Policy changes to Chicago’s school-based pre-K system enabled greater equity in both access to and enrollment in full-day, school-based pre-K, according to a new study by education researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago, Start Early (formerly  known as the Ounce of Prevention), and UChicago Consortium on School Research. The study, Closer to Home: More Equitable Pre-K Access and Enrollment in Chicago, analyzes access to (distance and number of classrooms) and enrollment in pre-K from 2010-2016, both before and after policy changes occurred. Post-policy, high-priority student groups were up to three times more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K.

“Shifting where seats were located was a primary lever in the district’s policy strategy,” said Stacy Ehrlich, principal investigator and senior research scientist, NORC. “The concentration of full-day pre-K seats increased most on the West and South Sides of Chicago in neighborhoods where children have historically been under-enrolled in pre-K.”

Beginning in 2013, the City of Chicago launched major policy efforts to create more equitable enrollment in pre-K programs. The policies, including increasing the number of full-day pre-K classrooms and reallocating classrooms throughout the city, aimed to enroll more students from “high-priority” groups to help them better prepare for success in kindergarten and beyond. High-priority groups included students of color, students speaking a language other than English, and students living in neighborhoods with lower income and higher unemployment.

Pre-policy, the students most likely to enroll in the small number of full-day Chicago Public Schools (CPS) pre-K options (many of which required families to pay tuition) were White students, students living in highest-income neighborhoods, and students living in mostly-White neighborhoods. Post-policy, full-day pre-K opportunities expanded, and the students most likely to enroll in full-day pre-K were Black students, students living in lowest-income neighborhoods, and students living in mostly-Black neighborhoods.

“While Chicago significantly expanded enrollment in full-day, school-based pre-K, our study shows that there are still many age-eligible students who are not being served in full-day pre-K,” said Maia Connors, director, Research and Policy Initiatives at Start Early. “For example, the enrollment rate is only about 3 percent for Latinx students, so more work is needed to increase full-day pre-K opportunities for these families.”

“As school districts nationwide grapple with limited budget and capacity to expand full-day pre-K, this study offers an example of how to make evidence-based policy decisions to create more equitable and accessible enrollment opportunities for those students who are most likely to benefit,” said John Q. Easton, senior fellow, UChicago Consortium on School Research and former director of the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. “The next step in our research will be to examine the relationship between increased pre-K access and enrollment and student outcomes in second and third grade.”

This study demonstrates that increased access was linked to increased enrollment, but access is just one policy lever that districts can use. Chicago implemented other policy changes simultaneously, including: a centralized pre-K application and enrollment process; prioritization of eligibility and placement of students with certain characteristics or experiences (e.g., lowest income); online information about pre-K options and quality; and local outreach efforts with families. “Policymakers may want to explore whether and how similar strategies may be effective in their districts,” said Ehrlich.

Research Questions and Key Findings

Question: Prior to policy changes, what was the association between students’ likelihood of enrollment and 1) their distance to the closest school with any pre-K/full day pre-K, and 2) the number of any pre-K/full-day pre-K classrooms close to their home?

Key Findings

• Pre-policy, enrollment rates in any CPS pre-K were higher for students who lived closer to schools with pre-K and had more pre-K classrooms near where they lived.
• Pre-policy, the associations of likelihood of enrollment in full-day pre-K with 1) distance to a school with a full-day pre-K classroom, and 2) number of full-day pre-k classrooms close to home were strongest for Black students and students living in lowest-income neighborhoods.
• Pre-policy, the students most likely to enroll in full-day pre-K were white students and students living in highest-income neighborhoods.

Question: Post-policy, did access to any pre-K/full-day pre-K change for some or all students?

Key Findings

• For most student groups, distance to a school with any CPS pre-K did not change substantially, and the number of pre-K classrooms available went down slightly.
• In contrast to any pre-K, access to full-day pre-K increased following policy changes for nearly all student groups.
• The portion of CPS elementary schools offering full-day pre-K quadrupled, from 10 percent to 41 percent.
• The concentration of full-day pre-K seats increased most on the West and South Sides of Chicago in primarily Black neighborhoods and neighborhoods with lower income.

Question: Post-policy, when access changed, did enrollment change in corresponding ways?

• Full-day pre-K enrollment rates grew nearly four-fold from 3.2 percent in 2010-2011 to 11.6 percent in 2015-2016.
• Black students and students living in lowest-income neighborhoods were three times more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K following policy changes.
• Latinx students were also more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K following policy changes, but at rates much lower than the city average (2.6 percent for Latinx students compared to 7.2 percent for all students).

Question: Following the policy shift, was access still related to enrollment in the same direction and with the same magnitude as it had been before?

Key Finding

• Post-policy, access continued to predict enrollment in full-day pre-K. However, the association became stronger for Black students, lowest-income students, and for students living in mostly Black neighborhoods.

Cite as: Ehrlich, S.B., Connors, M.C., Stein, A.G., Francis, J., Easton, J.Q., Kabourek, S.E., & Farrar, I.C. (2020). Closer to home: More equitable pre-k access and enrollment in Chicago (Research Snapshot). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, NORC at the University of Chicago, and Start Early.

About NORC at the University of Chicago

NORC at the University of Chicago is an objective, non-partisan research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, NORC has conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with NORC to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge.

About Start Early

Start Early (formerly known as the Ounce of Prevention) is a nonprofit public-private partnership advancing quality early learning and care for families with children, before birth through their earliest years, to help close the opportunity gap. For nearly 40 years, Start Early has delivered best-in-class doula, home visiting and Early Head Start and Head Start programs. Bringing expertise in program delivery, research and evaluation, professional development and policy and advocacy, Start Early works in partnership with communities and other experts to drive systemic change so that millions more children, families and educators can thrive. Learn more at  StartEarly.org.

About the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research

\With the goal of supporting stronger and more equitable educational outcomes for students, the UChicago Consortium conducts research of high technical quality that informs and assesses policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. We seek to expand communication among researchers, policymakers, practitioners, families, and communities as we support the search for solutions to the challenges of school improvement. The UChicago Consortium encourages the use of research in policy action and practice but does not advocate for particular policies or programs. Rather, we help to build capacity for school improvement by identifying what matters most for student success, creating critical indicators to chart progress, and conducting theory-driven evaluation to identify how programs and policies are working.

Maia Connors, director of research and policy initiatives at Start Early recently spoke to WTTW about findings from “Closer to Home,” a report by education researchers at Start Early, NORC at the University of Chicago and the UChicago Consortium on School Research.

Overall, the report found policy changes launched in 2013 enabled greater equity in both access to and enrollment in Chicago Public Schools’ full-day, school-based pre-K.

“After these policy changes, these full-day opportunities were expanded greatly and Black students and students living in the lowest-income neighborhoods were the most likely to enroll in full-day pre-K,” Maia Connors, director of research and policy initiatives at Start Early, told WTTW News. “So I think that’s really a drastic change that shows that Chicago really was able to achieve greater equity.”

Connors also spoke to how this additional access to pre-K education can have a lasting impact on students’ lives.

“Prior research really shows that enrolling in high-quality pre-K is really critical for young children’s learning and that children really benefit a lot,” she said. “It can set them on a trajectory to greater academic achievement (and) longer-term positive outcomes as adults.”

Read the full story.

In our fast-paced world it can feel like issues of violence and racism are dominating the content we consume from the news to social media to conversations with our friends and loved ones. While we are all working to process our thoughts, feelings and emotions around these difficult topics, so are our little ones. They are seeing these topics play out around them and, more importantly, they’re watching how the adults in their lives are responding. They might not be able to fully grasp what is going on, but even our youngest learners are picking up on our emotions in these challenging times.

That’s why here at the Start Early we created this series, Tackling Tough Topics with Your Little One, to give you helpful advice from our experts as well as tips to navigate discussing difficult topics such as violence, racism and loss with your children.

Why Racism?

The racially charged murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have been in the spotlight recently, but for every high-profile death that makes national news, thousands of similar incidents are quickly dismissed or ignored. As our country works to dismantle and rebuild in the wake of these violent events, it’s important to remember that even though your child may be too young to understand it, they are seeing how racial injustice and anti-Black sentiment are playing out on a national stage. Children as young as 6 months old begin to notice race-based differences, and by age 2 children are beginning to internalize racial biases. That is why it is so important to talk to your children about racism and discrimination early on and in an age appropriate way.

How to Address the Topic of Racism

• Five things to remember as a parent when talking to your child about racism:
  • Remember to take care of yourself. Do not binge on news and social media. Watch what you need to stay informed and then make sure you process the information in a health way.
    • Use mindfulness activities, exercise, spending time with your family, or music and movement activities, etc.
  • Practice what you want to say ahead of time. These conversations can bring up a lot of uncertainty and fear in parents, too. It’s ok to call a friend or family member and practice ahead of time so that you will feel more comfortable when the time comes to talk to your child.
  • Be aware of your own biases. Your child is paying attention to your behavior and learning from how you act and react in different situations.
  • Be open to your child’s questions around racism and encourage them to come to you with them. Remember, it’s ok if you don’t have all of the answers.
  • Consider that this conversation is approached very differently between Black and white parents.
    • The “talk” in Black families is often started very early, usually around when the child is 4 years old and includes:
      • Don’t resist police.
      • Don’t run when approached by police
      • Don’t talk back
      • When in a store, do not run and keep your hands visible at all times
      • Don’t think that just because your white friend can do it, you can to
      • Do stay close to your parent at all times
    • For white families sometimes the talk happens much later, or not at all, and parents don’t know where to start. If you are struggling to have the “talk” with your child, here are a few things to keep in mind:
      • Children aren’t colorblind, all children develop racial prejudices unless their parents engage them directly about it, which is why talking about racism is so important.
      • Be direct and intentional, use the words race and racism when talking about this topic.
      • Lead by example to help your child understand why it’s so important to be anti-racist
      • It’s ok to point out that skin color doesn’t have much biological significance, but skin color does have a lot of historical importance.
      • If your child does say or do something racist, help them to understand that it’s not ok. You can thank them for being honest, and even admit if you’ve felt that way before. But explain why it’s racist and wrong. Intention doesn’t matter, even if they didn’t mean it, comments and actions still do harm, and they need to know that.

• For Infants and Toddlers
  • Read picture books—make sure they see images of themselves reflected in the pictures at storytime.
  • Make sure you present different races and cultures through books, toys, food, languages, etc.
  • Reinforce that difference is not bad—recognize and celebrate differences.

• For Children Ages 3-5
  • Read books
    • If all of the characters in the book look the same, ask your child what they think about that.
    • Add different books that show black and brown children of different cultures being the hero or solving the problem.
    • Introduce age appropriate books the discuss topics of Civil/Human Rights, Discrimination.
  • This might sound simple, but it’s actually pretty important—ask your child how they feel. You know your child best and can sense when they are upset. Try asking what they might be worried about or afraid of so you can reinforce that you are there to protect and support them.
  • Use the idea of fairness to help describe how racism is unfair and unacceptable; young children understand the concept of fairness very well, and this will help them understand why we need to work together to make it better.

Other Resources

• A Kids Book About Racism
• Recommended books with characters of color
• Recommended books on social justice

Stay tuned for the next article in our series which will cover how to talk to your little ones about loss. Connect with us for more resources, tips and expert advice.

Start Early works to provide a bright and just future for all children, and this would not be possible without recognizing that each child, family and community has been uniquely impacted and traumatized by generations of institutional racism and long-tolerated inequities. As an organization committed to making sure that children, particularly our youngest learners, have the best chances in life, we stand in solidarity with those peacefully protesting the historical trauma, institutional racism and police brutality that is rampant in major U.S. cities. We unequivocally condemn this senseless violence and acknowledge the problems that plague communities of color across the country — lack of economic opportunity, over-policing, inaccessible health care, housing instability and environmental inequities. We see these issues, among others, as a direct threat to our mission, and we will continue to identify and prioritize the populations most impacted by these barriers.

Although the racially charged murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and now George Floyd are currently in the spotlight, for every high-profile death that makes national news, thousands of similar incidents are quickly dismissed or ignored. As we face the loss of another Black life taken at the hands of police officers, the raw emotion and exasperation of protesters is justified and heartbreaking. We also see the generational inequities of racism embedded amid this global pandemic. The majority of “essential workers” are people of color who are dying from COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates due to the underlying health conditions that often impact poor and minority communities.

Start Early commits to strengthening and deepening its work as an anti-racist organization that works in true partnership with communities to ensure equitable access to high-quality early childhood care and experiences. We look forward to working with our staff and our partners in the fields of research, policy and practice to explore ways we can leverage our mission to dismantle racism and support children from historically marginalized and under-served populations. We aim to approach this critical work with humility and reflection.

We do not have the answers, nor do we pretend to. However, we are working with our partners to do more than listen and heal. We are working to dismantle and rebuild. We refuse to compromise our mission by tolerating explicit or implied practices and policies that negatively impact the integrity or ability of Black children and their families to thrive and prosper long-term. We are prepared to act accordingly to confront anti-Black policies and practices, and we won’t allow them to go unchecked.

To the Black men, women and children in this country who have been carrying the burden of racial injustice and systemic anti-Black sentiment for generations: we see you, we hear you and your life matters.