Mixed-delivery prekindergarten (Pre-K) systems with slots in both public schools and community-based organization (CBO) settings are common in the U.S. Historically, policies and investments in many of these systems have placed CBOs and, by extension the children who attend them, at a disadvantage relative to public school programs and peers. In this descriptive study, we used secondary data to explore setting inequities in five large-scale Pre-K mixed-delivery systems (Boston, New York City, Seattle, New Jersey, and West Virginia), all of which had taken explicit steps to improve equity across settings. Our public school sample included 2,247 children in 367 classrooms in 146 schools and our CBO sample consisted of 1,700 children in 220 classrooms in 109 centers. We found evidence of substantial sorting of children and teachers by setting. Where we found differences in quality and children's gains, these tended to favor public schools. However, localities with fewer policy differences by setting showed fewer such setting differences. Findings suggest that advancing the goals of equitable, high-quality Pre-K access and narrowing opportunity gaps before kindergarten entry may require more research and policy attention to mixed-delivery setting policy equity.

中文翻译：

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混合交付学前教育机会差距？五个大型系统中基于社区的项目与公立学校项目在人口统计、质量和儿童收益方面的差异


在美国，公立学校和社区组织 (CBO) 环境中都有名额的混合交付学前班 (Pre-K) 系​​统很常见。从历史上看，许多此类系统的政策和投资已将 CBO 以及进而延伸到的儿童置于参加这些学校，相对于公立学校课程和同龄人来说处于劣势。在这项描述性研究中，我们使用二手数据来探讨五个大型学前班混合交付系统（波士顿、纽约市、西雅图、新泽西州和西弗吉尼亚州）中的不平等现象，所有这些系统都采取了明确的措施提高跨环境的公平性。我们的公立学校样本包括 146 所学校 367 个教室的 2,247 名儿童，CBO 样本包括 109 个中心 220 个教室的 1,700 名儿童。我们发现了按环境对儿童和教师进行大量分类的证据。当我们发现质量和儿童收益方面存在差异时，这些差异往往有利于公立学校。然而，政策差异较小的地区的环境差异也较小。研究结果表明，要推进公平、高质量的学前教育入学和缩小幼儿园入学前的机会差距的目标，可能需要更多的研究和政策关注，以制定混合交付政策的公平性。