“…At this juncture, it remains unclear which of these theories best describes patterns in the empirical evidence base. Empirically, in the medium term, the older evidence has shown that preschool has small‐to‐moderate effects in reducing grade retention and special education placement in the K‐12 years (McCoy et al, ; Yoshikawa, Weiland, & Brooks‐Gunn, ). In both older and more recent studies, language, literacy, and mathematics test scores between preschool participants and nonparticipants tend to partially or fully converge by the end of third grade, though some studies do show some evidence of medium‐term persistence (e.g., Bassok, Gibbs, & Latham, ; Hill, Gormley, & Adelstein, ; Ladd, Muschkin, & Dodge, ; Lipsey, Farran, & Durkin, ; Phillips et al, ; Puma et al, ).…”