For state and federal officials seeking to improve school performance, 50 years of evidence shows that high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten is among the best strategies for education reform.

This new brief from Pre-K Now highlights findings from the latest evaluations of state-funded pre-k programs that continue to document gains in key measures of student learning, including early literacy, math and vocabulary; reduced need for special and remedial education; and significantly lower incidences of grade retention. This and other ongoing research once again demonstrates that high-quality early education is the natural first step in effective school reform.