Child Outcomes18

The CFSRP measures its success in helping children attain ageappropriate developmental, early literacy, and social-emotional skills through consistent use of validated assessments. For younger children, key outcomes are developmental: gross and fine motor skills, as well as communication, problem solving, and personal-social skills. For prekindergarten students, key outcomes are academic and developmental: literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional skills. For all students, social-emotional outcomes are an additional outcome and dimension of childhood development that supports school readiness. Descriptions of the assessments used to measure child outcomes are available in Appendix C.

Each year, to determine the program’s level of success in each of these domains, CFSRP staff set targets for the percent of children developmentally on-target at the end of the year. This evaluation assesses the extent to which these targets are met, as well as the extent to which individual children maintain and/or improve their developmental skills.

INFANTS AND TODDLERS: CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Center teachers administered the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ®-3) to infants and toddlers ages 0-3 to screen for potential developmental concerns. Developmental concerns are identified when a child scores below the cut-off in at least one of the ASQ®-3’s five developmental domains (i.e., problem solving, communication, fine motor, gross motor, and personal-social skills). When developmental concerns are identified, center staff use the screening results to implement individualized instruction in their classrooms and refer families to external support services if the concerns are more severe.

Infants and toddlers were developmentally on target across every developmental outcome domain except for personal-social skills (Table 8). In the aggregate, infants in CFSRP classrooms demonstrated developmental progress in all domains from beginning to end of year (Figure 4); toddlers demonstrated developmental progress in communication, fine motor, and personal-social skills (Figure 5) When considering individual change from beginning (BOY) to end of year (EOY), the majority of infants and toddlers either improved or continued to perform at or above their “real” age in each domain.

18 A description of CFSRP assessments is provided in Appendix C.

*Shaded end of year figures met or exceeded the year’s target.

PREKINDERGARTEN CHILDREN: MATH AND LITERACY

Center teachers administered the CPALLS+ assessment to children ages three-and-a-half through five to assess their listening skills, ability to determine if two words rhyme (rhyming 1), ability to independently present a word that rhymes with a given word (rhyming 2), and early math skills. Rhyming 2 is one of the most challenging skills to master, and many children may not master rhyming 2 skills until they turn five or six years old. For the purposes of the evaluation, the results for four- and five-year-old children (i.e., prekindergarten) are considered.

Prekindergarten children collectively met targets for listening and math, but not for rhyming 1 or 2 (Table 9). However, the percentage of 4- and 5-year-old prekindergarten children meeting the target increased substantially from beginning to end of year across all domains, at least 25% in all listening, rhyming 1, and rhyming 2 (Figure 6).

Prekindergarten students generally fared well on academic outcomes when considering individual change from beginning to end of year, as well. Students showed particularly strong progress in math and listening, where 100% and 92% of students, respectively, improved or maintained acceptable progress by the end of the year (Figure 7).

NO CHANGE: MAKING ACCEPTABLE PROGRESS

NO CHANGE: NEEDS MORE ASSISTANCE

NO CHANGE: MAKING ACCEPTABLE PROGRESS IMPROVED

NO CHANGE: NEEDS MORE ASSISTANCE

DECLINED

ALL AGES: SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Center teachers administered the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) to infant, toddler, and prekindergarten students at CFSRP-supported centers participating at Level 3 and 4.19 The DECA identifies whether children’s social-emotional skills need intervention (need), are within typical range for their age (typical), or exceed the typical range (strength).

The percentage of infants and toddlers in the “strengths” category increased from beginning to end of year, while the percentage of preschool children in the strengths category held steady. The number of infants showing need slightly increased, in contrast to declining need among toddlers and preschool children (Figure 7). From beginning to end of year, 52% of infants, 57% of toddlers, and 55% of prekindergarten students showed improvement in their DECA score.

19 Only 10 of 13 CFSRP-supported Level 3-4 centers were able to successfully administer the DECA in 2020-2021, due to staffing issues and pandemic strains that limited the extent and quality of child assessments. 2020-2021 is the first year in which not all CFSRP centers participated in the DECA assessment.