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Third National Even Start Evaluation: Follow-Up Findings From the Experimental Design Study
NCEE 2005-3002
December 2004

Section One: Background and Summary Of Findings

The third national Even Start evaluation included two complementary studies: (1) the Even Start Performance Information Reporting System (ESPIRS) provided annual data on the universe of Even Start projects from 1997–1998 through 2000–2001, and (2) the Experimental Design Study (EDS) was an experimental study of Even Start's effectiveness in 18 projects, reflecting the way that projects were implemented during 1999–2000 and 2000–2001.

The major set of evaluation findings are contained in the recently-released report by St.Pierre, Ricciuti, Tao, Creps, Swartz, Lee, Parsad & Rimdzius (2003). The analysis for that report relied on a comparison of pretest data collected at the beginning of the school year with posttest data collected at the end of the same school year from Even Start and control group families who participated in the EDS. The present document updates the findings from the St.Pierre, Ricciuti, Tao, et al (2003) report by comparing pretest data with follow-up data collected about nine months after the posttest. The findings presented in this document are consistent with and lead to the same conclusions as findings contained in the earlier report.