{"id":504483,"date":"2026-10-22T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504483\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T18:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:22:13","slug":"new-study-shows-low-income-students-gain-most-from-transitional-kindergarten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504483\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Shows Low-Income Students Gain Most From Transitional Kindergarten"},"content":{"rendered":"

UC Berkeley researchers found that children from lower-income families benefited the most from TK, and that those who got an extra year of preschool in addition to TK made even bigger strides.<\/p>\n

Oct 22, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 10:51 am PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A child opens a bottle of glue at Wu Yee Children\u2019s Services in San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown on Aug. 24, 2026. California introduced transitional kindergarten to address disparities that begin even before children enter kindergarten. \u00a0(Nina Glick\/KQED)<\/p>\n

The first children to attend transitional kindergarten<\/a> when it began in California public schools more than a decade ago made significant learning gains that persisted into later elementary school years, according to a new UC Berkeley study.<\/p>\n

Children from lower-income families benefited the most from TK<\/a>, according to a research brief published Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They gained about seven more months of learning in reading and math by third grade compared to students from the same school who did not attend TK. What\u2019s more, the children who got an extra year of preschool in addition to TK made the biggest strides. The effects were larger and longer-lasting when they attended well-funded elementary schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers said the evidence shows that two major education reforms that happened around the time TK started in 2012 combined to narrow deep and longstanding achievement gaps<\/a> in California schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Children at Mission Kids Preschool in San Francisco raise their hands to ask Senator Alex Padilla a question on June 1, 2021.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Those changes include the expansion of the California State Preschool Program, or CSPP, which is free to income-eligible 3- and 4-year-olds, and the Local Control Funding Formula, which directs more resources to high-need students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this trifecta of public policies \u2014 TK, State Preschool and more equitable school funding \u2014 that has been the catalyst accelerating young children\u2019s growth,\u201d said Rucker Johnson, an economist and public policy professor at UC Berkeley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California introduced transitional kindergarten to address disparities that begin even before children enter kindergarten. The state\u2019s previous Dec. 2 cutoff date to begin kindergarten was among the latest in the nation, which meant that some kids who were turning 5 in the fall were entering kindergarten when they were still 4.<\/p>\n

\"AnPreschoolers work with clay and flowers under a tented canopy at the North Bay Children\u2019s Center in Healdsburg on Oct. 2, 2024.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cCSPP appears to have played an important role,\u201d Land said. \u201cIf they have that year of preschool where it\u2019s not so academic and they\u2019re around other children their age before entering these more formal TK environments, that was important for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two years of early education made a difference for her family, said Selam Mulatu, a Bay Area mom who enrolled all three of her children in CSPP. She said her oldest, who is 9, began reading when he started kindergarten and now, \u201cI can\u2019t get him off of books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really enjoyed the hands-on activities [in preschool],\u201d Mulatu said. \u201cHe would come home with so many crafts and tracing and artwork. I think that really helped with coordination and just got him really excited to learn. We read a lot at home too \u2014 we\u2019re big readers \u2014 so I think that contributes, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulatu said when she became a first-time parent, she assumed that children couldn\u2019t enroll in public schools until they were 6 years old. But a relative told her about Franklin Preschool, a CSPP program run by the Berkeley Unified School District, and she learned she qualified for it based on her income as a waitress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe preschool does a great job exposing them to so many different activities like gardening, reading, socializing. You cannot do all of that as a working mother,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s so important to have these systems because they fill in the gap that parents cannot meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the evidence of CSPP\u2019s benefits, enrollment has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent data show only 18% of eligible 3-year-olds are enrolled in CSPP, even though in recent years the program has expanded to reach two-thirds of young children in California, including those from middle-income families, Land said.<\/p>\n

Families who earn up to 100% of the state median income<\/a>, which is $136,044 for a family of four, qualify. The program can be offered in elementary schools, licensed child care centers or community-based organizations like the YMCA.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chalk art decorates pavement outside of an old bus operating as a preschool at the Aspire Monarch Academy school in Oakland on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015.\u00a0(Paul Chinn\/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Land said now that TK is universally available to all 4-year-olds, regardless of their family\u2019s income, the state could focus on strengthening CSPP and getting more eligible 3-year-olds into the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause enrollment is lower than the budget suggests it should be, I think there\u2019s a temptation to say, \u2018Oh, families don\u2019t want that because they\u2019re not showing up for it and we should fund other things,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat would be a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, meanwhile, said that given that more than half of young children in California are learning English alongside their home language, the state could do more to meet the needs of these dual language learners.<\/p>\n

Research unrelated to this study has found that encouraging home language use in classrooms leads to stronger outcomes for these children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a lot of emphasis on making sure children are ready for school, but we want to make sure schools are ready for children,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re the largest and most diverse state system in the country, so the lessons that we\u2019re drawing out for California are a roadmap for many other state systems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley researchers found that children from lower-income families benefited the most from TK, and that those who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-504483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}