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Research
Three studies reviewed by the WWC examined the effects of Pre-K Mathematics in center-based settings. One study (Starkey & Klein, 2005) was a randomized controlled trial that met WWC evidence standards. Another study (Clements & Sarama, 2006) was a randomized controlled trial that met WWC evidence standards with reservations due to within-cluster differential attrition between the intervention and comparison groups. The remaining study did not meet WWC evidence screens.
Met WWC evidence standards
Starkey and Klein (2005) included two cohorts of 564 three- and four-year-old children from low-income families attending Head Start and state-funded preschool programs in New York and California, but the WWC includes the data from the 278 children in cohort one only. 6 More than half of the children were African-American. The authors compared math outcomes for children who participated in a Pre-K Mathematics combined with DLM Express intervention group to children who participated in a business-as-usual comparison group.
Met WWC evidence standards with reservations
Clements and Sarama (2006) included 21 preschool teachers (152 children) from low-income families in New York State and compared math outcomes for children participating in a Pre-K Mathematics combined with DLM Express intervention group to a business-as-usual comparison group. 7
Extent of evidence
The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the What Works Clearinghouse Extent of Evidence Categorization Scheme). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations. 8
The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Pre-K Mathematics to be medium to large for mathematics achievement. No studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed oral language, print knowledge, phonological processing, early reading/writing, or cognition.
7 The study also included a Building Blocks for Math intervention group. The study authors labeled the Building Blocks for Math group as the "intervention group" and the Pre-K Mathematics group as the "comparison group"; however, the WWC considers Building Blocks for Math as a separate intervention (see the separate WWC Building Blocks for Math intervention report). For the rating of effectiveness in this WWC intervention report, the WWC includes only the results comparing the Pre-K Mathematics group to the business-as-usual comparison group; however, results for the comparison between the curricula are included in a separate section of this report and Appendix A5.
8 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 sizes 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.
