NCEDL Spotlights
No. 2 August 1998
Quality Care Does Mean Better Child Outcomes |
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| Summary of longitudinal results through
kindergarten from the Cost, Quality and Outcomes Study by the National
Center for Early development & Learning. Authors: Dick Clifford,
Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Mary Culking, Carollee Howes and Sharon Lynn
Kagan. This study involved child care centers in four states and was
conducted from 1993 to 1996. |
Researchers followed a group of children from the time they were 3
years old in preschool through the early elementary years. Data were
collected on how the quality of child care experiences when the children
were 3 affected their language, academic (math and reading), and social
skills through kindergarten. Researchers looked at two aspects of
quality in the preschool year: observed classroom practices and teacher
ratings of their relationship with each child. |
Classroom Quality
- Each year from preschool to kindergarten, children
in preschool classrooms where higher quality practices were
observed had better language skills than children in classrooms
of lower quality.
- Children in classrooms with higher quality practices
also had better math skills over this time.
- Children in higher quality classrooms also had
better reading skills during the first year of preschool, but
there were no differences in reading skills after that.
Teacher Child Closeness
- Each year from preschool to kindergarten, children
with closer relationships to their preschool teachers had better
thinking/attention skills.
- Children with close relationships to their teachers
also were more sociable over this time.
- Children with closer relationships to their preschool
teachers showed fewer problem behaviors--this was especially
true for boys. These children also had better language skills
through kindergarten.
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Key Findings
- Over the 3-year period, child care quality affects
children's development across the range of language, academic,
and social skills.
- The quality of child care matters for all children,
with similar effects for children from
a variety of backgrounds.
- These effects are long term, lasting at least
through kindergarten.
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Why We Did The Study
Children's child care experiences are playing an increasingly important
role in their lives. In the US, about one-third of three- and four-year-olds
with working mothers attend child care centers and this number is
growing. Child care in the US has often been below the standards
for high quality recommended by early childhood professionals. This
leads to questions about the effects of such experiences on children's
development. Our study explored how child care quality in preschool
relates to children's language, academic, and social skill development
through kindergarten.
How the Study Was Conducted
A random sample of 401 child care centers in California, Colorado,
Connecticut, and North Carolina, including about 100 from each state,
was recruited and visited in the spring of 1993. The sample was
limited to centers providing full-time and full-year care, and the
sample included a wide variety of early childhood programs. For
this study, a sub-sample of 170 of these centers was used. Participants
included 826 children in year 1, 560 in year 2, and 448 in year
3. |
| Four different measures of quality were gathered in
each classroom during children's next-to-last preschool year (3-year-old
year), including the classroom environment, teacher sensitivity, child-centeredness,
and teacher responsiveness. A second aspect of child care quality
was measured by teacher ratings of how close their relationship was
with each child. Child outcome measures were gathered in the spring
of each year, for the last two years in preschool and kindergarten.
Individual assessments of children's language, reading, and math skills
were conducted. Teachers rated children's classroom behavior, including
cognitive/attention skills, sociability, and problem behaviors. In
addition, parents provided demographic information, including maternal
education, ethnicity, and family income. |
Policy Implications
- High quality child care can benefit a variety
of skills, including language, academic (math and reading),
social, and thinking/attention skills.
- High quality preschool experiences can help prepare
children for school.
- The need for high quality child care is important
for all children.
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Peisner-Feinberg and Clifford are at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Culkin is at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center, Howes is at the university of California-Los Angeles, and
Kagan is at Yale University.Data derived from the Cost, Quality,
and Outcomes Study, a comprehensive examination of child care costs,
quality and effects on children through the early school years in
four states. This project was funded by grants from the Carnegie
Corp. of New York, the William T. Grant Foundation, the JFM Foundation,
the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the USWEST Foundation, an
anonymous foundation, and the Educational Research and Development
Centers Program as administered by the Office of Educational Research
and Improvements, PR/Award Number R307A60004, US Department of Education.
Contents do not necessarily represent the positions or policies
of the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education,
the Office of Education Research and Improvement, the US Department
of Education, or any of the other sponsoring organizations. NCEDL
is administratively based at UNC-Chapel Hill. This may be reprinted;
we ask that you give credit to the author(s) and the National Center
for Early Development & Learning.
Other articles in the Spotlights Series include
For more information, or to request printed copies contact:
Lloyd Little
UNC-CH CB # 8185
Chapel Hill NC 27599-8185
919-966-0867
loyd_little@unc.edu |
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