2021-2022 Executive Summary Research Brief

The Denver Preschool Program Key Findings from a Decade and a Half of Implementation Research has consistently shown the importance of high-quality preschool for children’s school readiness skills and early elementary academic success 1. Closing the preschool opportunity gap by helping families access high-quality preschool has also been found to be one of the most impactful strategies for narrowing the academic achievement gap 2. As a result, high-quality preschool is seen by policy-makers, educators, families, and researchers alike as a sound economic investment, with an approximate $4.00 societal savings for every dollar on preschool spent 3. Yet many families in Denver have not historically had access to high-quality preschool, creating substantial opportunity gaps and widening differences in early academic outcomes between children residing in lowerincome households and their more economically advantaged peers 4.

To address preschool opportunity gaps and advance racial and economic equity in opportunity and outcomes, Denver voters passed a sales tax in 2006 to help all Denver families access high-quality preschool. The sales tax established the Denver Preschool Program (DPP) which now provides a tuition credit for all families of 4-year olds in Denver to attend a preschool of their choice. The tuition credit is scaled to family income, family size, and to the quality of a preschool a family selects for their child. The DPP also provides resources to preschools to improve the quality of their programming in ways that support children’s school-readiness skills.

Over the past 15 years, the DPP has fundamentally changed the landscape of preschool opportunity in Denver, has enhanced the school readiness and longer-term early elementary academic outcomes of children who have participated, and has helped to support teachers and stabilize preschool programs in the face of the Covid-19 global pandemic. This research brief highlights key evaluation findings from the DPP over the last 15 years.

Key Findings  The DPP has helped improve Denver families’ economic well-being. DPP tuition credits have reduced families’ out-of-pocket preschool expenses and enabled many families to be able to work and for longer hours, which together have reduced many families’ economic stress, especially for families with lower household incomes.  Full preschool scholarships have helped families meet their basic needs. Families experiencing poverty who received a DPP Scholarship to cover the full cost of preschool are better able to make ends meet and afford food, housing, clothing, and medical care.

1 Keys, T. D., Farkas, G., Burchinal, M. R., Duncan, G. J., Vandell, D. L., Li, W., Ruzek, E.A., & Howes, C. (2013).

Preschool center quality and school readiness: quality effects and variation by demographic and child characteristics.

Child Development, 84(4), 1171–1190.

2 Huang, F. L., Invernizzi, M. A., & Drake, E. A. (2012). The differential effects of preschool: Evidence from Virginia.

Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27, 3345.

3 Karoly, L., & Auger, A. (2016). Informing investments in preschool quality and access in Cincinnati: Evidence of impacts and economic returns from national, state, and local preschool programs. Pittsburgh, PA: RAND. 4 Bassok, D. & Galdo, E. (2016). Inequality in preschool quality? Community-level disparities in access to high-quality learning environments. Early Education and Development, 27(1), 128-144.

 The DPP has helped to ensure that Denver has more high-quality preschools than most major cities in the United States 5: 85% of DPP programs are rated at the highest two quality tiers in the Colorado Shines Rating 6.  Children enrolled in the DPP experience high-quality preschool that supports their school readiness skills. During the 2021-22 school year, 94% of children participating in the DPP attended high-quality preschools.  The DPP has advanced racial and economic equity in preschool opportunity: Families with lower household incomes and BIPOC families indicate that DPP tuition credits have enabled them to enroll their child in high quality preschool programs that they would not have otherwise had access to without the tuition credit.  The DPP’s quality improvement support helps teachers to be more effective.

Preschool programs participating in DPP quality improvement supports have seen the greatest improvements in their classroom quality.  Increases in children’s school readiness can be attributed to their participation in the DPP : Children show substantial gains in their vocabulary, letter word recognition, working memory, executive functioning, and social skills over their preschool year as a result of their participation in the DPP.  The DPP advances equity in outcomes for children in Denver who have been histrocially under resourced. Substantial increases in vocabulary, letter word recognition, working memory, executive functioning and social skills as a result of DPP participation were observed among black children, Hispanic children, dual-language learners, and children with disabilities.  DPP participation has longer term impacts on children’s early academic success : Children who received a DPP tuition credit had on average, higher reading, math, and science scores up to third grade compared to children who did not participate in the DPP. DPP children were also less likely to be chronically absent and repeat a grade in the early elementary grades than children who did not participate in the DPP.  The DPP was instrumental in helping Denver’s preschools manage the challenges of the pandemic . DPP Covid relief funds helped early care and education programs to stay in operation and DPP funded coaching for teachers helped to mitigate educator burnout and remain in their jobs.

5 Keys et al., 2013

6 The Colorado Shines Rating provides a standardized assessment of early care and education program quality.