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Georgia’s Preschool System Gets High Marks

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Times Staff Writer

In Mary Dougherty’s classroom, students are studying birds. The children peer through magnifying glasses at nests, listen attentively as their teacher reads “Unbeatable Beaks” and create feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter and birdseed that they will string on the blooming dogwoods and century-old oaks that stud the school’s five-acre campus.

“How are the birds going to eat?” Dougherty quizzes them.

“They use their beaks!” replies 5-year-old Robert Yashinski, pulling his hands to his mouth and demonstrating.

Robert and the rest of the children are preschoolers -- part of a novel Georgia program that provides a free year of preschool for all, regardless of family income. The voluntary, full-day program, which began statewide in the 1995-96 academic year and is the nation’s oldest universal preschool effort, bears many similarities to what would occur in California if voters passed Proposition 82 in June.

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No exact replica of the California proposal exists anywhere in the nation. But Georgia’s experience is notable because it has many similarities: Both offer free preschool to all 4-year-olds, regardless of family income, in classes limited to 20 children at public schools and private learning centers.

Still, there are differences. Georgia’s program offers full-day preschool taught by teachers with at least an associate’s degree and is funded by the state lottery. California would offer half-day sessions taught by teachers with at least a bachelor’s degree and would be financed through taxing the state’s wealthiest individuals an estimated $2.4 billion annually.

Georgia’s example is one of several state programs studied by the drafters of California’s initiative, who hope voters will back an effort that they argue would give all students a jump-start on traditional kindergarten. Doing so, supporters hope, would translate into achievement gains for students in the nation’s most populous state.

“There are a lot of things about Georgia’s system to be admired,” said Karen Hill-Scott, a Culver City-based child-development consultant who helped write Proposition 82. “It’s universal ... and it includes all kinds of providers.”

Georgia’s wildly popular program started in the 1992-93 academic year, serving only at-risk children. Three years later, the voluntary classes were expanded to all children. This year, $290 million in state lottery revenue is paying for about 74,000 children enrolled in classes at both public schools and private learning centers, about 56% of the eligible population.

“We feel it is our responsibility to get children ready for school as best we can,” said Marsha H. Moore, commissioner of Bright From the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. “Pre-kindergarten is doing its job. There is no doubt.”

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How long the job lasts, however, is in doubt. Georgia’s experience raises questions about how durable any gains ultimately are -- a key consideration in the spending of scarce education dollars.

Although research shows clear academic gains through kindergarten and first grade, the advantages fade in second and third grade, said Gary Henry, a policy studies professor at Georgia State University who has been studying the state’s preschools since 1995.

Because of the short-lived benefit, some critics question whether the money spent on universal preschool would be better used solely for disadvantaged children.

“Georgia teaches us that preschool won’t close the achievement gap, unless we target our quality dollars on poor kids who are attending preschool,” said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor and an opponent of Proposition 82. “If we rush toward a universal system and kids from better-off families benefit, we shouldn’t expect any narrowing of the achievement gap.”

Pat Willis, executive director of the Atlanta-based nonprofit Voices for Georgia’s Children, has concerns about the program’s effectiveness. Despite a threefold increase in 4-year-olds’ participation in preschool in recent years, the state has reaped few benefits on national assessments of students’ knowledge.

“Georgia really isn’t reading very well compared to the nation’s fourth-graders,” she said. “Surely we should be seeing a difference” by now.

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Universal-preschool backers counter that even though the gains fade, the studies show that preschool is working. The fact that program graduates don’t continue to do better, they argue, says more about the need to overhaul early elementary instruction than about weaknesses in universal preschool.

“There is a learning loss. We’ve never shied away from that,” Moore said. “The key is to find out why they’re losing those gains.... What can we do to sustain our investment? We’ve got to build on the successes of pre-kindergarten.”

So far, no one has studied the preschool graduates past the third grade. Children’s advocates, including Willis, say the lack of follow-up through the higher grades is a wasted opportunity, because the first children to take part in Georgia’s universal preschool program are now high school freshman.

More research is planned: Georgia State University professor Henry will begin tracking a group of 3-year-olds next fall. Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. hopes to gather enough historical data in Georgia and other states to study preschool’s effect on test scores, special-education placements, high school graduation rates, juvenile crime and other outcomes.

Some analysis of the Georgia program that has already been done has implications for California.

Though it is not clear why, studies indicate that students who attended preschools in community-based learning centers showed more gains than those who attended public schools. In California, Proposition 82 would probably shift much preschool education in the state to the public school system.

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In addition, Georgia researchers found no difference in achievement based on whether a teacher had a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree. In California, preschool teachers would be required to hold a bachelor’s -- a mandate that would increase the program’s cost and eliminate some current preschool teachers who don’t go back to school for more education. The ballot measure provides $200 million in financial aid for teachers seeking to upgrade their degrees.

There also is the issue of how “universal” the program has been, particularly for children in rural communities. Each spring, newspaper headlines across Georgia describe parents camping out overnight to secure a spot for their child at a preferred preschool the next fall.

State officials say they are able to accommodate most children whose parents want to enroll them in a state-funded preschool, even if they don’t get their first choice. Some parents of those not enrolled choose to pay for private or religious programs, and others prefer to keep their children at home. But Moore concedes that an unknown number are shut out because there are not enough seats, a shortfall educators try to remedy each year by boosting the number of classrooms.

In California, the ballot measure promises to offer free preschool to every 4-year-old by 2010, with initial priority given to areas with low-performing schools. The initiative also includes up to $2 billion to build, purchase and renovate classrooms during the first four years.

So far in Georgia, lottery revenue has kept pace with the program’s growth. But the same pool of resources is tapped for college scholarships for local students who maintain a B average at state schools. That program, like preschool, is considered politically sacred and unlikely to be scaled back. How long both efforts can be funded by lottery revenue is uncertain.

So far, Georgia has spent $2.7 billion on universal preschool. With so much money at stake, state officials require a consultant to visit each preschool at least twice a year to ensure that instructional and classroom requirements are met and that the state isn’t just funding glorified day care, said Mary Rieck, the state’s pre-K program manager.

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It’s a distinction the state makes to parents as well, stressing that children need to be on time and ready to learn, just as in elementary school.

“This is not drop-in day care,” Rieck said. “This is an instructional program. It’s just like regular school.”

For many parents with children in the Georgia program, free quality preschool seems heaven-sent.

Gabrielle Johnson’s 5-year-old daughter, Syelle Bedgood, attends West Cobb Preparatory Academy in Marietta, near Atlanta. It is a light-filled preschool with murals of lions, giraffes and other creatures dancing across its walls.

The experience has helped improve Syelle’s attention span and allowed her to play with other children, which Johnson says is key because her daughter is an only child.

If the state didn’t pay for preschool, Johnson, an executive assistant at a recording artists’ management company, said she would find a way to pay for private classes.

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“It helps, especially when they get ready to go to actual kindergarten. It gives them a step above and, of course, interacting with other children is always good for kids,” she said.

David and Shyretta Brittian’s 4-year-old son, Donovan, is in Dougherty’s class nearby. David is studying graphic design, and Shyretta is an out-of-work administrative assistant. Without the program, they say, they wouldn’t be able to afford to send their son to preschool.

Donovan’s eagerness to learn is evident as he whizzes around the tidy classroom -- first talking to his classmates and then rushing to the reading mat to get a front-row view of the pictures of colorful birds in “Unbeatable Beaks.”

Since starting preschool, the Brittians say, Donovan has learned the alphabet and interacts better with other children.

“All states should do this,” Shyretta said. “It shouldn’t matter how much the parents make or whatever. It’s for the children.”

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