Unlocking Opportunities: Analysis of Factors Enhancing Accessibility to School-Based Public Preschool Programs for Minnesota Students

Abstract

This paper utilizes several multivariate regression analysis methods –including cross-sectional, pooled, and panel data incorporating school fixed effects to conduct an exploratory analysis of the growth in the number of preschool programs being offered in Minnesota public schools from 2010-2018. Using publicly available national data provided by the U.S. Department of Education via Common Core, I analyzed the estimated relationships between student and school characteristics and the probability of preschool adoption. Some of the covariates included represent the socio-economic characteristics of students, such as low-income status, race, ethnicity, and school characteristics, including urbanity and school size. Results show that during this time, the total number of public preschool opportunities slightly increased across the state by nearly 10%. This study focuses on 7,060 elementary schools in Minnesota, where 3,103 were deemed to be, or at least assumed, to be offering PreK and 3,957 were not. Descriptive statistics comparing schools with and without preschool programs indicated that public schools that offered preschool were more likely to enroll a greater percentage of nonwhite students and students with higher rates of poverty. Rural schools were more likely to enroll preschool-aged students. However, when the analysis focused on changes within schools over time, increasing poverty rates were not associated with preschool adoption. These findings suggest that schools enrolling a greater proportion of low-income students had already adopted preschool programming as of 2010. Race consistently predicted preschool adoption in that schools with a greater percentage of non-white students were more likely to offer preschool in both cross-sectional models and in specifications that focused on changes within schools over time.