12/4/2023 – 11/30/2024
$150,000
This study seeks to investigate the impact of Montessori preschool education compared with other models of preschool on kindergarten academic and social-emotional outcomes. The goal of this project is to continue an existing randomized controlled trial (RCT) study taking advantage of existing oversubscribed admissions lotteries to rigorously estimate the impact of the Montessori preschool model on students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten. The treatment group consists of students who were admitted to public Montessori primary (preschool) programs at age 3 while the control group consists of students who were waitlisted at the same public Montessori schools and instead attended another early childhood program or were cared for at home; the overall sample includes 588 students in public Montessori schools in 11 regions across the United States. This grant will support the oversight of kindergarten child assessment data collection in spring of 2024, data cleaning, and initial analysis. The study aims to understand the overall impact of public Montessori preschool programs, which serve a diverse group of students, and to further explore differences in outcomes by race, ethnicity, and family income.