Hawai'i P–3 Initiative

Recent efforts to improve K–12 educational outcomes have had mixed success. One possible reason is that many students entering kindergarten lack the basic skills to succeed in school. In 2007, with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Hawai'i launched its P–3 (preschool through third-grade) initiative, the early childhood component of the state's P–20 (preschool through higher-education) work. The initiative is overseen by the P–20 Partnerships for Education, housed at the University of Hawai'i, and its goal is for every child in the state to read at grade level by third grade. The first year of RAND's multiyear evaluation of the P–3 initiative examined plans, activities, and policy in two demonstration sites and at the P–20 level. The focus was on identifying and developing measures to assess progress and determining how the system underlying P–3 monitors, incentivizes, and supports efforts to promote early literacy. The evaluation team worked with the two demonstration sites and the P–20 team to refine logic models that will help identify measures to assess P–3 implementation and progress. The findings are organized according to seven focus areas and rely, in part, on a five-component systems-change framework intended to help align ongoing efforts and promote the goals of the individual sites and the P–20 partnership.