Study: 84091

Department-funded evaluation

Review Details

Reviewed: January 2017

No statistically significant positive
findings

Meets WWC standards with reservations

For:

Department-funded evaluation (findings for Ounce Professional Development Initiative)

Using:

Rating:

Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a quasi-experimental design in which the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.

This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Findings

Academic achievement outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Bracken School Readiness Assessment	Ounce Professional Development Initiative vs. Head Start	2 Years	Full sample; 58 students	97.55	96.93	No	--
GOLD: Cognitive	Ounce Professional Development Initiative vs. Head Start	2 Years	Full sample; 1,092 students	587.77	597.29	No	--

Teacher instruction outcomes—Substantively important positive effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index
Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS): Emotional	Ounce Professional Development Initiative vs. Head Start	2 Years	Full sample; 10 teachers	6.00	5.35	No	--
CLASS: Facilitation of Learning	Ounce Professional Development Initiative vs. Head Start	2 Years	Full sample; 12 teachers	3.13	2.19	No	--
Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS): Classroom Organization	Ounce Professional Development Initiative vs. Head Start	2 Years	Full sample; 15 teachers	5.75	4.92	No	--

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

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Illinois

Study Details

Setting

This study was conducted in early childhood education Head Start centers in Chicago. There were five centers in the intervention group and 40 centers in the matched comparison group. The teacher training began in the summer of 2012. The student cohorts participated in the program for either 1 or 2 years starting in the Fall of 2012.

Study sample

Teachers and students in the sample were demographically diverse, though the diversity varied by center. In one center, the majority of students were Black predominantly low socioeconomic status. In two centers, Black, Hispanic, and White students were about equally represented. In the fourth center, the neighborhood was relatively affluent and about half of the students were White. Demographics for the students in the study sample were not reported.

Intervention Group

The Ounce Professional Development Initiative (Ounce PDI) is a job-embedded professional development program which was implemented in early childhood education centers in this study. The program involves three core "contexts of learning:" learning labs, coaching, and reflective practice groups. These strategies are designed to support early childhood teachers improve instructional planning and teaching practice. The Ounce PDI initiative is implemented with teachers, center leaders, family support specialists, and coaches via the three learning contexts. Teachers, leaders, and coaches are engaged in parallel learning designed to improve knowledge and skills in the areas of organizational systems, instructional planning and implementation, professional development, and children's early achievement. The training labs promote knowledge development, coaching helps transfer knowledge into practice, and the reflective practice groups promote collaborative practice and planning.

Comparison Group

The comparison centers in the study were all Head Start centers in the Chicago area. These centers presumably followed the typical Head Start practice and structure.

Support for implementation

The intervention itself is designed to support implementation of the skills through the inclusion of teachers, leaders, and coaches in the training and the embedded coaching and reflective practice groups. Although an extensive fidelity study was described in the study, there was little specific information about how the implementation of the Ounce PDI was supported.

The Ounce PDI Study: Development evaluation of a job-embedded professional development initiative for early childhood professionals.