Going the Distance - Disparities in Pre-K Enrollment in Higher-Quality Schools by Geographic Proximity, Race/Ethnicity, Family Income, and Home Language

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Study examines enrollment in Boston Public Schools (BPS) prekindergarten (pre-K) from 2012–2017 using six years of public pre-K and kindergarten data (N=22,469). Results show largest enrollment differences by race/ethnicity and by enrollment in programs in higher-quality schools, with disparities widening over time. Overall proximity showed no group differences, yet Black students lived about a quarter mile farther to the nearest higher-quality-school program, and closer distance increased enrollment likelihood. Policy implications are discussed.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Study Overview

Data and Scope (2012–2017)

Enrollment Disparities by Group

Proximity and Higher-Quality School Access

Policy and Research Implications

AERA Open January-December 2023, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1–22 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584231168867 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2023. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Going the Distance: Disparities in Pre-K Enrollment in Higher-Quality Schools by Geographic Proximity, Race/Ethnicity, Family Income, and Home Language Meghan McCormick Mirjana Pralica JoAnn Hsueh MDRC Christina Weiland University of Michigan Amanda Ketner Weissman SAS EVAAS Anna Shapiro RAND Corporation Samantha Xia Cullen MacDowell Samuel Maves MDRC Anne Taylor University of Michigan Jason Sachs Boston Public School District This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012–2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and ethnicity—and for enrollment in programs in higher-quality schools (defined as schools scoring in the top quartile on third-grade standardized tests)—with disparities increasing over time. Although there were no differences across groups in proximity to BPS pre-K programs in general, Black students lived about a quarter of a mile farther than their White peers from the nearest program in a higherquality school, with gaps widening over time. Closer proximity was associated with a higher likelihood of enrollment in a program in a higher-quality school. Implications for future research and policy are discussed. Keywords: pre-K, access, enrollment, equity Expanding access to high-quality public pre-K has emerged as a key policy lever for supporting young children’s development (Chaudry et al., 2021) and is thought to be a tool for promoting more equitable learning for children from marginalized groups (Bloom & Weiland, 2015; Phillipset al., 2017; Puma et al., 2010; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013) . Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). McCormick et al. Yet, there are sizable disparities in availability of and enrollment in early childhood education programs—and high-quality programs in particular—depending on children’s racial/ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds (Barnett & Yarosz, 2007; Latham et al., 2021) . As federal and state policymakers craft historic proposals to expand the availability of high-quality pre-K across the country, there is a critical need to examine patterns of equitable enrollment in pre-K across time and to identify the key factors that facilitate and inhibit enrollment for students from families with lower incomes, dual language learners (DLLs), and those from racially/ethnically marginalized groups.1 To address this need, we leverage six recent years of data on all children’s enrollment in the well-known, high-quality Boston Public Schools (BPS) prekindergarten (BPS pre-K) program to consider how patterns of enrollment vary by children’s racial/ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Importantly, as is the case in many large cities in the United States, BPS allocates seats in its public school– based pre-K program via a centralized school choice system. As we detail, this system plays a role in enrollment as families’placements also rest on their choic

FAQs

What data and timeframe does the study use to analyze pre-K enrollment?

The study uses six years of public pre-K and kindergarten data (N=22,469) from Boston Public Schools, focusing on pre-K enrollment from 2012–2017.

Which groups show the largest differences in pre-K enrollment?

The largest enrollment differences emerge by race and ethnicity, especially for enrollment in programs in higher-quality schools, and these disparities increase over time.

How does geographic proximity relate to enrollment in higher-quality school programs?

Closer proximity is associated with a higher likelihood of enrollment in a program in a higher-quality school, even though overall proximity to pre-K programs shows no differences across groups in general.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam