Description
Book SynopsisThe questions of whether preschool children benefi t more strongly when early care and education (ECE) is at or above a threshold of quality, has specifi c quality features, and/or is of longer duration were examined in secondary data analyses of eight large ECE studies. These issues are pivotal in recent ECE policies designed to improve school readiness skills, especially for children from low-income families. Threshold analyses examined whether quality had stronger associations with gains in child outcomes in settings with high levels of quality than those with lower quality. Features analyses considered whether specific measures of instruction and of teacher-child interaction were more predictive of gains than global quality measures. Dosage analyses tested whether the amount of in ECE settings or in instruction in specific content areas predicted child outcomes. Threshold analyses provided some evidence for thresholds in measures of instructional quality in relation to reading a
Table of Contents
QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION: SECONDARY DATA ANALYSES OF CHILD OUTCOMES
CONTENTS
I. QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN EARLY CARE AND 7
EDUCATION: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
Martha Zaslow, Rachel Anderson, Zakia Redd, Julia Wessel, Paula Daneri, Katherine Green, Elizabeth W. Cavadel, Louisa Tarullo,
Margaret Burchinal, and Ivelisse Martinez-Beck
II. QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN 27
EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION: METHODS
Margaret Burchinal, Yange Xue, Anamarie Auger, Hsiao-Chuan Tien, Andrew Mashburn, Elizabeth W. Cavadel, and Ellen Peisner-Feinberg
III. TESTING FOR QUALITY THRESHOLDS AND FEATURES 46
IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION
Margaret Burchinal, Yange Xue, Anamarie Auger, Hsiao-Chuan Tien, Andrew Mashburn, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Elizabeth W. Cavadel,
Martha Zaslow, and Louisa Tarullo
IV. TESTING FOR DOSAGE-OUTCOME ASSOCIATIONS IN 64
EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION
Yange Xue, Margaret Burchinal, Anamarie Auger, Hsiao-Chuan Tien, Andrew Mashburn, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Elizabeth W. Cavadel,
Martha Zaslow, and Louisa Tarullo
V. QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN EARLY CARE 75
AND EDUCATION: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Martha Zaslow, Margaret Burchinal, Louisa Tarullo, and Ivelisse Martinez-Beck
REFERENCES 88
APPENDIX 95
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 99
COMMENTARY
REFLECTIONS ON QUALITY AND DOSAGE OF PRESCHOOL AND CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT 100
Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal and Portia Miller
CONTRIBUTORS 114
STATEMENT OF EDITORIAL POLICY 118
SUBJECT INDEX 120
