Boosting School Readiness: Should Preschool Teachers Target Skills or the Whole Child?

Parent Outreach Efforts Extend the Sustained Benefits of a Preschool Classroom Intervention: Adolescent Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial

The Research-based Developmentally Informed (REDI) program enriched Head Start classrooms with teacher-delivered curriculum components designed to enhance child social-emotional learning and language-literacy skills. Parents received information about the program via backpack express, including weekly handouts about program topics and three DVDs illustrating REDI interactive strategies and suggesting home learning activities. In addition to effects on child skill acquisition and school performance (reported previously), positive effects emerged on a family-based outcome: parents of children in REDI-enriched classrooms reported higher quality preschool parent-child conversations than parents in the randomized control group (usual practice) classrooms. This study examined the long-term benefits associated with intervention-related improvements in preschool conversations. The original sample included 356 children (58% White, 24% Black, and 18% Latinx; 54% girls, 46% boys); 77% had the high school follow-up data used in this study. Longitudinal GLM analyses documented significant REDI intervention effects on parent-adolescent communication quality (assessed in the 7th and 9th grades) and on parent- and youth-reported high school behavior problems (assessed in 11th grade). Path analyses revealed significant serial mediation from intervention-related improvements in preschool conversations to parent-adolescent communication quality (grades 7-9) to reductions in later youth-reported (but not parent-reported) behavior problems (grade 11). The findings suggest that including "light touch" parent engagement materials with preschool classroom interventions can contribute to long-term program benefits.

Impacts of the Chicago School Readiness Project on measures of achievement, cognitive functioning, and behavioral regulation in late adolescence

The current paper reports long-term impacts of the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP) on measures of achievement, cognitive functioning, and behavioral regulation taken toward the end of students' high school careers. The CSRP was a self-regulation-focused early childhood intervention implemented in Head Start centers serving high-poverty neighborhoods in Chicago. The intervention was evaluated through a cluster randomized control trial, providing us with rare longitudinal evidence from an experimental study. However, the study was limited by issues with low power and baseline differences between experimental groups. Here, we report on follow-up data taken approximately 11-14 years after program completion, including measures of participants' (N = 430) academic achievement, executive functioning, emotional regulation, and behavioral problems, and we provide a range of analytic estimates to address the study's methodological concerns. Across our estimates, we found little evidence that the program had lasting impacts on indicators of late-adolescent functioning. Main effects were estimated with some imprecision, but nearly all models produced null effects across the broad array of outcomes considered. We also observed few indications that effects were moderated by posttreatment high school quality or later assignment to a light-touch mindset intervention. Implications for developmental theory and early childhood policy are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing Cognitive Skills in Early Childhood Education Using a Bilingual Early Language Learner Assessment Tool

In this article, we propose that basic cognitive skills may be fostered and assessed in early childhood educational (pre-K) settings using a technology-based approach to assessment. BELLA (Bilingual English Language Learner Assessment), designed for use with both monolingual (English or Spanish speaking) and bilingual (English and Spanish speaking) children, is designed to attend to cognitive skill development in addition to (pre-)academic knowledge. Specifically, BELLA assesses analytical, creative, and practical thinking in 3-5-year-old children through unique item content and delivery. BELLA is among the first tablet-based pre-K assessments designed to assess cognitive skills needed for the era of the Anthropocene.

Profiles of Quality in Three Distinct Early Childhood Programs Using the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI)

Quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is important for young children's holistic healthy development. As ECCE scales, contextually relevant and feasible measurement is needed to inform policy and programs on strengths and areas for improvement. However, few measures have been designed for use across diverse contexts. Drawing on principles of mixed methods design, this study reports on a new approach to ECCE quality measurement: the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory. Using data from the USA, Liberia, and Colombia, results indicate variation in the items perceived as highly relevant to each setting and in the characteristics of classrooms including the degree of child autonomy, the types of activities, and in child/educator interactions and dialogue. However, despite this variation, a small set of items indicate potential functionality as cross-country anchor items. Findings lend support to the idea that quality measures can have some common elements with room for adaptation within and across settings. Future work in this area should address the possibility that the significance of these practices for child development also varies across settings.

Effects of Montessori Education on the Academic, Cognitive, and Social Development of Disadvantaged Preschoolers: A Randomized Controlled Study in the French Public-School System

Previous research on Montessori preschool education is inconsistent and prone to analytic flexibility. In this preregistered study, disadvantaged preschoolers in a French public school were randomly assigned to either conventional or Montessori classrooms, with the latter being adapted to French public education. Adaptations included fewer materials, shorter work periods, and relatively limited Montessori teacher training. Cross‐sectional analyses in kindergarten (N = 176; M_age = 5–6) and longitudinal analyses over the 3 years of preschool (N = 70; M_age = 3–6) showed that the adapted Montessori curriculum was associated with outcomes comparable to the conventional curriculum on math, executive functions, and social skills. However, disadvantaged kindergarteners from Montessori classrooms outperformed their peers on reading (d = 0.68). This performance was comparable to that of advantaged children from an accredited Montessori preschool.

Effects of Prekindergarten Curricula: Tools of the Mind as a Case Study

Research demonstrates that children's participation in quality early childhood care and education often has immediate positive effects on their social-emotional, self-regulation, and achievement outcomes. Most of the research on the impacts of early child care and education has focused narrowly on the United States, but advocacy for economic and social investment in early childhood care and education to support future children's growth and well-being now exists on an international scale. The longer-term outcomes from prekindergarten programs have not been as strong. To improve children's long-term outcomes, one suggested strategy is an intentional, scripted curriculum. Our goal in this monograph is to provide a fully integrated and comprehensive account of a large-scale, longitudinal, field-based randomized control trial of the Tools of the Mind (Internal consistency of the Tools) prekindergarten curriculum that occurred in the United States. Our intent is twofold. First, we examine the impact of the Tools curriculum itself, addressing both the potential impacts of the curriculum to improve prekindergarten quality and children's academic, executive function, self-regulation, and social outcomes. Second, we consider the broader question of whether the use of intentional, scripted curricula during early education can, more generally, enhance both short- and long-term outcomes in children. Developed from a Vygotskian framework, Tools focuses on equipping children with cognitive tools for learning that they can then apply to the task of acquiring and sustaining academic knowledge as well as behavioral competencies. Thus, Tools is an integrated, comprehensive curriculum, not a supplementary one. The Tools approach follows from a socio-cultural perspective on child development that emphasizes children's acquisition of skills and cultural tools in collaboration with knowledgeable others. The methodology of the 4-year longitudinal cluster randomized control trial is described in detail. We provide comprehensive information about recruitment, randomization of treatment condition, child assessment instrumentation and procedures, as well as observational assessments, including fidelity of implementation and teacher and child classroom behaviors. We provide results comparing 32 classrooms assigned to the Tools condition and 28 assigned to the business-as-usual control condition for children's academic, executive function, self-regulation, and social gains from prekindergarten to the end of first grade. Developers of the curriculum specifically expected to see benefits on these measures. There were no positive effects for Tools on any of the outcomes. The lack of expected curriculum effects required careful consideration and raised more general questions about how curriculum experiences manifest themselves in assessed skills. As a first step to understanding the findings, we focused on teachers who were implementing Tools and examined the degree to which the curriculum was delivered as intended and the relations between fidelity of implementation and children's outcomes in prekindergarten. Results indicated a wide variation in observed fidelity of implementation but no consistent associations between fidelity of implementation and any child outcomes. In terms of more general practices and interactions associated with positive student outcomes, developers of the curriculum hypothesized that implementing Tools would enhance classroom practices and teacher-child interactions. Among the aspects they expected to be affected were the amount of non-instructional behaviors, teacher-led and child-directed activities, teacher and child talk, social learning interactions, classroom emotional climate, quality of teacher instruction, and children's level of involvement. Teachers varied as much within treatment and control classrooms as they did between conditions on most of the aspects examined. We found no differences between experimental conditions on most practices and interactions. Curricula vary in scope and content, but they are universally intended to change classroom processes in ways that in turn will facilitate the development of targeted skills. For this mediational hypothesis to hold, the targeted classroom processes must be associated with child outcomes. We examined the associations between the classroom processes and children's prekindergarten and kindergarten gains and found support for their importance in early childhood classrooms. These findings demonstrate the value of identifying strategies to enhance these classroom practices and interactions. We situate the findings of our study within the larger context of early childhood education expansion policies and practices, and we offer a set of lessons learned. The study we report is a single evaluation of a single curriculum, yet we hold that the lessons learned are general and shed light on understanding why evaluations of curriculum have yielded such mixed results.

Sustained effects of a school readiness intervention: 5th grade outcomes of the Head Start REDI program

This study examined the sustained effects of the Head Start Research-based Developmentally Informed (REDI) program, which enriched preschools with evidence-based programming targeting social-emotional and language/emergent literacy skills. 44 Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to intervention or a usual practice control group, and 356 4-year-olds (25% African American, 17% Latino, 54% female) were followed through the end of 5th grade. Growth curve analyses revealed that significant intervention effects on teacher-rated social adjustment, academic engagement, and parent involvement identified at the end of the Head Start year were sustained throughout elementary school. These findings demonstrate that evidence-based curricula combined with professional development support can enhance preschool programming and promote the elementary school adjustment of children living in poverty.

Kindergarten readiness for low-income and ethnically diverse children attending publicly funded preschool programs in Miami

Using data from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP), we examine the kindergarten readiness of five cohorts (2002-2007) of children from low-income, ethnically, and linguistically diverse families (n = 16,176) in Miami, Florida who experienced three types of publicly funded preschool programs the year before kindergarten: public school-based pre-K, center-based care, or family childcare. Black and Latino children in public school-based pre-K programs consistently demonstrated greater kindergarten readiness when compared with their classmates in center-based and family childcare, controlling for demographic variables and cognitive skills at preschool entry. In most cases, low-income children enrolled in center-based care also exhibited greater kindergarten skills than their classmates who had attended family childcare. Results were the same across ethnic and language groups. Thus, for all groups of children, those who attended public school-based pre-K began kindergarten with a stronger start than their classmates who attended center-based care and family childcare, and they continued to do better at the end of the kindergarten year.