Learning from Experience Evaluating Early Childhood Demonstration Programs (1982) / Chapter Skim
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Preschool Education for Disadvantaged Children
Preschool Education for Disadvantaged Children
Pages 187-202
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From page 187... ...
In 1970 the program itself was saved only by the direct lobbying efforts of parents of Head Start children, who had learned their skills in local Community Action Project battles, and by the Office of Child Development (now the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families)
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From page 188... ...
The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project: Preschool Years and Longitudinal Results Through Fourth Grade (Weikart et al., 1978a) is a study of the long-term effects of preschool education on a group of "high-risk" disadvantaged children as they progressed through the early elementary grades.
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From page 189... ...
the children's cognitive gains were still being maintained five years after they entered elementary school. An Economic Analysis of the Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project (Weber et al., 1978)
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From page 190... ...
Observation scales have been carefully developed to give a time sampling of the actual behavior of teacher and child in the classroom. These can be genuine outcome measures when the goal is to document how children spend their time in learning-teaching situations and how the life of the child in one curriculum compares with the life of another.
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From page 191... ...
The more general the method, however, the less valuable the outcomes. In short, immediate information from daily operation is possible through the use of checklists and rating forms, direct time sampling of ongoing classroom operations, and general opinions of those who have contact with the classroom.
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From page 192... ...
Assessments of preschool effectiveness have used two major types of instruments: standardized, individually administered intelligence tests, typically the StanfordBinet (S-B) , and standardized achievement tests, such as the Metropolitan Achievement Test or the California Achievement Test.
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From page 193... ...
The data are from the Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project (Weikart et al., 1978a)
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From page 194... ...
N.S. F tests presented here were obtained in three-way analyses of variance (Group x Sex x Wave)
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From page 195... ...
The erosion of preschool effects once children enter regular public school is now a familiar pattern in educational evaluation. Explanations of this loss include the shift in the content of the test items to include more verbal and abstract concepts and the understimulation of children as a result of the increasing isolation from ideal learning environments.
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From page 196... ...
Other testing procedures have shown potential in programs such as the Educational Development Corporation's Project Torque to assess redevelopment of mathematical concepts and in High/Scope's efforts to assess the development of language competency through generative testing procedures. (In a generative test, students provide both questions and answers or have full control over the sophistication of their responses.)
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From page 197... ...
The situation should have supportive elements in it -- friends or others with whom the student can work, familiar materials, opportunities to express the strengths of his or her educational career to date. This format does not call for a sampling of the universe of possible test questions, but rather for a situation in which the student can express strengths and weaknesses by generating original material.
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From page 198... ...
These are more meaningful measurement methods than either IQ scores or achievement test results, which represent success only indirectly. Such "hard" measures as placement in special education classes or other special service programs and grade retention are important because they reflect actual decisions by schools to manage youngsters and have very real cost consequences.
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From page 199... ...
More effective criteria begin to be available as a longitudinal study continues. When children are beyond the third grade, broadly conceived economic measures, which produce data that are meaningful to both the educator and the taxpayer, can be used as a very effective means of judging long-term outcomes.
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From page 200... ...
On the whole, long-term longitudinal assessment must move from academic "place marker" variables into the world of hard performance and economic measurement. High priority should be given to establishing baseline data for the economic performance of adults from nonmainstream backgrounds and to closer monitoring of the later performance of children who experience various interventions in early childhood.
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From page 201... ...
(1978a) Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project: preschool years and longitudinal results through fourth grade.
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From page 202... ...
(1968) Motivational aspects of changes in IQ test performance of culturally deprived nursery school childrene Child Development 39:1-14 Zigler, Be, and Valentine, Je, ease (1979)
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