A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum (2024) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Evidence on the Effectiveness of Preschool Curricula
2 Evidence on the Effectiveness of Preschool Curricula
Pages 42-55
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 42... ...
. One motivating factor for this shift has been extensive evidence that most public preschool programs are on average mediocre in their instructional quality, although they tend to score in the "good" range on organization, emotional climate, and structural factors (Burchinal, 2018; Weiland & Guerrero Rosada, 2022)
|
From page 43... ...
This chapter reviews what is known about the effects of preschool curriculum, with a focus on how effects vary across several important dimensions, including curriculum type, outcomes used for assessing efficacy, student characteristics, teacher characteristics, preschool settings, and broader macro conditions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of gaps in the current evidence base and key conclusions that support the committee's recommendations for moving the field forward.
|
From page 44... ...
. Interestingly, a study using five different large-scale data sets found that classroom scores on literacy, math, and quality of interactions varied just as widely for classrooms using the two most widely used comprehensive curricula in public preschool programs -- HighScope and The Creative Curriculum -- as for classrooms using no published curriculum (Jenkins et al., 2019)
|
From page 45... ...
OUTCOMES USED FOR ASSESSING EFFECTIVENESS As described throughout this report, curricula vary in the classroom and child outcomes they target. Further, studies of even the same curricula vary as to which outcomes and measures were used to assess curricular effects on classroom processes and child learning.
|
From page 46... ...
Many preschool curriculum studies have been conducted in income-targeted publicly funded programs and for this reason, with disproportionate samples of minoritized children. Overall, evidence is mixed for studies that have tested whether curriculum effects differ by child characteristics.
|
From page 47... ...
Alternatively, the curriculum should be targeted only to teachers for whom it is well matched in terms of preparation. Very few studies have explicitly tested whether curriculum effects on classroom processes and child learning vary by teacher characteristics, such as training/education or language proficiency.
|
From page 48... ...
education landscape and the fact that rigorous evidence in this area is limited. PRESCHOOL SETTING Preschool is delivered in a range of settings, including family child care homes, community-based preschool classrooms, for-profit preschools, faith-based schools, charter schools, and traditional public schools (Chaudry et al., 2021)
|
From page 49... ...
MACRO CONDITIONS Changes in the macro context may affect the size of curriculum effects; such changes include, for example, broader economic conditions, workforce policies, and shifts in parenting practices and children's skills over time that can influence child development. Broader economic changes such as economic growth and downturns have been shown to affect community- and family-level factors that in turn influence child development (Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2012)
|
From page 50... ...
Effects of preschool curricula can vary by curriculum type, outcomes used to assess effects, and student characteristics; to a lesser degree, effects can vary by teacher characteristics, preschool setting, and broader macro conditions. However, important, unanswered questions remain about the effects of culturally responsive curricula; effects of curricula in family child care, for-profit, charter school, or faith-based school contexts; effects on less commonly measured child outcomes, such as creativity, problem solving, child healthy racial identity, multilingual learners' growth in home language as well as English language development, and bias; and effects of widely adopted instructional approaches to preschool, such as Montessori, project-based learning, and Reggio Emilia (see chapter 4 for a more detailed discussion of these approaches)
|
From page 51... ...
. Teachers' education, classroom quality, and young children's academic skills: Results from seven studies of preschool programs.
|
From page 52... ...
. HighScope preschool curriculum and professional development efficacy study: Results in brief.
|
From page 53... ...
. Classroom quality and children's academic skills in child care centers: Understanding the role of teacher qualifications.
|
From page 54... ...
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(3)
|
From page 55... ...
New York, NY: Foundation for Child Development and Ann Arbor, MI: Society for Research in Child Development. https://www.fcd-us.org/the-evidence-base-on preschool/ Prepublication Copy, Uncorrected Proofs
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.