Characteristics of ERF Children and Preschools

Characteristics of children. ERF participants appeared to be more disadvantaged than the national average. A relatively large proportion of children served by ERF grantees had some characteristics associated with disadvantage. More than one-third of the ERF sample reported monthly income of less than $1,500, compared to 17 percent of households with 3- to 5-yearolds nationally. Children in this cohort were also more likely than children nationally to come from single-parent households (40 percent compared to 28 percent), be Hispanic (46 percent compared to 21 percent), and have foreign-born parents (39 percent compared to 23 percent). About 4 out of 10 ERF parents (41 percent) reported that the primary language spoken in the home was something other than English. Initial scores on three standardized assessments suggest that children were functioning below national norms (which were standardized to be 100 on all three tests) when they entered the ERF program. ERF participants scored an average of 94 on test of print and letter knowledge, 91 on a test of auditory comprehension (an oral language measure), and 83 on a test of expressive vocabulary (another oral language measure).

Characteristics of preschools. The vast majority of ERF preschools (95 percent) combined ERF funding with other government funding sources, which was consistent with the goal of the program to enhance the quality of existing programs that particularly serve children from lowincome families. The most common funding sources were state and local education agencies, state child-care funds, and Head Start, which were received by 56 percent, 38 percent, and 36 percent of ERF preschools, respectively. Just over half of ERF preschools received funding from only one of these sources, while over 40 percent received funding from two or more sources. The schedule on which ERF preschools operate and the characteristics of their teachers provide useful context for examining study findings. Three-quarters are full-day programs (operating for an average of 8 hours per day), 62 percent have a class size of 20 children or fewer, and almost 70 percent have a staff-to-child ratio of 1:10 or better. Seventy-five percent of the ERF teachers have bachelor's degrees, 67 percent have teaching certificates or licenses. Among teachers in ERF classrooms, 87 percent had completed college-level courses in early-childhood education or development, 67 percent had completed courses in teaching reading to elementary-school children, and 79 percent had completed courses in teaching language and literacy skills to children in a preschool setting.

ERF funding in the preschools. Based on the reported number of preschool children expected to be served by the FY 2003 grantees, the median ERF allocation across the 28 grantees evaluated in the FY 2003 cohort was $3,549 per preschool child per year.⁴ These funds are in addition to the other government funding sources received by the preschools. To provide perspective, annual average Head Start funding per child in Fiscal Year 2003 was $7,092.⁵

Professional development through ERF. ERF teachers reported receiving an average of 72 hours of professional development during the previous year—the equivalent of 9 days. One hundred percent of teachers in ERF-funded classrooms reported receiving professional development in phonemic and phonological awareness (see Table 3). The vast majority of ERF teachers received training in six other language-development and early literacy topics, including literacy-rich print environments (97.8 percent), concepts of print writing and prewriting (96.7 percent), oral language (96.7 percent), facilitating emergent literacy (95.7 percent), alphabetic knowledge (92.4 percent), and oral comprehension and cognition (88.0 percent). Nine out of 10 ERF teachers reported receiving training in child assessment. Three-fourths of ERF teachers reported receiving training in traditional early-childhood topics, including children's development and ways to manage children's behavior in the classroom.

Curriculum and assessment. The statute requires ERF grantees to identify and provide activities and instructional materials that are designed according to scientifically based reading research for developing children's oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabet knowledge.⁶ ERF programs are also expected to integrate assessments of child progress with teaching so that instruction can build on what children already know and bring them to the next level (U.S. Department of Education 2003).

In ERF preschool classrooms, 39 percent of the teachers reported following one curriculum, and 61 percent reported using a combination of curricula. The most commonly reported curricula in ERF classrooms are Creative Curriculum (reported by 46 percent of teachers) and High/Scope (Educating Young Children) curriculum (reported by 24 percent of teachers).

Nearly all ERF teachers (98 percent) reported using at least one assessment tool for children in their classes. A majority of ERF teachers (64 percent) reported using more than one assessment instrument with children in their classes.

Classroom environments and teacher practices. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) provided a measure of the general quality of the preschool environment. The quality of teacher-child interactions refers to the teacher's responsiveness to children; sensitivity to children's needs; consistent, positive guidance; and encouragement. As one measure of teacher-child interactions, we used the Teaching and Interactions subscale of the ECERS-R (Clifford et al. 2005). The average score on the ECERS-R Teaching and Interactions subscale in the spring was 5.8 for ERF classrooms (slightly higher than 5.7 average score in the fall), with all but 5 classrooms scoring at least a “good” or 5 on the subscale (see Figure 1).⁷

The TBRS measures the general quality of preschool classrooms (including teacher sensitivity) as well the language and early literacy aspects of teacher instructional practices and the available classroom materials. The TBRS items are scaled so that higher values represent greater frequency or quality or both, using Likert ratings that range from 1 (low or none) to 4 (high frequency/high quality) for virtually all of the items. Because of a high correlation between quantity and quality item scores, we have averaged them to create a single-item score and created subscales from these composite items.⁸

The total TBRS score summarizes all of the TBRS general quality and language, literacy, and assessment subscales. The subscales measured

• oral-language use
• book-reading practices
• phonological-awareness activity
• print and letter knowledge
• written expression
• portfolios
• dynamic assessment

The average TBRS total score was 2.7 for ERF classrooms in the fall and 2.6 in the spring.

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