teachers can sustain the academic benefits children gain from attending North Carolina’s NC Pre-K program, a state-funded initiative serving primarily low-income families. NC Pre-K focuses on emergent literacy skills—basic abilities such as noticing and working with sounds in words and sounding out written words –that are critical for later reading success.
Findings
Using a sample of over 17,000 children, researchers compared the literacy development of NC Pre-K participants to non-participants during kindergarten. Teacher quality was measured using a “value-added” approach, which estimates a teacher’s contribution to student learning gains over the school year.
Findings confirmed that NC Pre-K participants entered kindergarten with significantly stronger emergent literacy skills than their peers. However, this advantage diminished over the year as non-participants demonstrated faster growth, effectively narrowing the gap. By spring, only 11% of the initial skill difference remained. Importantly, this convergence was not due to a decline in skills among NC Pre-K participants, but rather to accelerated progress among non-participants.
High-quality kindergarten teachers, as measured by value-added scores, were associated with greater literacy gains for all students. However, these teachers did not differentially benefit former NC Pre-K participants. In other words, while effective teachers improved outcomes broadly, they did not specifically sustain or amplify the pre-K advantage.
Takeaways
The study tested two competing theories: dynamic complementarity (pre-K gains are enhanced by high-quality teaching) and dynamic substitutability (pre-K gains persist in low-quality environments). Neither hypothesis was supported. Instead, the findings suggest that kindergarten may act as a compensatory environment, helping lower-performing students catch up, regardless of pre-K participation.
The authors emphasize that while short-term convergence occurred, NC Pre-K still provided a meaningful early boost, and teacher quality remained a strong predictor of literacy growth. They advocate for viewing pre-K as the first step in a continuum of high-quality education and recommend future research into instructional alignment, individualized teaching, and peer effects to better sustain early gains.