Page 13 - Microsoft Word - School Readiness and Parenting Outcomes from ECE-Full Report.doc

Developmental Increases for Preschool-Age Children
CCRC’s pre-kindergarten programs lead to statistically significant developmental gains in areas that prepare children for their future in school: self concept, social interpersonal skills, self regulation, language, learning, cognitive competence, math, literacy, motor skills, and safety / health.
Areas of school readiness for young children show positive developmental growth in CCRC’s Head Start and FCCHEN programs. Throughout their enrollment in the FCCHEN and Head Start programs children are assessed using the DRDP-R assessment tool for children age 3 years to kindergarten at a minimum of 6 month intervals (more frequently in Head Start). There were differences in ages at the initial assessment period for the two programs because Head Start has a greater number of 4-year-old children (Head Start Average: 4.13 years; FCCHEN Average: 3.88 years), p < .01. There were also differences in age at the final assessment point used in these analyses with Head Start children again being older (Head Start Average: 4.66 years; FCCHEN Average: 4.38 years), p < .01. Finally, the time between assessments was slightly greater in Head Start. We selected the very first and the very last assessment conducted for the year because these were most comparable to the FCCHEN group (Head Start: slightly over 6 months between assessments; FCCHEN: 6 months between assessments), p < .001. For the combined groups, the average age at the initial assessment was 4 years, 1 month (ranging from 2 years, 6 months to 5 years, 7 months). For the combined groups, the average age at the final assessment used in these analyses was 4 years 7 months (ranging from slightly over 3 years to 6 years, 2 months). Finally, for the combined groups, the average time between assessments was slightly over 6 months (ranging from 2 months to 1 year, 3 months).
Please see the Appendix for a listing of the specific areas of development that were measured. The Appendix also presents the Alpha Coefficient for each subscale of the DRDP-R. All are above .80, illustrating that each group of items measures the same underlying construct.
All areas of development increased significantly across the 6 month assessment period.
One method used to evaluate and ensure positive developmental growth for pre-k children is to look at change by each area of development. We conducted dependent-groups t-tests on all individual items as well as all composites (groups of items that measure the same developmental construct). Over 1,100 (1,102) preschool children were enrolled and assessed at 2 time points between September 2008 and August 2009 in Head Start and FCCHEN. All areas of development increased significantly across the 6 month assessment period
(p < .001).
99.6% of the children showed an increase from pre- to posttest on the overall assessment average.
Another method of assessing growth is to consider percent change from the first to the second assessment for each child. Most of the children (99.6%) showed an increase from pre to posttest on the overall assessment average. Table C below communicates the percentage of children who increased in their development in each of the domains of interest.
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