Reassessing “a statewide study of ECE and non-ECE schools on reading achievement, grades 2 and 3, based on the California assessment program results”

Abstract

In November 1976, the California State Department of Education (SDE) presented to the Board of Education its Consolidated Evaluation Report. Included in this report was an analysis of test scores for schools participating in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. From the trends in the test scores, the Department concluded that reading achievement of third grade pupils in ECE schools was slightly higher than it was before those schools entered the program. A Statewide Study of ECE and non-ECE Schools on Reading Achievement, Grades 2 and 3, Based on the California Assessment Program Results (see article, this issue) presents an analysis of ECE schools statewide, and comes to the conclusion that ECE schools were not performing at the level of non-ECE schools. In addition, a section of the article reviews the SDE report and concludes that: At the present time the methodology used by the State Department of Education is sufficiently complex that it is not understood by most evaluation specialists in the state. This response to the conclusions drawn by A Statewide Study . . . is divided into three sections. The first reviews the State Department of Education's findings and points out that the methodology used to arrive at the positive conclusions concerning progress of pupils in ECE schools was actually quite straightforward. The second section presents a new look at the ECE data, using straightforward methodology, and shows that the conclusions arrived at in the SDE report would have remained the same even if the simpler data analysis had been used as the basis for judgment. The third section reviews A Statewide Study.. . and provides specific examples to demonstrate why the methodology used in that study produces misleading results.