1-087 - Improving Social-Emotional Development through Scaling Up Preschool Interventions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

of small-scale efforts aimed at improving children’s social and emotional development by supporting preschool teachers have emerged over the last decade, it remains an open question about whether such programs will “work” when conducted at scale, in programs serving large proportions of low-income children. This panel will offer new information that substantially advances this evidence base. The first paper provides key contextual information by discussing the history of social-emotional interventions and the evidence for their effectiveness. The next two papers will describe the just-released findings from the Head Start CARES Demonstration, a large-scale, randomized-control-trial of three different programs aimed at children’s social-emotional development across a nationally-dispersed group of Head Start programs. What is unique about this study is that it simultaneously tested three theoretically-distinct programs, using a rigorous design across a diverse set of Head Start programs. The second paper will present detailed information on the impacts of the three programs on teacher practices and classroom climate, important mediating mechanisms of these interventions, while the third paper will present the impacts on children’s social-emotional outcomes. Improving children’s social-emotional development is currently a primary focus of Head Start, and this panel contributes key information to inform this effort. At the same time, this panel advances developmental theory by providing information on key levers of change in teacher practices and classroom climate that can result in improvements in the social and emotional development of young children.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• J. Lawrence Aber, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Enriching Head Start to Promoting Social-Emotional Development - Presenting Author: Karen L Bierman, Penn State University

• Targeting Teacher Practice & Classroom Climate via Social-Emotional Preschool Interventions: Findings from Head Start CARES - Presenting Author: Shira Kolnik Mattera, MDRC; Nina Castells, MDRC; Pamela Morris, New York University

• Improving the Social-Emotional Development of Children through Preschool Interventions: Findings from Head Start CARES - Presenting Author: Pamela Morris, New York University; Shira Kolnik Mattera, MDRC; Nina Castells, MDRC