Factors in Persistence Versus Fadeout of Early Childhood Intervention Impacts

摘要 本项目旨在了解成功的幼儿学校是否、对谁以及如何产生影响 在儿童的整个发展过程中持续进行准备干预。过去看似矛盾的发现 关于所谓的淡出激励这个项目。我们的第一个目标是评估两个早期的长期影响， 在北卡罗来纳州大规模实施的儿童干预措施。我们将估计治疗的影响 更多在四（MF）幼儿园前（pre-k）干预计划和智能启动（SS）倡议的关键 青春期的健康、教育和幸福结果（例如，高中毕业，少女怀孕）。 MF是一项针对低收入儿童的高质量学前教育计划，根据入学人数在个人层面进行衡量 在社区一级，作为国家对15个州的100个县的人均拨款， 年这笔资金已分配给100多万名儿童。逐步推出MF和准随机 差异导致了独立于儿童的不同年份和县之间的资金差异 特色SS向各县提供资金，以提高儿童保育、健康检查的质量和可及性， 以及为所有从出生到5岁的儿童提供的其他服务。SS是使用相同的逐步推出来实现的， 用于MF的资助公式，但在不同的年份，提供独立的随机变化方案 access.当我们测试长期影响时，我们还将测试效应大小是否随家庭收入而变化， 种族、双语学习状况和其他特征。我们的第二个目标是检验假设， 影响效应的大小随孩子进入的学校环境而变化，称为持续环境 假说.我们假设那些经历过入学准备干预的孩子， 进入可持续的环境（例如，准备学习或有能力学习的同学比例较高的教室 经验丰富的早期干预，受过促进学习培训的任课教师）将有 持久的效果（缓和效果）。第三个目的是检验持续环境假设 通过在积木（BB）数学干预研究中的实验操作。BB Pre-K 数学课程侧重于算术和几何/空间推理。2005年，波士顿的42所学校和 布法罗和1,375名儿童被随机分配到三个条件之一：（1）BB;（2）BB加小学 学校教师培训，以支持早期影响的持续性;或（3）控制（学前班照常）。我们将添加 对儿童随后的同伴、课堂和学校环境以及青少年成果的衡量， 为了验证这一假设，即BB计划在实施后具有更持久的效果， 可持续的环境。最终目的是整合研究结果，得出可推广的结论 关于早期干预的影响在整个发展过程中持续存在或逐渐消失的情况， 发展科学家和教育政策制定者。

ABSTRACT This project seeks to understand whether, for whom, and how the effects of successful early childhood school readiness interventions are sustained across a child’s development. Past seemingly contradictory findings about so-called fadeout motivate this project. Our first aim will assess the long-run effects of two early childhood interventions implemented at scale in North Carolina. We will estimate the treatment impacts of the More at Four (MF) pre-kindergarten (pre-k) intervention program and the Smart Start (SS) Initiative on key health, education, and well-being outcomes during adolescence (e.g., high school graduation, teen pregnancy). MF is a high-quality pre-k program for low-income children, measured at the individual level by enrollment and at the community level as funding allocations per capita by the state to each of 100 counties in each of 15 years. This funding was allocated to over one million children. Gradual rollout of MF and quasi-random variations led to sizeable differences in funding across years and counties that are independent of child characteristics. SS provides funding to counties to improve quality and access to child care, health screenings, and other services for all children from birth to age 5. SS was implemented using the same gradual rollout and funding formula used for MF, but in different years, providing independent random variation in program access. As we test long-run impact, we will also test whether effect sizes vary as a function of family income, ethnicity, dual-language learning status, and other characteristics. Our second aim will test the hypothesis that the impact effect size varies with the school environment that a child enters, called the Sustaining Environment hypothesis. We hypothesize that children who experience a school readiness intervention and are then placed into a sustaining environment (e.g., classroom with higher proportion of peers who are ready to learn or have experienced the early intervention, classroom teacher who has been trained to promote learning) will have longer-lasting effects (a moderation effect). The third aim is to test the Sustaining Environment hypothesis through experimental manipulation in the Building Blocks (BB) mathematics intervention study. The BB pre-k math curriculum focuses on numeracy and geometric/spatial reasoning. In 2005, 42 schools in Boston and Buffalo with 1,375 children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) BB; (2) BB plus elementary school teacher training to support persistence of early impact; or (3) control (pre-k as usual). We will add measures of the child's subsequent peer, classroom, and school environments, as well as adolescent outcomes, to test the hypothesis that the BB program has longer-lasting effects when implemented with a subsequent sustaining environment. The final aim is to integrate findings across studies to reach generalizable conclusions about the circumstances in which early intervention has impacts that persist or fade across development, for both development scientists and education policy makers.