About the More at Four Pre-kindergarten Program

The More at Four Program was North Carolina's statewide pre-kindergarten initiative for at-risk 4-year-olds, designed to help children be more successful when they entered school. The purpose of More at Four was to provide a high quality educational program for at-risk children in the year before kindergarten entry. The More at Four Program operated from 2001-2011 and was overseen by the North Carolina Office of Early Learning in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the 2011-2012 school year, the statewide program was changed to the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program, overseen by the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE).

More at Four provided funding for classroom-based educational programs at sites designated by each local county administration, including public schools, private for-profit and non-profit child care centers, and Head Start programs. The More at Four program guidelines provided standards related to staff qualifications, class size, teacher-child ratios, North Carolina child care licensing levels, curriculum, and provision of other program services. Children were eligible for More at Four based on poverty status and other risk factors with priority for service given to children who were otherwise unserved in a preschool program.

About the More at Four Evaluation Project

The More at Four Evaluation team at the FPG Child Development Institute served as the external evaluator for the North Carolina More at Four Program during its 10 years of operation. We gathered information each year to evaluate the program’s effectiveness and to provide data for program improvement.

Major research questions included:

• Who was served by the More at Four Program?
• What were the characteristics and quality of the services provided?
• What were the outcomes of children attending these programs?
• What factors were associated with better outcomes for children?
• To what extent have there been changes over time?

The evaluation provided a "big-picture" look at the statewide program as a whole, and included varying data each year from a variety of sources. The types of evaluation information gathered included assessments of children's development, observations of classroom quality and curriculum implementation, and monthly reports of program services.