The Effects of Early Care and Education Settings on the Kindergarten Outcomes of Doubly Vulnerable Children

Abstract

Program administrators and policy makers have placed a priority on expanding access to inclusive, center-based early care and education (ECE) for low-income children with special needs, a “doubly vulnerable” population characterized by academic and social-emotional achievement gaps at kindergarten entry. Yet, no research has documented the effects of center-based settings on doubly vulnerable children’s early development, either relative to other ECE settings (e.g., home-based care) or relative to each other (e.g., Head Start, public preK). The current study utilizes national data and estimates difference-in-differences models to assess the effects of these ECE setting comparisons on changes in doubly vulnerable children’s academic and social-emotional outcomes evident at kindergarten entry. Results suggest that center-based ECE is more beneficial than parental care for language and literacy, and more beneficial than home-based care for prosocial behaviors. There were few differences among center-based ECE types: At trend level, Head Start was linked with better approaches to learning and prosocial skills relative to public preK.

The First-Grade Outcomes of Pre-K Attendees: Examining Benefits as a Function of Skill Type, Environments, and Subgroups

“…Finally, the study sample did not include children with disabilities and only included children from disadvantaged families; thus, findings should be generalized with caution. Although our findings regarding the main effects of pre-K are likely to replicate for children in universal programs and for children with disabilities, it is likely that the magnitude of benefits would vary (e.g., Schochet et al, 2020). Thus, continued work is needed to understand the persistence of these benefits across programs of different types and children from different backgrounds.…”

Did State Pre-Kindergarten Programs Affect the Head Start Enrollment of Children with Disabilities? A Quasi-Experimental Analysis

“…Second, HS programs are required to provide all necessary modifications to the environment, instructional formats, and individualized accommodations to support the full participation of all children with disabilities (HSPPS, §1302.61). Schochet et al (2020) compared the effectiveness of HS and pre-k specifically when serving children with disabilities. Consistent with the broad literature comparing the effects of HS and state pre-k, they found that the effects of HS and pre-k did not differ across cognitive outcomes, but that HS was associated with higher approaches to learning and prosocial skills.…”

Fostering teacher self-efficacy: understanding the impact of trauma through student behavior

“…Unmitigated effects of trauma have a lasting impact on students and can affect academic achievement and social emotional growth (Bell et al, 2013). School age students are in a developmentally vulnerable state (Schochet et al, 2020) and are developing executive functioning, which includes inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and a working memory; decreased executive functioning (Barr, 2019) leads to lower academic achievement and is linked to a higher dropout rate than their non-affected peers (Bell et al, 2013). Trauma's lasting impact on the brain can impede the development of executive function and lend towards low achievement and decreased self-regulation.…”

“…Teacher efficacy is a factor in students' willingness to be vulnerable (Delale-O'Connor et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017). Vulnerability includes engaging in a deep dive in curriculum through a social justice lens (Schochet et al, 2020). Harvey et al (2016) notes, "Bandura (1997 defined self-efficacy as the belief in one's abilty to successfully produce desired effects through one's actions, which includes controlling aspects of one's environment" (p. 511).…”