In 2001, the Early Childhood Study began to examine the development of four year-olds in early childhood programs, preschools and child care centers in Georgia, which are referred to in this report collectively as preschools. Purposes for the study included:

* *following the development of young children attending publicly funded and private preschools;

* *ascertaining the quality of their experiences; and

* *estimating the effects of Georgia's Pre-K Program.

After ten years, Georgia continues to lead the nation in providing full day, publicly subsidized Pre-K to four-year-olds whose parents choose to enroll them. In this report, we assess the extent to which differences in the way Pre-K is implemented affect children's development. Do teachers with higher levels of education have more positive impacts on children's development? Do teaching styles make a difference in terms of children's outcomes by the end of kindergarten? Do children taught using certain curricula fare better than those taught using others? Answers to questions such as these can assist Pre-K administrators in refining Georgia's program and inform those in other states who are developing or expanding their prekindergarten programs.

After ten years, Georgia continues to lead the nation in providing full day, publicly subsidized Pre-K to four-year-olds whose parents choose to enroll them. In this report, we assess the extent to which differences in the way Pre-K is implemented affect children's development. Do teachers with higher levels of education have more positive impacts on children's development? Do teaching styles make a difference in terms of children's outcomes by the end of kindergarten? Do children taught using certain curricula fare better than those taught using others? Answers to questions such as these can assist Pre-K administrators in refining Georgia's program and inform those in other states who are developing or expanding their prekindergarten programs.

After ten years, Georgia continues to lead the nation in providing full day, publicly subsidized Pre-K to four-year-olds whose parents choose to enroll them. In this report, we assess the extent to which differences in the way Pre-K is implemented affect children's development. Do teachers with higher levels of education have more positive impacts on children's development? Do teaching styles make a difference in terms of children's outcomes by the end of kindergarten? Do children taught using certain curricula fare better than those taught using others? Answers to questions such as these can assist Pre-K administrators in refining Georgia's program and inform those in other states who are developing or expanding their prekindergarten programs.

A survey of parents whose children participate in Georgia's free prekindergarten, which assesses parents' perceptions of quality and effectiveness.

Two years after starting college, recipients of Georgia's HOPE scholarship program are more likely to still be enrolled in college, have higher grade point averages (GPA), and have earned more credit hours than their counterparts. The Council for School Performance, housed in the Applied Research Center in the School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, conducted the first assessment of the impact of the HOPE scholarship on college performance. After following the 1994-95 HOPE recipients into their third year of college, the results show a positive impact of the program on all three outcomes included in the study.

HOPE provides Georgia high school graduates who earn an overall high school GPA of 3.0 or higher with free tuition, fees, and a book allowance at public colleges and universities. Only HOPE scholars with a high school GPA between 3.0 and 3.16 were selected for this evaluation. This allowed researchers to isolate the effect of the HOPE scholarship on the recipients by selecting a comparison group with similar characteristics. The comparison group was matched by their core high school GPA (includes academic courses only) and institution type. The students in the comparison group did not receive the HOPE scholarship because they did not apply or did not meet all of the HOPE eligibility requirements.

Two questions were analyzed in this evaluation: (1) Does HOPE motivate higher levels of performance and higher rates of persistence among students in college? (2) Does HOPE allow students greater choice in selecting institutions of higher education? Other factors such as institution type, sex, race, and high school preparation were included in this analysis because they also affect college performance. This study compares students with similar backgrounds to isolate the impact of HOPE on college performance. In future studies, we will examine another potential impact of HOPE, its effect on high school performance.

A long-standing school reform program in Georgia, known as the League of Professional Schools, has succeeded in improving the performance of its member schools. The League of Professional Schools is a Georgia based reform effort that emphasizes teacher participation in informed decision-making within schools. More than 100 schools throughout the state have enrolled themselves in the League. The Council for School Performance, which is housed within the Applied Research Center in the School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, found a pattern of higher performance in League elementary schools than in similar elementary schools. Using the indicators of student achievement from the Council for School Performance elementary school reports, researchers found that schools participating in the League of Professional Schools performed better on all indicators and significantly better on one-third of the indicators. The evaluation concludes that this broad-based reform effort had specific and measurable impacts on student performance.

Findings reported here are from the second year of a longitudinal study of the Georgia Prekindergarten Program (Pre-K) conducted by staff of the Applied Research Center at Georgia State University. The study, which is being funded by the Office of School Readiness, is designed to follow a sample of Pre-K children through their school careers to study the effects of Pre-K on future educational success. For the second year of the study, 3,201 children were followed into 1,672 kindergarten classes. Sources of data for this year of the study included surveys of teachers and parents, as well as on-site visits to a random sample of classrooms.