What kind of teacher qualifications result in good outcomes for very young children?
Student achievement begins with good teaching — and skill and ability gaps begin long before the school bell rings in kindergarten. Georgia — the first state to offer universal pre-kindergarten — wanted to learn how much bang the state was getting for its educational buck. Georgia commissioned a longitudinal study in 1996 to track 3,042 children in the pre-K program through their school years. One of the key purposes of providing quality early childhood programs has been to close achievement gaps between disadvantaged youngsters and their more affluent peers. “This study [Pre-K Longitudinal Study 1998-1999 School Year] strongly supports the idea that high-quality teaching in pre-kindergarten can reduce those gaps,” said Gary T. Henry, professor of policy studies at Georgia State University and director of the university’s Applied Research Center, which conducted the study. “[Pre-K} does make a difference,” Henry told Education World. “One thing we know is that teaching practices in
