SUPPORTING 2 AND 3 YEAR OLD PRE-KINDERGARTEN READINESS

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This randomized intervention study will determine whether raising the quality of subsidized childcare programs for 2 and 3-year old children living in poverty will promote greater readiness for pre-Kindergarten (pre-K). We will target language, early literacy, social, and math development by adapting an approach that our research has proven effective with helping low income parents and teachers support young children's development. The study will include 60 classrooms in subsidized childcare settings that serve 2 and 3 year olds and will be carried out in the Houston, TX and Tallahassee, FL areas. Classrooms will be randomized to one of three conditions; 1) "business as usual" control, 2) School Readiness Curriculum with Responsive Practices, 3) School Readiness Curriculum with Responsive Practices plus an explicit social curriculum. Examining the added benefit of a social curriculum will address the ongoing debate regarding whether children need to be taught social skills in addition to responsive caregiving. For each classroom, eight children will be randomly chosen for assessment providing a total sample of 480 children across the three conditions across the five year project. We will determine the intervention impact by examining growth in teacher responsive strategies and use of well-specified curricula and in children's development three times across the intervention and at a 1 yr follow-up (end of pre-K). Using growth modeling analyses, with data from four assessments we will examine for differences in level (intercept) and rate of change (slope), and changes in the rate of growth (curvature) related to the intervention conditions. The importance of responsive teaching techniques for understanding more optimal development will be examined through mediation models and moderators of intervention efficacy also will be determined. Examining the extent to which Project 1 children are more advanced at the end of pre-K when compared to those in Project 2 that did not receive an enhanced early program will further determine the efficacy of the Project 1 intervention.