Building In Quality From the Start

• In Event: 66.045 - The Road to High-Quality Early Care and Education: Lessons Learned in Going to Scale

Abstract

This presentation will describe lessons learned in the expansion of Michigan’s pre-k program from a small $1 million pilot project to a nearly $240 million program serving 38,213 students and reaching 51% of the eligible 4-year-old population. The program’s biggest expansion occurred in 2013 and 2014 when Governor Rick Snyder added $65 million to the budget in two consecutive years, essentially doubling the state’s investment in preschool. The implementation effort that followed made Michigan a national model for rapidly expanding public pre-k while fostering program quality through clear, integrated standards and expectations for learning, measured by a quality rating system that integrates classroom-based support for continuous improvement. The presenter’s perspective on scaling with quality is informed by a significant history of ongoing program evaluation and firsthand management of the program’s growth and longitudinal evaluations.

Since the program’s inception 30 years ago, Michigan has adopted a continuous improvement approach that involves updating standards, rethinking administrative structures, establishing a quality rating and improvement system, and addressing problems identified by program evaluations (Wechsler et al., 2016). Day to day, intermediate school district early childhood administrators partner with specialists who are charged with collecting, interpreting, and providing feedback on classroom data to promote continuous quality improvement.

Since 1994, HighScope Educational Research Foundation has conducted a longitudinal evaluation of the program, finding positive short- and long-term effects on program participants (Florian, Schweinhart, & Epstein, 1997; Xiang & Schweinhart, 2002; Malofeeva, Daniel-Echols, & Xiang, 2007; Schweinhart, Xiang, Daniel-Echols, Browning, & Wakabayashi, 2012). Per the evaluation’s design, HighScope invited urban and rural programs that served at least 100 children in the 1995–96 preschool year and that knew that at least 100 additional children were not being served to participate in the study. HighScope observers rated the quality of each participating preschool classroom that year. The next fall, when these children arrived at kindergarten, they were paired with a comparison group of children who matched their demographic risk profile but had not been to any classroom-based preschool program. The cohort consisted of 596 children in 1995-96 (338 graduates and 258 non-graduates) from six districts. The evaluation found that children who attended Michigan’s program had better kindergarten readiness, fewer grade repetitions, and better reading and math proficiency than students who did not attend. In 2012, HighScope released a follow-up report on high school graduation and retention rates, showing that 57.3% of the GSRP group graduated on time, compared to 42.5% of the non-GSRP group, a statistically significant difference (Schweinhart, Xiang, Daniel-Echols, Browning, & Wakabayashi, 2012) Effects were slightly more pronounced for students of color.

When faced with scaling up, programs often have to balance increasing access with maintaining quality. The Michigan pre-k expansion shows how aggressive funding, high quality standards, and intensive professional development can support classrooms, especially in times of rapid growth.

Author

• Lindy Buch, Independent Consultant