The benefits of involvement in early childhood education have been researched from many different perspectives to show how children achieve social, emotional, and academic gains when they participate in a pre-kindergarten program. The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to assess how attending a pre-kindergarten program in a rural public school district influenced reading readiness skills as determined by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessment. This study contributes to the growing amount of research on early childhood education that will help educators, legislators and parents determine whether these programs help students attain higher academic achievement in the future. It also provides insight and guidance to educational investors as to whether to increase or decrease funding allocations for pre-kindergarten programs, or allow them to remain the same. This descriptive study explored the reading achievement gains of students in kindergarten by comparing the scores of students who attended pre-kindergarten in a public school versus students who did not go to pre-kindergarten. [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://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]