04 Jun I2D2 Staff and Affiliated Faculty has Study Recognized by NIEER

A recent study by I2D2 staff and affiliated faculty, “Head Start Children’s Dual Enrollment in State Pre-K: Prevalence and Child Outcomes” is this week’s Hot Topic in the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) newsletter!

Published in AERA Open, researchers Ji-Young Choi, Laura C. Betancur, and Heather Rouse analyzed data from 2,986 children in Iowa and found that over half of Head Start kids also attended state-funded Pre-K. This dual enrollment led to more hours of center-based early care and education, boosting school readiness skills in cognitive, language, literacy, math, physical, and social-emotional development. Strong partnerships between Head Start programs and local school districts were key to higher dual enrollment rates. These findings emphasize the importance of optimizing early childhood education resources for low-income children.

I2D2 is committed to putting the state’s most informed and data-driven resources to work ensuring all Iowa children are successful from birth. See more of our work on our Publications page.