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Scaling Family-Centered Pre-Kindergarten to Reduce Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Learning, Behavior, and Health

Mon, April 16, 8:15 to 9:45am, Sheraton New York Times Square, Floor: Second Floor, Empire Ballroom West

Abstract

Background: There is substantial evidence that nurturing relationships and predictable interactions with parents and other caregivers can buffer the impact of poverty-related stressors and adverse childhood experiences. ParentCorps is a family-centered, school-based intervention that aims to help parents and early childhood teachers to create safe, nurturing and predictable environments to ensure that all children develop foundational social, emotional, and behavior regulation skills. ParentCorps is delivered as an enhancement to Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs in schools serving large numbers of low-income children. Intervention includes professional learning for Pre-K teachers and a program offered to all families of Pre-K students, implemented by mental health professionals and teachers. Two cluster randomized trials of ParentCorps found impact on early childhood health and development. ParentCorps impacts academic achievement and mental health problems through second grade. Effects on academic achievement and mental health were observed across the full spectrum of baseline pre-academic and self-regulation skills.

Purpose: As part of ThriveNYC, a citywide, mayoral initiative to support the mental health of all New Yorkers, NYC Pre-K Thrive aims to promote family engagement and social-emotional learning in Pre-K. In collaboration with the Department of Education’s Division of Early Childhood Education (DECE), NYU Langone’s Center for Early Childhood Health and Development is supporting sustainable high-quality implementation of ParentCorps in 50 Pre-K programs, and spreading ParentCorps evidence-based practices to 300 additional Pre-K programs through professional learning for Pre-K program leaders and teachers. In addition, all 1860 Pre-K programs serving nearly 70,000 Pre-K students annually will be supported by professional learning for the entire workforce of 125 DECE social workers and city-wide dissemination of evidence-based tools to promote family engagement and social emotional learning. This paper describes this three-year partnership to implement, evaluate and improve family-centered intervention at scale within the largest urban school district in the country.

Research Design: NYU researchers and practitioners are collaborating with the DOE's Division of Early Childhood Education to conduct two hybrid implementation/effectiveness randomized controlled trials to answer questions critical to the field of early education. These two studies will determine whether ParentCorps delivered at scale by DOE staff results in outcomes observed in the efficacy trials. One study in 23 centers considers the impact of ParentCorps relative to Thrive Professional Learning. The second study in 84 schools considers the impact of ParentCorps relative to Thrive Professional Learning relative to Professional Learning provided by the DOE. These two studies also examine implementation at scale in both center and school contexts in Pre-K programs across NYC. We will characterize implementation quality and implementation contexts, and evaluate what factors predict high-quality implementation and what outcomes (teacher/classroom, parent and child) are predicted by high-quality implementation.

Conclusions: Family-centered Pre-K that incorporates evidence-based practices with teachers, families and children holds great promise for reducing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities.

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