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The Preschool Curriculum Evaluation
Research Project
This project is being conducted with colleagues from the State University of New York—Buffalo and Research Triangle Institute. Research has shown that there is a national need for preschool curricula that support the development of informal mathematical knowledge in pre-kindergarten children, especially those from low-income families. This longitudinal project is implementing a pre-K mathematics curriculum in preschool programs serving low-income children in California and New York and evaluating the short-term and long-term effects of the mathematics curriculum on the mathematical knowledge of children in Intervention (I) and Control (C) classrooms.
Based on theoretically and empirically guided principles, the curriculum includes (1) a set of developmentally sensitive, small-group activities with concrete manipulatives, (2) state-ofthe- art software, and (3) activities and materials for families. The scope of the project includes a national evaluation study and a local, complementary research study. For both studies, the design consists of classrooms from Head Start and State Preschool programs in two states for a total sample of 40 classrooms and 320 children. In year one, classrooms were randomly assigned to I or C conditions, and I teachers were provided with professional development to learn to implement the mathematics curriculum. For the national evaluation study, the core set of FACES instruments are being administered. In years three and four, all children will be followed into kindergarten and first grade, and the FACES instruments administered. Children’s early math knowledge comprises numerical and spatial knowledge structures, which can develop independently and thus must be assessed individually. A goal of the complementary study is to conduct an in-depth assessment of children’s mathematical knowledge as well as the support for mathematics learning they receive in their classroom and home environments.
Another goal is to determine whether the mathematics curriculum is implemented more effectively during a second year in which professional development is again provided, and whether two years of professional development and implementation are sufficient to sustain implementation of the curriculum in a third year.
The complementary research uses several mathematically focused instruments we have developed to assess the effects of the curricular intervention on preschool children’s mathematical knowledge in years one and two and long-term outcomes of the pre-kindergarten mathematics intervention in years three and four. These instruments are expected to be more sensitive to changes in the breadth of preschool children’s mathematical thinking than the national evaluation instruments. Mathematical supports in the classroom and home will also be assessed using mathematically focused instruments. The short-term effects of the pre-kindergarten mathematics intervention will be examined in a set of intent-to-treat analyses. Hierarchical linear modeling will be used to analyze child math outcomes over time. Qualitative analysis will also be used to reveal relatively subtle developmental change in children’s mathematical knowledge such as shifts in the types of strategies children use to solve types of mathematical problems. Our findings will guide future-informed choices regarding adoption and implementation of mathematics curricula, as well as professional development efforts.
This project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. Prentice Starkey is the principal investigator.
