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Five studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of Bright Beginnings. One study (PCER Consortium, 2008) is a randomized controlled trial design that had non-random allocations after random assignment, but the analytic groups were shown to be equivalent, so the study meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. No studies are randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental designs that meet WWC evidence standards. The remaining four studies do not meet either WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens.
One study reviewed by the WWC (PCER Consortium, 2008) assessed the effectiveness of Bright Beginnings as part of the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research effort.5 The PCER Consortium (2008) randomly assigned 36 classrooms to three conditions (Bright Beginnings, Creative Curriculum®, and control), randomly selecting 21 classrooms for the national evaluation. After the pilot year, 8 classrooms dropped out (2 Bright Beginnings, 3 Creative Curriculum®, and 3 control) and were replaced with classrooms from the original 36. For this study, 14 classrooms were used (including the original and replacement classrooms), and baseline equivalence on pretests was established for the Bright Beginnings and control children. Data were collected on 198 children (98 Bright Beginnings and 100 control). Just over half of the children (51%) were male, 82% were Caucasian, and 23% were reported to have a disability. Pretest data were collected in the fall and posttest data were collected in the spring of the preschool year. The study investigated effects on oral language, print knowledge, phonological processing, and math. The control condition varied across sites and included teacher-developed, nonspecific curricula with a focus on basic school readiness.
The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Appendix G). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations.6
The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Bright Beginnings to be small for oral language, print knowledge, phonological processing, and math. No studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations examined the effectiveness of Bright Beginnings in the early reading and writing or the cognition domains.
5 The Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Consortium (2008) evaluated a total of 14 preschool curricula, including Bright Beginnings, in comparison
to respective control conditions.
6 The extent of evidence categorization was developed to tell readers how much evidence was used to determine the intervention rating, focusing on
the number and size of studies. Additional factors associated with a related concept—external validity, such as the students’ demographics and the
types of settings in which studies took place—are not taken into account for the categorization. Information about how the extent of evidence rating was
determined for Bright Beginnings is in Appendix A6.
|Institute of Education Sciences
