Walter S. Gilliam

A Critical Meta-Analysis of All Evaluations of State-Funded Preschool from 1977 to 1998: Implications for Policy, Service Delivery and Program Evaluation.

Abstract The number of state-funded preschool programs for low-income children has increased dramatically over the past few decades, and recent research has indicated that these programs vary considerably along a variety of dimensions. By 1998 only 13 of the current 33 state preschool programs (which serve children 3 to 5, provide some form of classroom-based educational service, and are primarily funded and administered at the state level) had completed a formal evaluation of the program’s impact on child outcomes. This paper presents a critical meta-analytic review of these evaluations, providing measures of standardized effects for all significant impacts to facilitate comparisons across differing domains of outcome and evaluative methods. Although several methodological flaws in these studies are identified, the pattern of overall findings may offer modest support for positive impacts in improving children’s developmental competence in a variety of domains, improving later school attendance and performance, and reducing subsequent grade retention. Significant impacts were mostly limited to kindergarten and first grade; however, some impacts were sustained several years beyond preschool. The results of these studies were similar to evaluations of other large-scale preschool programs for low-income children, such as Head Start. Modest outcome goals are warranted for preschool programs serving low-income children, for example, the promotion of school readiness. Suggestions are presented for improved preschool and early intervention program evaluation.

Evaluating Child and Family Demonstration Initiatives: Lessons from the Comprehensive Child Development Program.

Abstract The Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) was a demonstration project designed to test a specific model of service delivery for young children and families in poverty. Following the evaluation’s failure to show strong impacts, early intervention has come under fire from opponents in the popular literature and in Congress. We conclude that shortcomings in both implementation and evaluation contributed to the failure to demonstrate effectiveness. Lessons learned from the CCDP are articulated, addressing the roles of demonstration projects and their evaluations, the problems associated with evaluating programs early in their implementation, the importance of assuring appropriate treatment quantity and quality, and the judicious use and interpretation of large-scale randomized evaluations.

Assistant Teachers in Prekindergarten Programs: What Roles Do Lead Teachers Feel Assistants Play in Classroom Management and Teaching?.

Assistant teachers are a ubiquitous yet virtually overlooked part of the early education workforce. Assistant teacher education level and its relationship to various classroom characteristics and the roles lead teachers feel assistants play in classroom management and teaching were examined in a nationally representative sample of 3,191 state-funded prekindergarten classes. Research Findings: Most classrooms had at least 1 paid assistant teacher, and classrooms with multiple assistants were more likely to be in Head Start. Lead teachers in public schools were more likely to have a bachelors degree or higher, to be paired with an assistant with a high school degree, and to report fewer release hours for planning (alone or shared with assistants) than teachers in Head Start. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that assistant teachers were rated as most useful to teaching duties when the classroom was in a Head Start setting, when the discrepancy between the lead and assistant teachers’ education was smaller, and when there were more shared release hours for planning. Practice and Policy: Implications focus on future prekindergarten teacher workforce needs, the need for more shared planning time and guidance in its use, and the need for more attention to and support for the training and roles of assistant teachers.

The Relationship between Language and Cognitive Development and Emotional-Behavioral Problems in Financially-Disadvantaged Preschoolers: A Longitudinal Investigation.

Over the past couple of decades, several studies have documented a significant relationship between language disorders and emotional‐behavioral disorders in children. Unfortunately, only a few studies have examined this relationship while accounting for differences in childrens overall cognitive functioning. The current study examined the relationship between language and cognitive development and emotional‐behavioral problems #opmeasured concurrently and at 5‐ and 17‐month follow‐up#cp in a sample of non‐referred four‐year‐olds from financially‐disadvantaged families #opN equals; 680#cp. Results of stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that language delays were significantly related to emotional‐behavioral problems. However, when cognitive differences were controlled, delayed language development no longer significantly predicted emotional‐behavioral problems, either concurrently or at any follow‐up assessment. These results support those of previous studies that suggest that the relationship between serious emotional‐behavioral problems and language development in young children may be more a function of factors associated with complex cognitive functioning or neurological maturity, rather than specific language functioning. * Data for this paper were collected and analyzed when the first author was affiliated with the University of Kentucky

Head Start, Public School Prekindergarten, and a Collaborative Potential

Head Start likely will need to evolve in response to the dramatic growth of state-funded prekindergarten programs during the past two decades. A potential role for Head Start in the context of widespread public school involvement in prekindergarten would be to collaborate with state prekindergarten systems to provide the comprehensive services often missing from state early education models. Data from a nationally representative survey of lead teachers in a sample of 3898 randomly selected prekindergarten classrooms (81.0% response rate) are used to explore the strengths and challenges of implementation in Head Start, public school prekindergarten, and collaborative models. Although there exists considerable overlap in the quality of Head Start and public school prekindergarten classes, findings suggest that Head Start programs excel in providing comprehensive services and small class sizes and low student-teacher ratios; public school prekindergarten employs teachers with higher levels of education, and the collaborative model appears to represent most of the strengths and relatively few of the weaknesses of both models. Head Start and public school prekindergarten systems should explore creative ways to blend education and comprehensive services into a collaborative program greater than the sum of their respective components.

Preschool Promises An Introduction, Commentary, and Charge

It is clear from decades of research that preschool education can have large and lasting positive effects on the lives of participants and can be of meaningful benefit to society. It is just as clear that what preschool can do when implemented under conditions of high quality is not the same as what it usually does do during broad-scale implementation. Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal and Thornburg (2009, this issue) take on the important questions of why this disconnect between promise and delivery exists and what might be done to effectively reconcile the two. Readers of this excellent discussion by four of the field’s foremost scholars are treated to a wide-ranging excursion through the extant literature on early education and child care, but it is not a wild ride. Rather, the authors skillfully navigate the reader through a complex research literature about an even more complex and changing set of social programs. Everything about preschool education is fast paced. Young children develop competencies at an amazing rate, the programs that are designed to support this development are quickly changing and becoming more differentiated, and the federal and state policies that govern these programs are being developed and changed on a trajectory that often seems disconnected from the evolving early education research. Taking stock of what we know and need to know about this ever-changing area of work is an ambitious undertaking. Several overarching questions come to mind in reading the report by Pianta and colleagues. Below, is a brief discussion of some of these questions that may help frame many of the issues raised by these scholars.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Results of a Statewide Random-Controlled Evaluation.

OBJECTIVE Despite recent federal recommendations calling for increased funding for early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) as a means to decrease preschool expulsions, no randomized-controlled evaluations of this form of intervention have been reported in the scientific literature. This study is the first attempt to isolate the effects of ECMHC for enhancing classroom quality, decreasing teacher-rated behavior problems, and decreasing the likelihood of expulsion in targeted children in early childhood classrooms. METHOD The sample consisted of 176 target children (3-4 years old) and 88 preschool classrooms and teachers randomly assigned to receive ECMHC through Connecticuts statewide Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) or waitlist control treatment. Before randomization, teachers selected 2 target children in each classroom whose behaviors most prompted the request for ECCP. Evaluation measurements were collected before and after treatment, and child behavior and social skills and overall quality of the childcare environment were assessed. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to evaluate the effectiveness of ECCP and to account for the nested structure of the study design. RESULTS Children who received ECCP had significantly lower ratings of hyperactivity, restlessness, externalizing behaviors, problem behaviors, and total problems compared with children in the control group even after controlling for gender and pretest scores. No effects were found on likelihood of expulsion and quality of childcare environment. CONCLUSION ECCP resulted in significant decreases across several domains of teacher-rated externalizing and problem behaviors and is a viable and potentially cost-effective means for infusing mental health services into early childhood settings. Clinical and policy implications for ECMHC are discussed.

A Vision for Universal Preschool Education: The Universal Preschool Movement

The term “school age” carries significant meaning in American society. The day a child walks through the schoolhouse doors marks an unforgettable benchmark for the young student and his or her family. Of course, the first day of kindergarten is not the first “teachable moment” the child has experienced. A vast amount of learning has preceded that eventful day. Knowledge, skills, and abilities have been acquired and practiced at home, in the playground, and – for the majority of children born in the 21st century – in child care settings. The difference between “preschool” and “school age”, then, is not really about teaching and learning but about where and how these activities take place, and who assumes responsibility for them. In the United States today, formal schooling is largely the responsibility of state and local governments. In most communities, children are eligible to enroll in the public education system when they are about five years old. Historically, it was not unusual for children to be admitted at younger ages. The first kindergartens in America commonly served children younger than five – for example, New York City schools admitted four-year-olds, and Bostons public schools enrolled toddlers as young as 22 months (Mitchell, Seligson, & Marx, 1989). Wisconsins state constitution has contained “a commitment to free education for four-year-olds” since the middle of the 19th century (Barnett, Hustedt, Robin, & Schulman, 2004, p. 170).

A Vision for Universal Preschool Education: A Whole Child Approach: The Importance of Social and Emotional Development

We are witnessing a renewed emphasis on teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. No one can deny the importance of a literate population – one in which everyone can read, compute and communicate. The introduction of departmentalization of reading, math and language specialists earlier and earlier in schooling and the emphasis on reading and math in kindergarten may seem commonsensible approaches. But this press for basics overlooks the time-continuity, the self-organization and the basic responsiveness and rhythm patterns of the child. We can teach a three-year old to read, but what do the displacement of time demanded and the shift from other experiences do to the long-term development of the child? (Gordon, 1976, p. 126) It may surprise some readers to learn that this statement was written some 30 years ago. It could easily have been written today. Literacy has become the buzzword not only in educational circles but in the halls of the United States Congress. In kindergartens and first-grade classrooms across the nation, arts and crafts and even recess are “out.” Practice with writing and all things related to words and spelling are “in.” After-school time that was once free for play and favorite activities is now occupied by homework for children as young as five and six years old. “Educational” toys and DVDs occupy increasing space on store shelves.

A Vision for Universal Preschool Education: Index

Decades of research point to the need for a universal preschool education system in the United States to help give our nation’s children a sound cognitive and social-emotional foundation on which to build future educational and life successes. In addition to enhanced school readiness and improved academic performance, participation in highquality preschool programs has been linked to reduction in grade retentions and school dropout rates and cost savings associated with a diminished need for remedial education and criminal justice services. This book brings together nationally renowned experts from the fields of psychology, education, economics, and political science to present a compelling case for expanded access to preschool services. They describe the social, educational, and economic benefits for the nation as a whole that may result from the implementation of universal preschool in America, and they provide guiding principles on which such a system can best be founded.