Sustained Effects of the Child-Parent Centers in Chicago and the Midwest Expansion

• In Event: 1-050 - As the Twig is Bent...Sustained Effects of Contemporary Public PreK Programs

Integrative Statement

Early childhood programs demonstrating sustained positive effects and high economic returns have shown six common elements: (a) low child-to-staff ratios (under 18 to 2), (b) intensive focus on language and literary within a whole-child, developmental philosophy, (c) comprehensive family services, (d) BA-level teachers and/or compensation competitive with schools, (e) frequent monitoring and feedback, and a (f) supportive organizational context of implementation. The Child-Parent Centers (CPC) in the Chicago Public Schools is one of the programs with these elements and sustained impacts. Title I-funded and the oldest public preschool after Head Start, CPC is a contemporary program that is feasible to scale. Until 2012, however, the program had not been scaled to diverse populations or expanded outside of Chicago.

In this study, we (1) analyze the effects of the original CPC cohort in the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), (2) assess whether the current program expansion in Chicago and Saint Paul (MN)—three decades after the CLS—yields similar effects through 3rd grade, and (3) identify the program elements most responsible for gains.

Program, Design, and Data

The CPC program in the CLS (Reynolds, 2000; Reynolds & Ou, 2011) and Midwest Expansion in Chicago and Saint Paul (Midwest Longitudinal Study [MLS; Reynolds et al., 2016a]) implemented beginning in 2012 (on-going) are operationally similar in that a leadership team runs the program to provide intensive learning in small classes from preschool to 3rd grade (Reynolds et al. 2016b). Among revisions, full-day prek is offered and on-site coaching and monitoring is more intensive. For both program studies, a matched-group quasi-experimental design was implemented for 1,539 (CLS) and 3,129 (MLS) students (Table 1). On-going longitudinal data on school readiness, parent involvement, and 3rd grade reading and math achievement were compared and lasting effects to age-35 are reported in the CLS. Recovery rates exceed 80%.

Results

MLS CPC preschool services were implemented with high quality and yielded practically significant effects on school readiness in Chicago (d = .48 SD) and Saint Paul (d = .40). These were comparable to the CLS CPC (d = .63), especially after considering that the entire comparison group in MLS enrolled in district preschool (only 15% did in CLS). These results demonstrate effective program scale up. Effects on parent involvement in school also were similar between studies and gains were sustained in kindergarten through 3rd grade benchmark achievement (ds = [.24, MLS; .28, CLS]). CPC CLS impacts continued up to age 35 in higher rates of earned AA/BA degree and greater earnings (Table 1). MLS analysis showed that as more elements were implemented, especially small classes, the greater the sustained gains. Further analysis of cohorts will be reported.

Conclusion

In the first scale up of one of the most effective early childhood programs, CPC showed positive effects up to 3rd grade thereby supporting generalizability of CLS findings from a 30-year cohort study. Small classes (<18) in preschool were associated with greater gains, and a Saint Paul cost-saving measure that leadership teams serve two sites rather than one showed good results. Further expansion in Normal (IL), Rochester (MN), and Madison (WI) will be assessed.

Authors

• Arthur J Reynolds, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Brandt A Richardson, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suh-Ruu Ou, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sangyoo Lee, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author