Early Childhood Education School Research Articles

A longitudinal study of early childhood education and subsequent academic achievement

Abstract The relationships between duration of attendance at early childhood education facilities and measures of intelligence, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and school ability up to the age of 13 years were studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. Before adjustment for confounding factors, children who had attended early education facilities for more than two years scored from .33 to .80 SDs higher on tests of cognitive ability and school achievement than children who did not attend early education. However, after adjustment for confounding factors, including parental education levels, socioeconomic status, family size, child ethnicity, infant feeding methods, early mother-child interaction, and the child's birthweight, these differences reduced to between .13 and .47 SDs. Nonetheless, in all but one case, significant associations were found between duration of attendance at early childhood education and cognitive ability and school achievement after controlling for confounding...

Early Childhood Education and Public School Principals: Constructing a Relationship

This article discusses the results of a statewide study of elementary school principals' perceptions of barriers to the establishment of preschool programs in the public school setting. The study was conducted in response to current federal an: state mandates requiring school districts to provide comprehensive services for developmentally delayed and at-risk preschoolers, as well as other preschool populations. A representative sample of principals responded to a comprehensive questionnaire that included principals' knowledge of child development and their attitudes about establishing programs for preschool children in the public school sector. Results indicate that, across the board, elementary principals foresee major barriers to the effective implementation of such federal mandates as Public Law 99–457. Specific barriers are identified and discussed. Implications for practice and policy are presented.

Early Childhood Education and Middle School Education: A Convergence of Principles

Early Childhood Education and Middle School Education: A Convergence of Principles

Program Evaluation for Policy-Setting

The evaluation problem discussed herein called for data to assist a district governing board in decisions related to early childhood education (ECE). ECE schools in California entered the state-funded program in the fall of 1973. Well into the fourth year of the program, four schools in Lafayette School District were participating (two in their first, one in its third, and one in its fourth year). Board members were hearing conflicting, sometimes impassioned, statements about ECE: too much paperwork and too many meetings, but also more individual attention to children's instructional needs and improved self-esteem. The Governing Board, facing a decision as to whether ECE (recently renamed School Improvement Program) should be expanded to a fifth school, called for a program evaluation which would investigate the benefits and disadvantages of Early Childhood Education, yielding data to guide them in their decision.

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

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.