Project Activities
Researchers will collaborate with senior education leaders in NYC to strengthen NYC DOE's research architecture by (1) collecting direct assessments of young children's school readiness (including early language, math, and self-regulation skills), (2) linking child-data with the NYC DOE's developing system of classroom- and site-level data, and (3) training teachers to administer direct assessments of school readiness measures using an innovative “1-on-1” brief tutorial and coaching session. In addition, the project team will hold a series of meetings between the research team and the NYC DOE with the goal of identifying “bright contrast” education experiments that will capitalize on the research architecture that is being developed.
Structured Abstract
Setting
Participants will be recruited from urban schools in New York City, NY.
Sample
The study participants will include approximately 880 children nested within approximately 160 classrooms drawn from both school-based and community based organization (CBO) universal pre-kindergarten sites.
Intervention
Due to the nature of this study, an intervention will not be developed. Researchers will collaborate with senior leaders in education in NYC to strengthen the research architecture of the NYC DOE by presenting and completing child school readiness assessments, linking data results with NYC DOE's classroom and site-level data, and providing teacher training to administer assessments using personalized training sessions, including a tutorial and coaching session.
Research design and methods
The research team will conduct a descriptive study to address policy relevant research questions of interest to the NYC DOE. In this study, children's academic and behavioral school readiness will be measured through a variety of assessments. Child assessments will be administered in the late fall (to the full sample) and late spring (to a subset of the sample) of the pre-kindergarten year. Assessments will be performed by highly trained, bilingual (English/Spanish) graduate students. A small group of teachers will be provided with training on a subset of direct assessments components in individualized “personalized in-service” training sessions, using Tablet PC technology. After training, teachers will be guided to assess one child's skills across the subset of measures. Afterwards, teachers will be asked to assess acceptability, feasibility, and usability of the data collection effort.
Control condition
The project does not require a control condition.
Key measures
Child-level direct assessments will include the Pre-language Assessment Scale, Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, Self-Ordered Pointing, and Spatial Conflict Arrows. The assessor will fill out the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment Assessor Report to describe the levels of attention, emotion, and behavioral regulation demonstrated by the child during the assessment session. For the teacher training component of the study, teacher reports will be used to measure acceptability, feasibility, and usability of the data collection effort.
Data analytic strategy
The research team will analyze the data using descriptive statistics as well as simple 3-level hierarchical linear models (representing children clustered in sites, clustered in NYC boroughs).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: The project will result in an improved research infrastructure that enables the NYC DOE to quantitatively monitor and assess the potential benefits or costs of this education policy initiative.
Journal article, monograph, or newsletter
Daneri, M.P, Sulik, M.J., Raver, C.C., and Morris, P.A. (2017). Observers' Reports of Self-Regulation: Measurement Invariance Across Sex, Low-Income Status, and Race/Ethnicity. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
Related projects
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Pamela Morris
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
