History of Misperceptions about the Accomplishments
of Bright Beginnings

There's a widespread misperception in Mecklenburg County that the effects of CMS's Bright Beginnings prekindergarten program peter out after the second grade.
It is based on a set of inaccurate numbers provided to the school board in the summer of 2002.

Through kindergarten, first and second grade, the first group of children who had gone through Bright Beginnings showed significantly higher performance than that of a control group of children who had been eligible for Bright Beginnings, but who had never gotten off the waiting list.

In July of 2002, however, CMS reported that third-grade state tests (the first state test taken by this cohort) seemed to show little difference between the two groups.

Percent of Children Reported as on Grade Level in Reading
BB: 69.5 non-BB: 69.5 no difference

Percent of Children Reported as on Grade Level in Math
BB: 63.4 non-BB 60.8 difference: 2.6 points

These results were reported widely in local media.

However, it was quickly found that these calculation were inaccurate. They failed to consider the number of children in each group who had been held back, and thus were not in third grade when the cohort took the test. And a substantially larger percentage of the non-Bright Beginnings children had been held back than the Bright Beginnings children.

To make an accurate comparison, the children who had been retained needed to be counted as being below grade level. When these numbers were added, the difference between Bright Beginnings children and non-Bright Beginnings was clear.

Percent of Children Actually on Grade Level in Reading (counting retentions as below grade level) BB: 60.6 non-BB: 52.8 difference: 7.8 points

Percent of Children Actually on Grade Level in Math (counting retentions as below grade level) BB: 55.4 non-BB 46.6 difference: 8.8 points

These new numbers were mentioned in a Charlotte Observer editorial, but never reported in a news article. Since then, the first set of inaccurate numbers have been the ones most often referenced.

Soon after these results were reported, data collection regarding Bright Beginnings stopped. So the inaccurately reported data set has become the touchstone for the program's effects – with damaging results.

For figures, see Charlotte Observer, 7/10/02, 1-B; 7/11/02, 10-A; 8/11/02, 1-B.
CMS Published study 2003.