Strengthening Parenting Capacities in Pre-K to Improve Social-Behavioral Readiness and Later School Outcomes

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Like many urban school districts, about half of Baltimore City Public Schools' (BCPS) students enter kindergarten without key social and behavioral skills needed to learn. These skills include the ability to follow instructions, comply with rules, manage emotions, solve problems, organize and complete tasks, and get along with others. Children without these skills are at greater risk for being retained in grade, requiring special education services, or being suspended or expelled during the early elementary school years. To improve students' social-behavioral readiness to learn, we partnered in 2014 with BCPS to implement the ChiPP Project, a 3-year initiative to strengthen parenting capacities and skill in Pre-Kindergarten (PreK) in 12 schools serving a large population of economically disadvantaged students of color (>90% low-income; >90% African American or Latino). PreK parents participated in a 12-session evidence-based parenting program called the Chicago Parent Program at their child's school. To boost participation rates, we added conditional cash transfers (CCT) providing financial incentives via bank debit cards for attendance and “homework” completion. Short-term effects were strong; parent participation and satisfaction rates were high in this vulnerable population of families and the number of students with clinically significant behavior problems dropped by 37%. Parents used the CCTs to purchase food and basic necessities for their children. This study proposes to examine whether the ChiPP Project a) improves students' social-behavioral readiness to learn and reduces their likelihood of being chronically absent in Kindergarten; b) reduces the likelihood of 3 costly school outcomes: being retained in grade, requiring special education services, or being suspended or expelled at least once by 2nd grade; and c) benefits boys, who are at greater risk for all 3 student outcomes, more than girls. Social-behavioral readiness and chronic absence in Kindergarten are hypothesized to mediate the effects of the ChiPP Project on all 3 student outcomes. We will also assess the economic value of the ChiPP Project to schools and to society. Using a quasi-experimental design (n≈1,000 students), we will evaluate the impacts of the ChiPP Project on student outcomes through 2nd grade and on schools' costs. Data on student characteristics and outcomes will be drawn from an existing BCPS administrative database. Propensity score matching will be used to compare intervention students (n=380) with 2 matched comparison groups to control for bias: 1) a non-participating student from the same intervention school and 2) a student from a matched non- participating school. Students will be matched on 8 child-level and 9 school-level variables. This study is significant because it examines short-term benefits and savings that have tangible and immediate effects on schools and families and focuses on high impact outcomes affecting urban schools nationwide. This study uses a cost-efficient strategy for evaluating an innovative program in a district serving a large population of vulnerable students and families.