Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness: The Roles of Second Step Early Learning Curriculum and Social Emotional, Executive Functioning, Preschool Academic and Task Behavior Skills

Autor/inn/en	Wenz-Gross, Melodie; Yoo, Yeonsoo; Upshur, Carole C.; Gambino, Anthony J.
Titel	Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness: The Roles of Second Step Early Learning Curriculum and Social Emotional, Executive Functioning, Preschool Academic and Task Behavior Skills
Quelle	9 (2018), Artikel 1886 (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	Weitere Informationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Low Income Students; Achievement Gap; At Risk Students; Executive Function; Social Development; Emotional Development; Academic Ability; Preschool Education; Preschool Children; Kindergarten; School Readiness; Preschool Curriculum; Minority Group Students; Interpersonal Competence; Emergent Literacy; Language Skills; Mathematics Skills; Time on Task; Program Effectiveness; Achievement Tests; Student Characteristics; Family Characteristics; Massachusetts; Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Soziale Entwicklung; Gefühlsbildung; Pre-school education; Vorschulerziehung; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschule; Readiness for school; School ability; Schulreife; Interpersonale Kompetenz; Frühleseunterricht; Language skill; Sprachkompetenz; Mathmatics achievement; Mathematics ability; Mathematische Kompetenz; Zeitaufwand; Achievement test; Achievement; Testing; Test; Tests; Leistungsbeurteilung; Leistungsüberprüfung; Leistung; Testdurchführung; Testen; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	Efforts to improve the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers has led to the development of classroom interventions and curricula to increase executive functioning (EF) and social-emotional skills (SE), thought to be foundational for learning. The Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) curriculum is a commercially available curriculum designed to improve school readiness by building EF and SE skills. However, although widely used, it has not been widely studied. Modeling SSEL's underlying theory of change, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to longitudinally examine the effects of the curriculum on low-income preschool children's kindergarten school readiness through the hypothesized mediating role of EF and SE skills in improving pre-academic skills and task behavior in preschool. In a cluster randomized trial, 972 children attending 63 preschool classrooms within 13 low-income Head Start or community preschools were individually tested at the beginning (T1) and end of preschool (T2, n = 770) and followed into kindergarten (T3, n = 526). Children's average age at T1 was 53 months, with 51% male, 42% Anglo-American, 26% African-American, and 40% Hispanic-American. Children's executive functioning, social skills, pre-literacy/language, and pre-math skills were assessed by trained child assessors blind to study conditions at T1 and T2. Assessors also rated children's task behavior in the testing situation at T1 and T2. School records of children's kindergarten screening scores were obtained on 345 children at T3. It was expected that SSEL would improve children's SE and EF skills, and that these skills would lead to better preschool academic skills and on-task behavior, which in turn would result in better kindergarten readiness. We found no direct effects of SSEL on either pre-academic or on-task behavior outcomes in preschool, or on later kindergarten readiness. However, SSEL significantly increased EF, and as expected by SSEL's theory of change, growth in EF predicted gains in both pre-academics (pre-math and pre-literacy/language skills), and on-task behavior in preschool. End-of-year pre-academic skills and on task behavior in turn predicted better kindergarten readiness. Further, SE (although not impacted by SSEL) had direct and indirect effects on kindergarten readiness. Thus, overall, our findings largely support SSEL's theory of change, particularly in relation to EF. (As Provided).
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01