Factsheet | July 7, 2014

Early Childhood Education Means More High School Graduation

High school graduation is a vital starting point for job readiness. Preschool helps gets children gain the necessary learning tools

High school graduation is an important starting point for job readiness. As business leaders work to improve the quality of the nation’s workforce, ReadyNation makes the business case that America’s future workforce can be groomed for success in the first five years of life through early childhood education. Research shows that:

  • Children who don’t attend preschool can be 18 months behind by the start of kindergarten
  • Children not kindergarten­-ready are half as likely to read well by third grade
  • Children not reading proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school

Being ready for kindergarten affects everything that follows. The connections from preschool to third grade reading proficiency to high school completion —a bare­-minimum requirement in today’s economy—could not be clearer.”

John Pepper, former CEO, Procter & Gamble

Though children who fall behind can benefit from intensive help at every stage of development, the later the intervention, the harder it becomes for them to catch up and achieve their potential.

States

  1. National