National Institute for Early Education Research
National Institute for Early Education Research
Yearbook

June 26, 2020 – Volume 19, Issue 25

By No Comments
Hot Topics
Study: The Educare Intervention: Outcomes at Age 3
A randomized trial evaluated the effects of Educare, a center-based early education program designed to provide high quality experiences, on children’s learning and development at age 3. They found “significant differences in favor of children in the treatment group on auditory language skills, early math skills, and parent-reported problem behaviors.” However, comparisons with children in the control group who attended other centers between ages 2 and 3 found no significant advantages for Educare, a stunning and “unexpected” finding.
Special Report: How Will The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Pre-K?
State revenues lag the economy, so state budget woes will likely worsen before they improve. Some states have already proposed—and others have even enacted—budget cuts over the pandemic-induced recession’s impact on revenue.
What does this mean to state preschool programs?
NIEER’s Karin Garver looks back at the Great Recession’s impact on state pre-K in a new special report, How Will The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Pre-K?, for clues on what may await high-quality preschool programs.
Publication: Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education
The Foundation for Child Development has released a new publication, Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education. “The publication provides insights into the value of including implementation research in the study of early care and education (ECE) interventions and its potential to improve programs and policies and achieve stronger outcomes for all young children.” It addresses three key questions: “What does research tell us about the effectiveness and implementation of ECE programs across the birth to 8 continuum? What still needs to be understood? How do we get smarter in designing future research directions and approaches?”
NIEER Activities
Moving New Jersey Schools Forward Amid COVID-19
NIEER is among several organizers behind Moving New Jersey Forward Amid COVID-19. Through weekly webinars, the initiative seeks to support the development of school district planning that responds to the challenges of COVID-19.
On Thursday, Dr. Penelope Lattimer, Former Assistant Commissioner of the NJ Department of Education, interviewed Dr. Scott Rocco, Superintendent of the Hamilton Township School district about the information schools need to have in order to make informed decisions about reopening schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first session, “What Schools Need To Know About COVID-19 in Children,” featuring Lawrence C. Kleinman, MD, MPH, FAAP is available online. Future topics include how other states and countries have reopened (or plan to reopen) schools, what we can learn from child care, legal issues, human resources, transportation, budget implications, PPE, parent concerns, teacher and staff concerns, and more.
School districts must plan to meet the educational needs of children with considerable uncertainty and fast-moving changes in knowledge regarding COVID-19. This forum offers access to the latest information including successful examples from other states and countries, support for the use of data in planning and continuous improvement of practice, and a way for district leaders to learn from each other how best to move forward.
Forum organizers are longtime New Jersey school leaders Penelope Lattimer, Kimberley Marcus, and Michael Salvatore with Rutgers Professor and NIEER Senior Co-Director, Steven Barnett.
Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education
Drs. Milagros Nores and Sharon Ryan authored chapters in the Foundation for Child Development’s new publication, Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education.
In Chapter 11, The Contributions of Qualitative Research to Understanding Implementation of Early Childhood Policies and Programs, Dr. Ryan sets out the ways in which “qualitative studies examining implementation of early childhood programs can provide practical information to help policymakers and leaders understand why early childhood programs do or do not fulfill their promise… by paying attention to the local and contextual.” She sets out a research agenda including mixed-methods research at scale and focusing on investigations of multiple levels of early childhood systems, the inclusion of multiple stakeholders, and issues of equity including those relating the workforce.
In Chapter 12, Equity as a Perspective for Implementation Research in the Early Childhood Field, Dr. Nores contends that “addressing equity in research implies capturing the extent to which programs, policies, and interventions reduce or increase inequities, validly defining inequities in relation to the context and the disadvantages that participants in programs face, and taking care that the research process itself does not introduce biases. All of this is of central importance in the context of current ECED policies that aim to reduce inequities and disadvantages before kindergarten entry.”
ECE Research
A new report released by Foresight Law + Policy, Early Childhood Governance: Getting There from Here, examines “governance in the early childhood field with the goal of supporting a field-wide improvement strategy.” Informed by stakeholders from the field, the report identifies a number of key questions that states should address when examining their governance structures and provides some key considerations that should be taken into account when answering them. The report is accompanied by a short decision guide, found here.
Foresight Law + Policy will also be hosting a virtual discussion of the report on Wednesday, July 1st at 3:00 PM ET. Register here.
Researchers examined “the effect of parent vs. experimenter storytelling–reading on fixation time on print among 4–6-year-old preschoolers.” They suggest that “joint storytelling with a parent promotes print awareness, an important factor in developing literacy and reading skills, and thus further emphasizes the importance of parent–child joint storytelling.”
A new systematic review examines “the influence of mobile technologies on pre-kindergarten-5th grade students’ literacy achievement.” The study authors provide “mobile device and app use strategies for teachers, while mapping clear research pathways for educational researchers and digital designers, with the ultimate goal of advancing the use of mobile technology to improve children’s literacy achievement.”
In a systematic review of studies involving mobile devices in PK-12 (2–18 years) learning, researchers found “that while mobile technologies can and were used to transform learning in 54% of the studies, 46% of the time devices were used to replicate activities that can be conducted without technology.” Implications for both research and practice are discussed. They also indicate “a large increase in the number of studies conducted in PK settings.”
In a new study, researchers “identified a potential neural marker of preschool internalizing problems.” They found that “children with larger LPPs
[Late Positive Potential] to unpleasant images may be at greater risk of internalizing problems, potentially due to an increased emotional reactivity.” Researchers discuss areas for further research.
Early Education News Round-up
The week’s key stories on early childhood education. Read now.
Events
Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education, Virtual Launch
Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 2:00 – 3:30 PM ET, register here.
Collaborating to Support Education Research, Webinar
Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET, register here.
Early Childhood Governance: Getting There from Here, Paper Release
Wednesday, July 1, 2020, 3:00 ET, register here.