+ Third Party Evaluation – Interim Report Presentation for Early Childhood Advisory Council December 19, 2013

+ Research Goals 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 children 1. “sits still and pays attention” 2. “follows simple rules”, and 3. “is motivated and curious”

+ Results: Classroom Quality Scores CLASS 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

+ 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.