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Third Party Evaluation2012-13 – Interim ReportPresentation for Early Childhood Advisory

CouncilDecember 19, 2013

+Research Goals 2012-13

Determine children’s progress toward key indicators of school readiness across program type (ie., Licensed 3/4 STARS rated programs; Head Start and; public preschool programs that have been through the Preschool Program Review Process (P2R).

Determine quality of classrooms across program types.

Determine if children’s progress maintains longitudinally and if there are differential effects in progress depending on program type.

Determine the interaction effects between developmentally appropriate practices and teacher-child interactions on child outcomes/progress.

+Methodology

Classroom observations using Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

Survey data Administrators Teachers Families

Child assessment data Woodcock-Johnson III NU Tests of Achievement (WJ III NU

Preschool (reading, oral language, math, written language, and academic knowledge)

Basic self-knowledge: Social Awareness Task Social Skills Improvement System, (SSIS ) (Social Skills and

Problem Behavior)

BMI

CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTERS

+Results: Families’ Perceptions of Kindergarten Readiness

Across center types, families have generally the same perceptions of what skills support successful transition to kindergarten for their children1. “sits still and pays attention” 2. “follows simple rules”, and 3. “is motivated and curious”

+Results: Classroom Quality

ScoresCLASS scores across center types were

similar across program types Emotional Support (avg = 5.33) Classroom Organization (avg = 4.74) Instructional Support (avg = 2.43)

Teacher education level was positively correlated with CLASS scores in all areas. Specifically, teachers with Masters degrees had higher CLASS scores than teachers with Bachelors degree.

+Classroom Assessment Scoring

System (CLASS) Scores

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WJ III - Majority of children in sample scored in the average range on the WJ III at both testing points on all subscales

Children made progress on all subscales of the WJ III from time 1 to time 2

Significant gains: 3/4 STARS: Understanding Directions, Spelling, and Sound Awareness Head Start: Sound Awareness PreK; Understanding Directions, Spelling, and Sound Awareness

Results: Children’s Outcome Scores

+Results: Children’s Outcome

Scores (Cont.)

SSIS – Majority of children in sample scored in average range on social skills and problem behaviors

BMI - Boys and girls, in all age groups, have BMI that falls in the overweight or obese range

+ Child outcome gains and teacher, family, and classroom characteristics

Children who scored lower on these tests at Time 1 made greater growth than their peers who scored higher at Time 1.

Mother’s education level was found to be predictive of children’s gain scores on Spelling and Applied Problems.

Program type: Children in Head Start and PreK programs had lower gain scores than

their peers in 3/4 STARS centers on Understanding Directions Children in Head Start had lower gain scores on sound awareness

than their peers in 3/4 STARS centers.

+Limitations

Incomplete data sets

Percentage of families of children in 3 and 4 STARS centers making above state salary average

+Conclusions

Parents of children who participated in the study perceive the development of social skills as key to children’s successful transition to kindergarten.

Across all three program types, the highest score on the CLASS was in the emotional support subdomain, followed by classroom organization, with the lowest score being in the instructional support domain.

 

+Conclusions (Cont.)

Results of the BMI data collected on children who participated in the study show that sample children were overweight or obese at the time 2 testing period.

Child outcome scores showed that children in all three program types made significant growth in one or more subtests of the WJ III. Growth on these subtests indicates that children progressed at a greater rate than would be expected developmentally during this period of time.