Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Sandra Duncan

Committee Member

Roslyn Doctorow

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

prekindergarten, early literacy, school readiness, literacy skills academic readiness, descriptive statistics, ex-post facto design, full-day VPK, gender analysis, kindergarten readiness, literacy scores, program duration, sample limitations, scaled scores, Star Early Literacy, VPK attendance, VPK duration, VPK program

Abstract

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the relationship between the amount of time children spent in a Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) education program and their academic readiness entering kindergarten. It is important to understand the impact of VPK duration on necessary foundational skills entering kindergarten.

Using an ex-post facto quantitative research design, the study analyzed scaled score results from the Star Early Literacy instrument from the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 school years. The participants were divided into two groups for each school year based on their daily attendance duration: those who attended VPK for 3 hours and those who attended for more than 3 hours. The study also analyzed scaled score results from the Star Early Literacy instrument according to the students’ gender. The initial idea was to conduct an independent-samples t test to determine whether significant differences existed between the two groups in their scaled scores from the Star Early Literacy instrument. However, due to sample limitations, the study analyzed only the descriptive statistics.

Findings showed that full-day VPK attendees consistently had higher mean literacy scores than those who attended 3 hours. Small sample sizes, especially in the 3-hour group in 2022-2023, and high variability likely limited the ability to detect meaningful differences. Although there was a pattern of higher average scores for full-day VPK students, the evidence did not support a significant advantage of program length for academic readiness in the years analyzed.

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