INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the educational effects of a state-funded prekindergarten education program for children at ages 3 and 4 that came about as a result of a court order. As part of the landmark New Jersey Supreme Court school-funding case, Abbott v. Burke, the court established the Abbott Preschool Program. Beginning in the 1999–2000 school year, 3- and 4-year-old children in the highest poverty districts in the state were able to receive a high-quality preschool education that would prepare them to enter school with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Expectations: Standards of Quality (New Jersey Department of Education [NJDOE], 2004b) and the New Jersey Kindergarten Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJDOE, 2004a). Through a New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Human Services (DHS) partnership, Abbott preschool classrooms combine a DOE-funded 6-hour, 180-day component with a DHS-funded wrap-around program that provides daily before- and after-care and summer programs. In total, the full-day, full-year program is available 10 hours per day, 245 days a year.

Enrollment in the Abbott Preschool Program has increased dramatically since its inception in 1999 (see Fig. 11.1). During the 2005–2006 school year, its seventh year, the 31 Abbott districts served more than 40,500 3- and 4-year-old children in preschool – 78% of a possible 52,160 children. The enrollment for the 2006–2007 school year was 39,678 children with a DOE budget of almost $500 million.