The impact of preschool education on the Missouri Assessment Program scores of Missouri Bootheel third grade students

The purpose of this quantitative study was to do a comparative analysis of Missouri Assessment Program Test (MAP) performance of third grade students in Missouri Bootheel schools. The analysis was designed to answer the following research question: Is there a significant difference in MAP scores of third-grade students who attended publicly funded preschool programs and those who did not attend publicly funded preschool programs? A total of 239 scores were analyzed to determine if a significant difference existed between the two groups.Data were placed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program. The mean standard scores for Communication Arts and Math were compared using an Independent Samples T-Test. Research concluded there is a significant difference in the MAP scores of students who attended preschool and those who did not.