TPS officials hope participation in national study attracts more children to public pre-k

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) – Hundreds of TPS preschool teachers met with researchers from OU-Tulsa, Georgetown University, and Harvard on Thursday to learn more about a research project focusing on their students.

The study called SEED or “School Experiences and Early Development” will follow approximately 900 preschoolers until third grade. It will involve children in Educare, Cap-Tulsa, and community child care programs.

“Pre-k is a foundation,” said Paula Shannon, TPS deputy superintendent. “It helps children get in our classrooms early and bolster their learning and prepare them for success in their journey through elementary, middle and high school.”

Sherri Castle is a senior research and policy associate at the Early Child Education Institute at OU-Tulsa. She will be working closely with the data.

“They are surrounded and influenced every single day by their families, by their neighborhoods, by their peers, by their schools and in their classrooms,” she said. “These data points combined with our personal stories is really what speaks to policy makers and it really helps communicate the importance of pre-k.”

Every year researchers will meet with children. They assess the children’s social and emotional development, academic skills and executive function development which tests their ability to pay attention and follow rules.

Researchers also do an annual interview with parents to understand the struggles and strengths of the families in TPS. They also do classroom observations to understand what children are experiencing during school.

At a time when some here seem weary of public education in Oklahoma, Anna Johnson a researcher at Georgetown University and an assistant professor of psychology said she has a different opinion.

“Tulsa was always among the programs used as evidence as for why public pre-k is a strategy that can help prepare kids for school success,” she said.

She said Oklahoma is one of the first states to have universal pre-k.

Shannon hopes this will entice parents to sign their children up for public pre-k programs.

Enrollment is still open at Tulsa Public Schools for preschoolers.