1 Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten & Study of State-Wide Early Education Programs (SWEEP) Richard M. Clifford National Center for Early Development and Learning Funded by the: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) & The Foundation for Child Development

2 Principal Investigators and Key Staff Key Staff  Florence Chang  Gisele Crawford  Grace Funk  Marcia Kraft-Sayre  Terry McCandies  Sharon Ritchie  Wanda Weaver  Billie Weiser  Pam Winton PIs  Oscar Barbarin  Steve Barnett  Donna Bryant  Margaret Burchinal  Richard Clifford  Diane Early  Carollee Howes  Robert Pianta

3 Research Questions 1.What are the characteristics of children and families being served by public pre-k? 2.Who teaches in public pre-k and what do the programs look like? 3.What teaching practices take place in pre-k classrooms and are they related to overall quality? 4.How are teacher characteristics and quality of pre-k related? 5.What is the relationship between teaching practices and child outcomes?

4 Selecting the States  6 States in the Multi-State Study selected based on diversity in:  teacher credentials  locations of programs (in vs. out of schools)  state funding per child  intensity (length of day/year)  5 SWEEP States selected to:  compliment original six states  include wide array of funding & service

5 Multi-State Study of Pre-K California, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, & New York States in the Study SWEEP Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Washington, & Wisconsin

6 Sampling Strategy  Multi-State: 40 school/centers selected randomly, per state  stratified by: teacher credentials (BA vs. no BA), in school vs. non-school, and full/part day  SWEEP: aimed for 100 school/centers selected randomly, per state  No stratification  Both studies: 1 classroom selected randomly  Both Studies: 4 children per class selected randomly  half girls; half boys  4 year-olds

7 Measures  Classroom observations  ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer)  Snapshot (Ritchie, Howes, Kraft-Sayre, & Weiser)  CLASS (La Paro, Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman)  Teacher questionnaires  Ratings of children by teachers  Administrator questionnaires  Parent demographic questionnaires

8 Measures (continued)  Child Assessment  PPVT-III (or TVIP)  Oral &Written Language Scale (OWLS): Oral Expression  Woodcock-Johnson: Applied Problems (English & Spanish)  Woodcock-Johnson: Letter-Word Identification (English & Spanish)  Letter, number, and color naming; counting; name writing (English & Spanish)

9 Teachers, Children, and Families

10 Pre-K Teacher Characteristics  Total Number 705  Female99%  Mean age 41  Years teaching  Before kindergarten 8.56  Kindergarten1.96  Older than K3.28

11 Pre-K Teacher Wages: In School vs. Not

12 Pre-K Teacher Race/Ethnicity  White64%  Latina 15%  African American13%  Asian/Pacific Isl.2%  Native American<1%  Mixed/Other 7%

13 Pre-K Teacher Education: Highest Degree  High school2%  Some college, no degree13%  Associate’s degree12%  Bachelor’s49%  Master’s or higher24%

14 Pre-K Teacher Major (BA and higher)  ECE/Child Dev.40%  Elementary Ed.25%  Special Ed.7%  Other Ed.8%  Child Devel.4%  ESL1%  Other 15%  State Certification57%

15 Location Pre-K  Public School 53%  Other Community Ctr. 47% Kindergarten (Multi-State only)  Regular Public School91%  Public Magnet2%  Public Charter1%  Private, Religious2%  Child Care2%

16 Pre-K Class Characteristics  Enrollment: 17.4  Children present/staff:7.6  Hours/week class meets:24.5  % with co-teacher or assistant:87%  Co-teacher/assistant’s hours per week:28  LEP children: 21%  Children with an IEP:6%

17 Pre-K Curriculum - Teacher Report Creative20% High Scope20% Locally Developed 8% None or self-created 7% Scholastic: 6% State Developed 5% DLM Early Childhood 4% Letter People 3% Doors to Discovery 2% CCC- -Step by Step2% Montessori2%

18 Teacher Report of Kindergarten Literacy Curricula Houghton-Mifflin19% Open Court13% Letter People 12% Phonemic Aware. in Young Children 9% Zoophonics 4% Kinder Roots 3% Distar 3% High Scope1% Creative1% State Developed 15% Locally Developed 7% Other58% None 3%

19 Total Annual Family Income

20 Maternal Education

21 Languages Spoken at Home

22 Child Race/Ethnicity

23 Classroom Quality and Practices: How do children spend their time?

24 Mean Overall ECERS-R Ratings Minimal Inadequate Good Excellent

25 Pre-K ECERS-R Distribution Minimal InadequateGood Excellent

26 ECERS: Factor Scores  Factor 1, labeled Teaching and Interactions, is a composite of several indicators including: -staff-child interactions, discipline, supervision, encouraging children to communicate, and using language to develop reasoning skills.  Factor 2, termed Provisions for Learning, is a composite of indicators such as: -furnishings, room arrangement, gross motor equipment, art, blocks, dramatic play, and nature/science.

27 Pre-K & K ECERS-R Factor Scores Minimal Inadequate Good Excellent

28 Pre-K ECERS-R Teaching and Interactions Minimal InadequateGood Excellent

29 Pre-K ECERS-R Provisions for Learning Minimal InadequateGood Excellent

30 Snapshot  Time sampled measure  27 items coded as present or not-present  Each child is watched for 20 seconds, followed by a 40 second coding period  Then coder moves on to the next child  Four children per room in pre-k  In K, generally 1 child per room, sometimes as many as 4

31 Multi-State Study Pre-K Snapshot  Two days of observations in spring  From beginning of class until end of class (part- day) or nap (full-day)  On average, each child was observed 65.5 times (sd = 23.3)

32 SWEEP Study Pre-K Snapshot  One day of observations in spring  From beginning of class until end of class (part- day) or nap (full-day)  On average, each child was observed 40.5 times (sd = 16.6)

33 Multi-State Study Kindergarten Snapshot  Three days of observations throughout the year  From beginning of class until end of class, regardless of class length  Did not code lunch, recess right after lunch, or nap  Some codes (especially meals, routine) not comparable to pre-k  On average, each child was observed times (sd = 144.0)

34 Pre-K Activity Settings

35 Pre-K Child Engagement Children were not engaged in any of these activities 42% of the time.

36 Multi-State – Pre-K Teacher-Child Interaction

37 Multi-State Pre-K Patterns  Considered the 369 possible combinations of activity setting, teacher-child interaction, and child engagement  Modal pattern (15%) was routine, no teacher- child interaction, no child engagement  Next most common (10%) was meals/snack, no teacher-child interaction, no child engagement

38 Multi-State Pre-K Selected Patterns of Interest  Considered 14 patterns especially likely to promote learning  Found they occurred rarely (all < 1.5% of time) mean % of of timechildren  letter-sound, elaborated, small group:0.1% 4%  oral language, elaborated, whole group:1.3%45%  read to, elaborated, whole group: 0.3%13%  math, elaborated, small group:0.1% 5%  math, no teacher, free choice: 1.2%36%

39 CLASS: Classroom Assessment Scoring System  9 dimensions of quality  Each rated on a 7 point scale from “uncharacteristic” to “highly characteristic”  Rating occurred roughly every 30 minutes, throughout on the same days as Snapshots  Each classroom’s score is the average of its scores across all observation days

40 CLASS: Classroom Assessment Scoring System  Positive climate  Negative climate  Teacher sensitivity  Over-control  Effective behavior management  Concept development  Quality of feedback  Learning formats/engagement  Productivity Emotional Climate Instructional Climate

41 CLASS Factor Scores Medium Low High

42 CLASS Emotional Climate Pre-K

43 CLASS Instructional Climate Pre-K

44 Academic and Social Outcomes

45 Key “Over Time” Questions n How are children performing when they enter pre-kindergarten? n Do children make gains from the fall to spring of their pre-k year? n How do they fare in kindergarten? (Multi- State Study only) n Performance “related to what” questions will be addressed this afternoon.

46 Multi-State PPVT

47 Combined Pre-K PPVT

48 Multi-State OWLS

49 Combined Pre-K OWLS

50 Multi-State WJ Applied Problems

51 Combined Pre-K WJ Applied Problems

52 Multi-State Naming Letters & Numbers (max=26) (max=10)

53 Combined Pre-K Naming Letters & Numbers (max=26) (max=10)

54 Multi-State Teacher Report of Social Skills Not at All Very Well

55 Combined Pre-K Teacher Report of Social Skills Not at All Very Well

56 Multi-State Teacher Report of Behavior Problems Not a Problem Very Serious Problem

57 Combined Pre-K Teacher Report of Behavior Problems Not a Problem Very Serious Problem

58 Summary of Findings  Overall, children enter pre-k with academic skills below national norms, lower in language than in math  Poor children lag well behind non-poor children  Small gains over time on all standardized measures and large gains in alphabet & numbers  Behavior ratings remain quite steady across time  Multi-state and SWEEP scores comparable  Full report at