Volume 2 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research - Page 31

Journal of K-12 Educational Research 29 Research, 2015; U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Children whose first language is not English also benefit from a high-qual - ity preschool program. Early childhood education is key to pre - paring young ELLs for later achievement in school (Ford, 2015). ELLs who enroll in a high-quality preschool program will learn to speak, listen, read, and write (¡Colorin Colorado!, 2010). The results of the current study also demonstrate the effec - tiveness of a high- quality pre-kindergarten program and the positive academic impact in later years. The second research question determined that ED and ELL students who participated in pre-kindergarten have reading achievement levels closer to the achievement levels of the top performing group on STAAR Reading than ED and ELL students who did not participate in pre-kindergarten. Few studies track pre-kindergarten participants long enough to know whether the benefits to school readiness will remain beyond kindergarten (Permenter, 2013). The findings of the cur - rent study show that children who participated in a high-quality pre-kindergarten program continued to build upon a solid foun - dation of early learning and could attain positive academic results through grade five. Does high-quality pre-kindergarten assist in closing the achievement gap among low-income students and ELLs? In this study, in this district, the answer is a resounding Yes. References Attendance Works. (2014). Attendance in the early grades: Why it matters for reading. Retrieved from http:// www. a t t endanceworks . org /wordpr es s /wp- con t en t / uploads/2014/03/Attendance-in-the-Early-Grades.pdf Barnett, W.S., & Carolan, M.E. (2014). Facts about fadeout: The research base on long-term impacts of high quality pre-k. (CEELOFast Fact). NewBrunswick, NJ: Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes. Retrieved from http://ceelo.org/ wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ceelo_fast_fact_fadeout.pdf Center for Public Education. (2008). The research on pre-k. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/ Main-Menu/Pre-kindergarten/Pre-Kindergarten Center for Public Education. (2012). The United States of education: The changing demographics of the United States and their schools. Retrieved from http://www. centerforpubliceducation.org/You-May-Also-Be-Interested- In-landing-page-level/Organizing-a-School-YMABI/The- United-States-of-education-The-changing-demographics-of- the-United-States-and-their-schools.html   ¡Colorin Colorado!. (Producer). (2010). Preschool for ELLs . [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/ webcasts/3007   Ennis, M. (March 2014). Coming to our census. Texas Monthly. Retrieved from  http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/ coming-to-our-census/   Flores, S. M., Batalova, J., & Fix, M. (2012). The educational trajectories of English language learners in Texas. Retrieved from Migration Policy Institute website: http:// www.migrationpolicy.org/research/educational-trajectories- english-language-learners-texas Ford, K. (2015). 8 strategies for preschool ELLs’ language and literacy development. Retrieved from ¡Colorin Colorado! website: http://www.colorincolorado.org/ article/8-strategies- preschool-ells-language-and-literacy-development   Gilliam, W. S., & Zigler, E. F. (2001). A critical meta-analysis of all evaluations of state-funded preschool from 1977 to 1998: Implications for policy, service delivery and program evaluation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15 , 441-473. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ StatePreKMeta.pdf Hanover Research. (2015). Best practices in full-day early childhood programs. Retrieved from https://www.clearslide . com/view/mail?iID= Nwbbqf7jKpVzzsWW577c Hart, B., & Risley, T. (2003). The early catastrophe. American Educator , 27 (4), 6-9. Hudson, D. (2014, December 10). Invest in US: President Obama convenes the White House summit on early education [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2014/12/10/invest-us-president-obama-convenes-white- house-summit-early-education Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind: What being poor does to kids’ brains and what schools can do about it. Alexandria, VA.: ASCD. Kids Count Data Center. (2014). Children in poverty by age group. Retrieved from http://datacenter. kidscount.org/data/tables/5650-children-in-poverty- b y - a g e - g r o u p ? l o c =1&l o c t =2 # d e t a i l e d / 1 / a n y / f a l se/869,36,868,867,133/17,18,36/12263,12264 Martinez, M. (2015). House Bill 4 and high-quality prekindergarten programs. Texas Education Agency. Retrieved from