Colorado’s popular universal preschool program dramatically has increased the number of 4-year-olds who get state-funded preschool, but it has unfolded largely without guardrails to ensure quality.

A report released Tuesday by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University highlights these twin realities and provides a more detailed look at where Colorado stands compared with other states.

Overall, the report suggests Colorado has prioritized quantity over quality as it moved from a small tuition-free preschool program for children with certain risk factors to one that’s open to all 4-year-olds. The state’s universal preschool enrollment numbers are impressive, with 70% of eligible children enrolled last year.

That number helped Colorado leapfrog from its previous ranking of 27 to third in this year’s “State of Preschool” report. Only Washington, D.C., and Vermont had a larger share of 4-year-olds enrolled in public preschool programs last year. Leaders at the research institute noted that California added more 4-year-olds to state-funded preschool than Colorado last year — 35,000 compared with 30,000 — but Colorado made far bigger gains than California when it comes to the percentage of children served.

“The progress Colorado made in terms of enrollment and expanding access was pretty remarkable,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an associate research professor at the institute.

But Colorado’s showing deteriorated in the quality standards department. In the latest report, it meets only two of 10 benchmarks, down from four in the previous preschool program.