Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 35

Early Childhood Education and Additional Education Supports
Early Childhood Education

An independent research group conducted a study of Tennessee’s
Pre-K program and found that children who had attended statefunded Pre-K classes performed better on reading, language
arts, and math assessments relative to their peers who had not
been enrolled in Pre-K. However, the study also found these
gains failed to be sustained at higher grade levels, with scores
between Pre-K and similar non-Pre-K students converging.
However, many did not see this study as definitive, claiming it
failed to account for a number of potential intervening variables.
As a result, the state has contracted with Vanderbilt University
to conduct a comprehensive five-year study of the state’s Pre-K
program. The study will be completed in 2014.76

Formal schooling begins for most children at the age of five
when they enroll in kindergarten. However, children experience
significant physical and cognitive growth throughout the first
years of their lives. Results from longitudinal studies suggest
that high-quality pre-kindergarten programs can ensure
children, especially disadvantaged children, enter kindergarten
significantly more prepared to be successful in school than if
they had not attended pre-kindergarten programs.73
Governor Bredesen’s Voluntary Pre-K Initiative was established
to provide Pre-K opportunities for four year-old children across
Tennessee. The state piloted a Pre-K initiative in 1998, but it
was not until Governor Bredesen dedicated significant resources
to the program in 2005 that it began to quickly expand, as
Figure 3.16 illustrates. Today, 934 state-funded Pre-K classes
serve approximately 18,000 four year-olds in 94 of Tennessee’s
95 counties and in 133 of its 135 eligible school districts.74
The state’s Pre-K program has been praised for its quality,
having met nine of the National Institute for Early Education
Research’s ten quality benchmarks for the past three years (only
two states have achieved all ten) and ranking fifth in the nation
on Pre-K Now’s new ranking of “best chance” states for parents
seeking a high-quality, state-funded Pre-K program.75

Tennessee has several other programs targeted toward improving
early educational opportunities. The Governor’s Books from
Birth Foundation (GBBF) is a non-profit that helped launch
and continues to support Imagination Libraries across the
state. Since 2004, when Governor Bredesen established
the foundation, GBBF and the Imagination Libraries have
provided 7.7 million &