The purpose of this study was to gather information from the Discovery Education Assessment about reading and mathematics scores for girls and boys at the kindergarten level for the years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. Data were gathered from 276 kindergarten students attending two Title I schools in the southwest region of Tennessee. The focus was on comparing the effectiveness of state-funded pre-k programs and Head Start on low socioeconomic students. Results were compared to the same socioeconomic students in two consecutive years of kindergarten. The researcher accessed students' reading and mathematics measures on the Discovery Education or ThinkLink Learning series of Discovery Education Assessment Predictive Benchmark Assessments. Discovery Education provides state specific screening data, using each state's curriculum standards and subskills for each test item. The scores were analyzed using a three-way MANCOVA with the pretest from reading and mathematics as the covariates. Students were divided based on their early childhood attendance. There were 162 prekindergarten students, 32 Head Start students, and 82 students who did not attend any early childhood program. The study found no statistical significant differences in the pretest or posttest scores in reading for any of the three groups or gender. However, there was a significant difference on the pretest in mathematics scores. All groups were not equal at the beginning of the school year in mathematics. The findings did not reflect the same results in the mathematics posttest where there were no statistical significant differences in scores among the three groups or gender. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]