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Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

Positive Findings for Boston Pre-K

Posted in Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, Research on May 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

The Boston Public Schools pre-k program is helping young children make substantial educational gains by blending crucial program ingredients.  A recent study focuses on two of these: a strong preschool curriculum and extensive teacher coaching.

The study comes from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was published in March on the website of the journal Child Development.

Boston’s preschool efforts started small. In 1998, the city had three early education centers. Today, the Boston Public School system serves 2,300 young children in 85% of its elementary schools, early learning centers and K-8 schools. Like most communities, Boston has a mixed delivery system of early education that also includes community-based centers and family child care homes, but these settings are not included in this study.

The Harvard study looked at learning outcomes for just over 2,000 BPS pre-k students, a racially and economically diverse group of children, who speak more than a dozen languages (including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian and Cape Verdean Creole), and were enrolled in the 2008-2009 academic year. (more…)

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James Heckman: An Economist who Promotes Preschool

Posted in Pre-kindergarten, Research, Social-emotional development on May 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Just as the New England Patriots have an award-winning hero in quarterback Tom Brady, early education has a Nobel Prize-winning champion in University of Chicago economist James Heckman.

Heckman’s public policy position is simple and powerful: To make society stronger, invest in early childhood development. Drawing on more than a decade of his own research, Heckman argues that high-quality preschool prepares children to succeed and makes them less likely to enroll in special education classes, become pregnant as teenagers or land in jail.

In addition to a clear message, Heckman is an effective messenger. He’s quoted in newspaper stories, and he has a pervasive social media presence, making his case on his website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“What I learned that became so important,” he explains in one his videos, “was that investing in people was as important as buildings or structures or roads.” And if policy makers seek a 10 percent annual rate of return on their investment, Heckman says, they should invest in early childhood. (more…)

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Studies Find Vocabulary Instruction Lacking

Posted in Language development, Reading proficiency, Research on May 9, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Children’s vocabulary is a key ingredient of learning to read with comprehension, but recent research finds limited instruction in vocabulary in kindergarten – and too little to enable children with small vocabularies to close the vocabulary gap that is evident long before they begin school.

Susan B. Neuman, a professor in educational studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Tanya S. Wright, an assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University in East Lansing, analyzed observations of 55 kindergarten teachers’ instruction in a variety of school districts. They found limited instruction in vocabulary in most settings, but low-income children were least likely to be taught the kind of sophisticated, academic words that will help them succeed in school

“Vocabulary is a deceptively simple literacy skill that researchers and educators agree is critical to students’ academic success, but which has proved frustratingly difficult to address,” Education Week reports.  “By age 3, when many children enter early preschool, youngsters from well-to-do families have a working vocabulary of 1,116 words, compared to 749 words for children in working-class families and 525 words for children on welfare, according to a seminal 2003 longitudinal study by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, authors of the 1995 book ‘Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.’

“The consensus among researchers and educators has been that students must close such vocabulary gaps to succeed academically and deal with rigorous content. (more…)

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Early Experience Shapes Later Literacy

Posted in Family engagement, Reading proficiency, Research on April 4, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

We often say that parents are children’s first teachers and that the path to reading success begins at birth. We know that skills beget skills – not to mention confidence.  A recent report  – “PIRLS 2011 Canada in Context: Progress in International Reading Literacy Study” — quantifies the impact of children’s early experiences on their developing literacy.  Kelly Kulsrud, our director of reading proficiency, writes about the study in a recent post on Aspire Wire, the blog of Wheelock College’s Aspire Institute.

In findings that reinforce earlier research, the study emphasizes children’s home environments and the link between reading achievement and children’s attitudes about reading, Kulsrud writes. The study shows:

  • Children who enter school having been read to at home scored, on average, 35 points higher on the PIRLS test than children whose parents did not read to them. In addition, children of parents who like to read scored an average 36 points higher.

(more…)

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How Effective is Head Start?

Posted in Achievement gap, Federal, Head Start, National, Pre-K to 3, Pre-kindergarten, Research on March 26, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Head Start has been in the news lately, both because of the effects of sequestration on the program and because of discussion about its effectiveness in light of proposals to expand early education. W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, sheds light on the research in a recent column on the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog.

Barnett concludes that Head Start is neither as ineffective as its critics contend nor as effective as its staunchest defenders claim. “Which side is correct?” he asks. “Neither.”

Barnett discusses the recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services that critics say show the benefits of Head Start fade by third grade. Although the study, based on a large-scale randomized trial, is the best to date on Head Start, Barnett cautions that it “does not say what critics claim it says.” (more…)

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How NJ Expanded Early Education and Narrowed the Achievement Gap

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten, Research on March 21, 2013 | 6 Comments »

David Sciarra at State House event

David Sciarra at State House event. (Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children)

In 1998, in the landmark Abbott v. Burke school finance ruling that the New York Times called “the most significant education case” since Brown v. Board of Education, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten in 31 districts with the largest concentrations of low-income families. Fifteen years later, New Jersey has built a nationally recognized, large-scale system of early education that embeds quality across the private and public settings where young children learn. The latest report from a longitudinal study of the program finds substantial benefits that persist through fifth grade.

The New Jersey experience carries lessons for states across the country, but has particular resonance here in Massachusetts, which has focused its early education policy on improving quality throughout a mixed delivery system that includes public school pre-kindergarten, community-based centers, Head Start and family child care.

This was the message two New Jersey leaders delivered at a standing-room-only State House briefing yesterday attended by more than 50 legislators, legislative staff and educators. It was the message W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute of Early Education Research, delivered in Washington yesterday when he released fifth grade results from the longitudinal study of children who were in an Abbott class for 4-year-olds in 2004-5. NIEER found a 10-20% narrowing of the achievement gap for children who had one year in an Abbott preschool and a narrowing of 20-40% for children who had two years of preschool. (more…)

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NIEER Summarizes Pre-K Research

Posted in Federal, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Research on March 18, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Ever since President Obama’s call for universal preschool, there’s been a lot of talk about the research on the benefits of high-quality early education. With the talk come questions. Decades of well-regarded research document the positive effects of high-quality early education, but are advocates overselling it? What about the criticism from opponents of the president’s proposal?  W. Steven Barnett, who is director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, provides some answers in “Getting the Facts Right on Pre-K and the Presidents Pre-K Proposal.”

“Public policy is best advanced based on impartial analysis of all the available evidence. The Obama administration’s new universal pre-k proposal comports favorably with our full review of the evidence,” Barnett writes in a two-page fact sheet. “Opponents’ attacks have been based on selected studies considered in isolation and even then, misinterpreted.” (Read the full policy report.)

Barnett answers four questions: (more…)

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Examining the Evidence on Pre-K Benefits

Posted in Research on March 12, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Sara Mead, a senior associate at Bellwether Education Partners, takes a look at the research on the effectiveness of early education in a recent posting  — Five Common Myths on Pre-K Evidence  – on her Education Week blog:

  • To the “myth” that all the positive evidence on the impact of high-quality early education comes from “’boutique’ programs that were small, expensive and can’t be replicated,” Mead says, “Not true.” Solid research from other, larger programs – such as programs in Chicago, New Jersey and Oklahoma – also find substantial positive results.
  • To the “myth” that pre-kindergarten only works with children from low-income families, Mead points to research from Tulsa, Oklahoma, that finds benefits for children from middle-class families, too.
  • To the “myth” that all pre-kindergarten delivers positive results, Mead cautions that quality matters. (more…)

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Adjust Practice to Improve Reading in Primary Grades

Posted in Reading proficiency, Research on February 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

In 1998, the National Research Council published “Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.” In “Improving Reading in the Primary Grades,” one of the articles in the Future of Children issue on literacy, authors Nell Duke and Megan Block examine how far we have come – or not come – in implementing the report’s research-based recommendations and improving children’s ability to read proficiently by the end of third grade.

Duke is a professor at the University of Michigan, and Block is a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University.

“Recommendations regarding increased access to kindergarten and greater attention to and improvement of students’ word-reading skills have been widely adopted,” a summary of the article notes. “Vocabulary and comprehension, long neglected in the primary grades, still appear to be neglected. Contrary to the report’s recommendations, attention to building conceptual and content knowledge in science and social studies has actually decreased in the past 15 years. In other words, the easier-to-master skills are being attended to, but the broader domains of accomplishment that constitute preparation for comprehension and learning in the later grades – vocabulary knowledge, comprehension strategy use and content knowledge – are being neglected. (more…)

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UMass Economist Links Early Education and Economic Development

Posted in Business and economy, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Research on January 23, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

When Massachusetts Governor Patrick unveiled his plan for major new investments in high-quality early education last week he said, “This is not only about their social and economic future; it’s about ours.”

A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst summarizes the research behind this statement. (See Early Childhood Education as an Essential Component of Economic Development with Reference to the New England States.)

“The economic development impact of K-12 and higher education is widely acknowledged, but the role of early childhood education is often given insufficient attention,” writes UMass economist Arthur MacEwan.

“It is highly desirable and valuable to society for state governments to support universal early childhood education. In doing so, governments will be putting in place an essential component of economic development, a component that will provide both a long-run foundation for their states’ economic development and an immediate boost to their states’ economic progress. Moreover, they will be providing an important service to families and strengthening equality of opportunity.”

MacEwan cites benefits that high-quality programs have on everything from children’s educational attainment to their improved later earnings and reduced social burden. (more…)

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