Study: Pre-K Not the Cure-All It's Cracked Up to Be

And as Laura Bornfreund and Abbie Lieberman, two early education policy analysts at the New America Foundation, pointed out in an analysis of the Vanderbilt study, Tennessee's preschool program does what it's intended to do: It prepares students for kindergarten. 

And while some pre-K programs are found to have lasting effects, "it is unreasonable to assume that attending pre-K for one year is by itself enough to close the pronounced achievement gap in our country," the pair argued.