Publicly funded prekindergarten (pre-K) has received substantial investments in recent decades. A robust literature base has shown that pre-K, in general, tends to be associated with shorter-term rather than longer-term impacts. Yet, these findings are not definitive across varying state contexts and student demographic groups. The current study examined state administrative literacy and absence data in kindergarten and first grade for 455 students in North Carolina's publicly funded pre-K program and 225 of their non-pre-K peers. State datasets were paired with data from an in-depth longitudinal study starting in the 2016–17 school year. Student-level characteristics (family income, maternal education, race/ethnicity, multilingual learner, and disability status) were examined as possible moderators. We found pre-K attendance was associated with higher kindergarten entry literacy scores, but these advantages diminished over time. The following groups of students continued to see some longer-term benefits of pre-K: students whose mothers had a high school diploma or less and Latine students. Pre-K was associated with fewer days absent in kindergarten and first grade, with no evidence of moderation.

中文翻译：

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国家资助的学前班与小学早期识字和缺勤的关联

近几十年来，公共资助的学前班 （pre-K） 获得了大量投资。强大的文献基础表明，一般来说，学前班往往与短期而不是长期影响相关。然而，这些发现在不同的州背景和学生人口群体中并不是确定的。目前的研究检查了北卡罗来纳州公共资助的学前班计划的 455 名学生和 225 名非学前班同龄人的幼儿园和一年级的州行政识字和缺勤数据。各州数据集与从 2016-17 学年开始的深入纵向研究的数据配对。检查学生水平特征（家庭收入、母亲教育程度、种族/民族、多语言学习者和残疾状况）作为可能的调节因素。我们发现学前班出勤率与较高的幼儿园入学识字分数相关，但这些优势随着时间的推移而减弱。以下学生群体继续看到学前班的一些长期好处：母亲拥有高中文凭或以下文凭的学生和拉丁裔学生。Pre-K 与幼儿园和一年级的缺勤天数较少有关，没有证据表明有节制。