The Seeds to Success Modified Field Test: Findings from the Impact and Implementation Studies. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research (original) (raw)
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1997
Smart Start is North Carolina's partnership between state government and local leaders, service providers, and families to better serve children under 6 years and their families with the aim of ensuring that all children enter school healthy and prepared to succeed. This study examined child care centers in Smart Start counties, focusing on the services provided, teacher education and training, and quality. Data were gathered in 1994 and 1996 through classroom observations and interviews with child care directors. Included were both partnership-nominated centers involved in local Smart Start child care quality improvement efforts and randomly selected centers to measure overall quality of care in each partnership community and to provide a comparison with the nominated sample. The two samples were not significantly different on any child care variable so results were combined. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale was completed in one randomly selected preschool classroom at each center. The findings indicated that more child care centers in the pioneer partnerships were providing higher quality care in 1996 compared to 1994. Centers in the 1996 sample were also more likely to employ better educated teachers, provide developmental screenings, and enrolled children with disabilities or from low-income families, suggesting that Smart Start partnerships have improved the quality and quantity of child care services for preschoolers. However, most centers provided average or mediocre quality care. Teacher compensation and turnover rates did not change between 1994 and 1996. (Detailed information regarding child care center characteristics is appended.) (Author/KB)
Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies: Massachusetts Family Child Care Study, 2005-2007
ICPSR Data Holdings, 2011
This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation of the impacts of an early childhood education program on providers and children in family child care. The program-LearningGames 1-is designed to train caregivers to stimulate children's cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. The evaluation of LearningGames is one of four state experiments conducted as part of the Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies. The study is being conducted by Abt Associates Inc, with its research partners MDRC and the National Center for Children in Poverty of Columbia University, under a contract with the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the evaluation is to provide information that states and local communities can use to inform their decisions about the use of child care subsidy and child care quality improvement funds.
Administration For Children Families, 2010
This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation designed to examine the impacts on providers and children of an early childhood education program aimed at improving the development and learning opportunities in the care settings and, as a consequence, the outcomes for children in care. The early childhood education program--LearningGames 1 --focuses on training caregivers to stimulate children's cognitive, language, and social-emotional development through game-like interactions with individual children across the day. This evaluation of LearningGames is one of four state experiments that were conducted as part of the Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies, whose overall objective is to determine how differences in certain aspects of child care subsidy policies and quality improvement initiatives are related to outcomes for parents, children, and/or child care providers.
1996
Peisner-Feinberg, Ellen; '° Ibid. " The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale was developed in 1980 by Thelma Harms and Dick Clifford. It is a well-established global measure of child care quality that has good reliability and validity and has been used widely in child development research. The ECERS includes 37 items covering seven general areas: personal care routines, furnishings and display for children, language-reasoning experiences, fine and gross motor activities, creative activities, social development, and adult needs. Scores can range from 1 to 7, with scores from l< 3 considered "poor," scores from 3 < 5 considered "mediocre," and scores of 5 or greater considered "good." 13 BEST COPY =LAKE
1997
This study identified training needs for Pennsylvania child care providers and assessed the impact of training, classroom/caregiver dynamics, and staff characteristics on child care quality. Participating were 29 family child care providers, 30 group homes, and 60 child care centers, stratified by type of site and geographic region. Quality of care was measured through the Early Childhood Rating Scale, Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS), and Family Day Care Rating Scale. The work environment was assessed with the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey. Questionnaires were used to obtain information on background and training, and site characteristics. Overall findings indicated that the training system was viewed positively. Providers were highly interested in training and believed it would help them in their work. On-site training and workshops were viewed as most helpful, video and satellite training as least helpful. The major training needs were child motivation and guidance, dealing with child conflict, child development, and developmentally appropriate practice. Low ITERS scores suggested that training in infant/toddler care is a priority. and low scores on all three rating scales indicated that cultural awareness, personal grooming, pretend play, and sand and water play should receive training priority. The amount of training did not predict quality. The most significant change in quality since 1989 occurred in family child care sites. Center quality was related to professional growth opportunities, higher salaries, good communication, and staff agreement on school philosophy. (The research instruments and a data summary are appended. Contains 18 references.) (Author)
Child Care Center Quality and Child Development
Cornell University, Ithaca, …, 2010
This brief reviews the latest research on indicators of quality in child care centers. Through numerous studies, these factors are shown to indicate quality care and to predict improved outcomes for children. However, it is important to note that, although the indicators of high quality child care mentioned here are predictive of positive outcomes for children, these effects cannot be assumed to be causal. Therefore, the following indicators should be considered as general recommendations coming from the most recent and relevant studies on what elements contribute to quality child care and child development. Quality child care has been repeatedly linked to positive developmental traits in children, including cognitive, social, and emotional development, and with an increasing number of children attending center based care, these factors are important to consider on both an individual and policy basis.
Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies
Project Upgrade was a two-year experimental test of the effectiveness of three different language and literacy interventions, implemented in child care centers in Miami-Dade County that served children from low-income families. One hundred and sixty-four centers were randomly assigned to one of three research-based curricula or to a control group that continued with its existing program. The curricula, while grounded in a common set of research findings, differed in intensity, pedagogic strategies and use of technology. In each center, one classroom that served four-year-old children was selected for the study. Teachers and aides assigned to the three treatment groups received initial and follow-up training as well as ongoing mentoring over a period of approximately 18 months, from Fall 2003 to Spring 2005. All classrooms in the study, whether treatment or control, received an initial package of literacy materials (paper, crayons, books, tape recorders, books on tape etc.). To reduce staff turnover, teachers in all four groups who remained in centers received $500 in July, at the end of each year of the study. The hypotheses tested by the study stipulated two kinds of outcomes: teacher behavior and interactions with children, and aspects of the classroom environment that support children's language and literacy development, measured through direct observation; and children's language and pre-literacy skills, measured by their performance on a standardized assessment. Study staff conducted classroom observations in Fall 2003, Spring 2004 and Spring 2005. Four-year-old children in the study classrooms were assessed in Spring 2005. Key findings are summarized below and in Exhibit 1. Here, and in the body of the paper, impacts are described in terms of effect sizes. Effect sizes are standardized measures of the magnitude (size) of treatment effects. For each outcome measure, the effect size is equal to the estimated impact of the treatment, divided by the control group standard deviation (a measure of the variation in scores within the group). The standardization makes possible a comparison of the size of treatment effects across studies and, within limits, across outcome measures. 1 For example, if the effect sizes of a treatment on outcome measures A and B are 0.50, and 0.25, respectively, then the size of the treatment impact on A is considered to be twice the size of the impact on B. Findings The initial observations, conducted before the interventions, showed that, across all groups, teachers engaged in few of the behaviors and interactions that have been shown to support children's development of language and literacy skills. Within six months of training, in Spring 2004, all three language/literacy interventions produced significant impacts on teacher behaviors and interactions with children that supported their language and literacy development; by Spring 2005, these impacts were generally more pronounced, and there were significant impacts on the number of classroom activities that involved literacy, and on literacy resources in the classroom. 1 Comparisons across studies must be approached cautiously. Even if the same outcome measure is used, the comparison assumes that the two study samples have similar standard deviations. Comparison of effect sizes for very different outcome measures may be misleading.