Reflections on Quality and Dosage of Preschool and Children's Development

Abstract

This ambitious monograph tackles several important questions related to children's preschool experiences that have relevance for program and policy initiatives at the state and federal levels. The authors' approach is rigorous: they conduct parallel analyses across eight large and diverse studies of preschool children in center care and use meta-analysis to summarize patterns across studies. The study finds nonlinear associations between preschool quality and gains in language and literacy skills, with larger associations in higher versus lower quality classrooms. Results also show that domain-specific measures of preschool quality were more strongly related to children's development than global quality measures. The "dosage" of preschool was likewise important: more years in Head Start predicted larger vocabulary and literacy gains, whereas more time spent on instruction predicted greater literacy and math skills growth. In this commentary, we situate these findings in the broader literature addressing links between preschool experiences and children's development and discuss key takeaways for research, practice, and policy.

Externalizing behavior in preschool children in a South African birth cohort: Predictive pathways in a high-risk context

“…Recent analyses suggest that they may cohere (with psychotic signs) to form a single factor underlying psychopathology across all ages (Caspi & Moffitt, 2018;Patalay et al, 2015). Nonetheless, much of the extant literature seems to indicate that externalizing problems are often detected earlier, and in many children tend to decrease from preschool across the school age period, whereas internalizing difficulties increase, especially during adolescence (Khoury et al, 2018;Leve et al, 2005;Roskam, 2019;Votruba-Drzal & Miller, 2016). There is also, however, clear evidence of specific subgroups where an early onset and persistent trajectory of externalizing problems presents, often culminating in severe aggressive and antisocial behavior in adolescence and early adulthood (Moffitt, 1993;Odgers et al, 2008;Shaw et al, 2012).…”

Testing a Theoretical Assumption of a Learning-Trajectories Approach in Teaching Length Measurement to Kindergartners

“…It may be that any one-on-one attention yields greater length-measurement performance at postassessment. Indeed, time spent in domain-specific, rather than general, instruction is associated with higher scores in targeted domains, including mathematics, in children from low-income preschool and kindergarten backgrounds (Votruba-Drzal & Miller, 2016; A. H. Wang, 2010).…”

Are All Head Start Classrooms Created Equal? Variation in Classroom Quality Within Head Start Centers and Implications for Accountability Systems

“…Nearly all of the research using the ECERS and ECERS-R global environment measure from the 1990s and early 2000s found a positive relation between higher scores on the ECERS-R global environment and children’s development (e.g., Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992). More recent studies suggest that the ECERS-R global environment may not be as robust a predictor of children’s learning in the current child care landscape, where the average level of quality may be slightly higher due to licensing and regulations (Gordon, Fujimoto, Kaestner, Korenman, & Abner, 2013; Perlman et al, 2016; Votruba-Drzal & Miller, 2016).…”