The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education

项目摘要 这项研究的总体目标是确定解释公共政策的短期积极影响的机制。 幼儿园前（pre-k）对低收入儿童的教育和健康结果的影响，并研究途径 在早期教育（1 - 4年级）中保持积极的短期影响，以指导可采取行动的决定， 改善弱势儿童的教育和健康。我们专注于儿童的自我调节技能（例如， 注意力;冲动控制;记忆;计划）和公共学前班的特点，支持他们的 发展是将学前教育与教育和保健成果联系起来的机制的主要候选者， (a)自我调节技能已被经验证明是教育和健康成果的基础， 儿童期及以后;（B）经济逆境损害了大脑区域的发展， 自我调节技能的形成;以及（c）自我调节技能在幼儿期是可塑的，因此 对前k和早期基本环境的变化敏感。这项为期7年的纵向研究在 塔尔萨公立学校（TPS）区，那里有一个全国公认的学前教育项目， 低收入和高度多样化的儿童群体。我们正在跟踪一组低收入家庭的孩子 2016年3岁进入学前班，到4年级;儿童（N» 1，200）目前在2年级。在 每个项目年，我们评估儿童的自我调节，教育和健康结果，观察他们的 教室，并采访他们的老师和家长。截至2020年2月，我们获得了有关速度的数据， 根据我们提出的时间轴和具体目标， 一年级教师完成了调查; 92%的抽样儿童在一年级秋季接受了评估）。的 拟议的行政补充对实现我们纵向研究的主要目标至关重要， 由于COVID-19大流行，TPS地区转向远程学习。有两个问题至关重要。一是我们 无法按计划对重点儿童进行亲自评估，但结果评估出现重大停顿 这将严重损害我们评估结果的逐级增长的能力，这是核心， 了解学前教育的持续影响。第二，学校关闭和移动到家庭为基础的距离 学习极大地改变了儿童的教育环境和经历， 很可能是相当可变的-对他们的学习和发展的影响。为了了解这些影响， 意外事件对我们研究的影响，并尽量减少对我们原始数据收集的有害后果 时间轴和目标，我们必须：（1）调查儿童的父母和教师的教育经验， 这种远程学习环境，以支持对COVID-19不同后果的解释 对儿童教育和健康成长模式的反应，以及（2）改变以前计划的亲自儿童 评估-关键的研究结果变量-支持远程管理的在线格式。的 补充将使我们能够解决这些基本步骤，以保持研究的完整性。

Project Summary The overarching goals of the study are to identify mechanisms that explain positive short-term effects of public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) on low-income children’s education and health outcomes, and to examine pathways for sustaining positive short-term effects into early schooling (1st – 4th grade) to guide actionable decisions to improve education and health for vulnerable young children. We focus on children’s self-regulatory skills (e.g., attention; impulse control; memory; planning) and the public pre-k classroom features that support their development as prime candidates for mechanisms linking pre-k with education and health outcomes because (a) self-regulatory skills have been empirically documented to underlie education and health outcomes in childhood and beyond; (b) economic adversity compromises the development of brain regions underlying emerging self-regulatory skills; and (c) self-regulatory skills are malleable during early childhood and thus sensitive to variation in pre-k and early elementary environments. The 7-year longitudinal study takes place in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) district, which hosts a nationally recognized pre-k program that serves a largely low-income and highly diverse population of children. We are following a single cohort of low-income children who entered preschool at age 3 in 2016, through 4th grade; the children (N»1,200) are currently in 2nd grade. In each project year, we assess the children’s self-regulatory, education, and health outcomes, observe their classrooms, and interview their teachers and parents. Through February 2020, we had obtained data on pace with our proposed timeline and Specific Aims, at very high response rates (e.g. 100% of sampled children’s first grade teachers completed surveys; 92% of sample children were assessed in the fall of first grade). The proposed administrative supplement is vital to addressing the key aims of our longitudinal study, following the TPS district’s shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two issues are paramount. First, our focal children cannot be assessed in person as planned, yet a significant pause in outcome assessments would seriously compromise our ability to assess grade-by-grade growth in outcomes, which is central to understanding sustained pre-k impacts. Second, school closures and the move to home-based distance learning has dramatically altered children’s educational environments and experiences, with unknown – and likely quite variable – repercussions for their learning and development. To understand the impact these unanticipated events have on our study, and to minimize harmful consequences for our original data collection timeline and aims, we must: (1) survey children’s parents and teachers about their educational experiences in this remote learning environment to support interpretation of differential consequences of the COVID-19 response for children’s education and health growth patterns, and (2) shift previously planned in-person child assessments – key study outcome variables – to online formats that support remote administration. The supplement would allow us to address these essential steps to maintain study integrity.