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Exploring Preschool Participation: What Are Benefits for Students From Rural and Urban Communities in the Midwest?

Sat, April 6, 12:20 to 1:50pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 200 Level, Room 205A

Abstract

Preschool programming supports student’s school readiness (Yoshikawa, Weiland & Brooks-Gunn, 2016). Not all students, however, experience preschool prior to kindergarten entry. It is critical to understand the benefits afforded to children who attend preschool or, contrarily, the academic and social-emotional impact of not attending preschool over time, as children enter and progress through Kindergarten. This study explores the association of preschool participation to outcomes at the beginning and end of kindergarten for children in rural and urban Midwestern communities. Grounded in ecological-systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), positing the importance of immediate and distal environments and their influence on learning, the study will also investigate classroom quality and implications for student achievement.
Specifically, this paper will investigate, for preschool attenders vs. non-attenders:
• What is the school readiness status of students upon entry into Kindergarten?
• What is the achievement status of students at the end of Kindergarten?
• How does kindergarten classroom quality relate to student growth?
The 356 students in this study (Table 1) were enrolled in 161 kindergarten classrooms (10 urban, 18 rural districts) in a Midwestern state, including 252 students who attended and 104 students who did not attend a center-based preschool program for at least 10 hours/week.
Student’s social skills were assessed via parent-report using the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008), a standardized measure assessing problem behaviors and social skills. The Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT; Williams, 2007) was administered to students to acquire a standardized direct measure of expressive language and word retrieval. Quality of classroom experiences was assessed via the CLASS (Pianta, La Paro & Hamre, 2008) domains of Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
A 3-level (student [L1], classrooms [L2], schools [L3]) partially nested random intercept model controlling for setting, child gender, and child age yielded differences between attenders and non-attenders in school readiness skills at kindergarten entry. There was a significant attender effect on social skills in which parents reported significantly greater social skills for attenders (M=110.5; SD=12.8) than non-attenders (M=107.1; SD=13.0) (d=0.37). There was no effect of attender status on problem behaviors. There was a significant attender effect on expressive vocabulary in which preschool attenders (M=99.2; SD=14.9) demonstrated significantly greater expressive vocabulary at kindergarten entry than non-attenders (M=91.4; SD=22.6) (d=0.48). Data on students’ skills at the end of kindergarten and analyses of the association of kindergarten classroom quality to student’s skill growth for attenders and non-attenders also will be presented.
Analyses of student’s school readiness indicate that participation in preschool benefits early learning. This research will explore the trajectory of skill development across the kindergarten year. We will report the growth in skills for preschool attenders and non-attenders as it relates to variability in classroom instruction and setting (rural/urban). Findings have implications for research and policy; data will highlight the value of expanding access to preschool for students in rural and urban communities. Evidence of ecological factors (e.g., classroom quality and community setting) must be explored to understand the sustained benefits of preschool and optimize student outcomes.

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