The High 5s Program: Aligning Children’s Math Experiences through Facilitated, Small Group Math Clubs

• In Event: 3-200 - Kindergarten Transition and Context: Factors that Influence the Effects of Pre-k Programs

Integrative Statement

Instructional practices in kindergarten often differ from the pedagogy and instructional content offered to children in their preschool experiences. Observations of kindergarten classrooms in New York City, for example, suggest that kindergarten math instruction tends to be didactic, delivered in a whole group setting or with students working individually at their seats, and involves somewhat limited opportunities for hands-on learning (Jacob et al., 2018). Preschool classrooms on the other hand, tend to offer more child-centered, hands-on, small group learning opportunities. This lack of alignment may matter both for how well children learn in kindergarten and for how they maintain skills achieved in preschool. A lack of alignment between preschool and later schooling experiences has been proposed as a potential reason for the fade-out of effects from preschool programming.

The High 5s small group math clubs, developed at the University of Michigan with the help of MDRC and Doug Clements and Julie Sarama, were designed to provide alignment between preschool and kindergarten math, in terms of both content and pedagogy, for children who had been exposed to a high quality math curriculum in preschool. High 5s offered hands-on, interactive experiences designed to develop children’s math skills in four critical areas: numbers and operations, geometry, patterning, and measurement. The program was designed as a follow-on to the larger Making Pre-K Count initiative, which provided pre-K classrooms in NYC with a high-quality math curriculum (Building Blocks) and ongoing teacher training and coaching. A total of 24 facilitators - most recent college graduates with limited formal teaching experience - administered the program to over 300 children in 24 NYC public schools during the 2015-2016 school year. Clubs took place during non-instructional time (before school, after school, or during lunch). Each club typically included four children and one facilitator and met three times a week for 30 minutes throughout the school year.

The implementation and impact of the High 5s program was evaluated through a random assignment study. Implementation of the High 5s clubs went well, with strong student attendance and fidelity to the program model. Above and beyond the pre-k math program, the High 5s program closed almost a fifth (18%) of the math achievement gap between low-income children and their peers on one of two measures of math achievement (ES = 0.19) as shown in Figure 1. When compared to receiving no math enhancement in pre-k or kindergarten, the effect of both years of aligned, enhanced math opportunities (Making Pre-K Count in pre-k and High 5s in kindergarten) was equivalent to closing over a quarter (29%) of the math achievement gap between low-income children and their higher-income peers on one of two measures of math achievement (ES = 0.30).

This study demonstrates the potential for aligned, small group instruction to make a difference in children’s kindergarten outcomes. The High 5s clubs helped improve children’s kindergarten math skills and when combined with similar activities in pre-k, substantially closed the achievement gap. More work is needed to examine how to adapt these High 5s style activities to support in-classroom instructional practices.

Authors

• Shira Mattera, MDRC
  Presenting Author

• Robin Jacob, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Pamela A. Morris, New York Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author