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Policy Framework
Head Start has been referred to as the nation’s “premier” federally sponsored early childhood education program, and today it serves nearly one million low-income children. Designed to “narrow the gap” between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers, Head Start provides comprehensive programming during the preschool period to improve children’s social competence and academic readiness for school.
A wealth of developmental research highlights the deleterious consequences of poverty for young children. More specifically, because they are exposed to a wide range of psychosocial stressors, low-income children have been found to be at greater risk for developing emotional and behavioral difficulties than their middle-income peers. Empirical studies have documented prevalence rates of emotional and behavior problems among preschool children as high as 20 to 40 percent, such that four to seven children in any given Head Start classroom may require additional assistance in managing their emotions and behavior. Research has consistently revealed relationships between such social-emotional skills and children’s academic and social success in school. Consequently, Head Start programs and other preschools in low-income communities report a pressing need for effective tools to build children’s social-emotional skills in preschool settings. Indeed, the payoff of such prevention efforts may be high, as supporting low-income children’s healthy emotional and behavioral development during the preschool years is likely to influence their chances for success in school and beyond, both for the highest-risk children in the classroom as well as for their lower-risk peers.
This study comes at an important juncture for the field of early childhood education. New advances in neuroscience have increased the public’s understanding of the importance of early years of development, and policymakers have become increasingly focused on the role of early education in increasing preschool children’s readiness for school. At the same time, there is a surprisingly thin base of rigorous research investigating how preschool programs can most effectively support children’s social-emotional development as part of that effort. Without such knowledge, programs like Head Start will have difficulty improving children’s school readiness.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
Building on theories of how children’s development unfolds, researchers and practitioners have created a new generation of classroom-based strategies that are specifically designed to improve children’s social-emotional competencies. Three basic theoretical approaches have been emphasized. In one approach, children are provided with very specific hands-on activities and lessons to build their knowledge of emotions and their ability to consider alternative solutions when faced with a conflict with a peer. In a second approach, teachers are trained in specific behavior strategies that support the social-emotional development of preschool children — for instance, praising children for socially-competent behaviors and setting clear limits for children’s behavior. In a third approach, children are supported and scaffolded by teachers to accomplish more highly regulated classroom behavior through pretend play. However, the majority of these programs have been tested only in single cities, with programs highly motivated to take up the intervention, and with training and technical assistance provided under the direction of senior academic researchers. Never have multiple social-emotional programs been tested on a national level in the context of a federal initiative.
Head Start CARES (Classroom-based Approaches and Resources for Emotion and Social skill promotion) is a national research project sponsored by the Office of Head Start and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families. The project is designed to test the effects of three evidence-based social-emotional program enhancements in Head Start settings. Using a group-based randomized design, this study randomly assigned 104 Head Start centers, from metro and non-metro areas across the country, using a lottery-like process, to one of three differing social-emotional enhancements or to a “business as usual” comparison group. Two or more classrooms within each center were invited to participate. In each case, teachers were trained in the new approaches and then provided with coaches who helped them implement the new strategies in their classrooms. At the end of the research study, comparison group centers will also have the opportunity to be trained in one of the new social-emotional approaches. This rigorously designed study on a nationally heterogeneous set of Head Start centers and classrooms will provide information that federal policymakers and Head Start programs can use to increase Head Start’s capacity to improve the social-emotional skills and school readiness of preschool-aged children.
This study has the potential to dramatically improve our understanding of: (1) promising approaches to building children’s social and emotional development, (2) the processes by which the largest and most sustained effects on children’s social and emotional development are likely to occur, and (3) the features of Head Start settings and families that contribute to successful implementation of these program models.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
The project has finished its second year of implementation and has moved into an analysis phase. In the past two years, the project has:
- Implemented three evidence-based enhancements in 17 grantees around the country, with support from coaches, trainers, and developers.
- Collected data on children and teachers. At baseline, the spring of the preschool year, and kindergarten, one or more of the following data have been or will be collected: teacher reports on children, teacher surveys, direct child assessments, classroom observations. Program data was collected by coaches and trainers on the fidelity of implementing each of the three programs, and implementation interviews were conducted with key staff. Follow-up of children in the participating Cohort 2 centers will be conducted in the spring of their kindergarten school year (spring 2012).
What's Next
This project extends until mid-2013. Implementation and impact data analysis and reports are planned for 2012 and 2013.
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