Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Nonexperimental but persuasive research suggests that early math may be a key lever to changing children’s later outcomes. Duncan et al. (2007)’s meta-analysis suggests that math skills are the only preschool skills found to predict higher levels of achievement in both elementary-school math and reading. Further, children with persistently low math skills across elementary school are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college than children maintaining higher math skills.          

This cluster-randomized control trial was designed to rigorously test the importance of early math skills by examining teachers’ implementation of Building Blocks (BB), a high-quality math curriculum, combined with extensive training and in-classroom coaching, over a two year implementation period. The sample included a diverse group of 69 preschools housed in public schools and community-based settings in a large, urban school district. Half of the preschools were randomly assigned to receive the math curriculum, alongside training and coaching to support teacher’s delivery of the program, while the other half were assigned to the control group. This presentation examines the implementation of the curriculum, as well as the impacts of the program on teacher math practices and a wide range of child outcomes in preschool during the second year of implementation.

Implementation Findings.Teacher trainings were well-attended (over 80% attendance) and covered the majority of the intended content. Coaching dosage was high, with teachers receiving around 1.5 hours of coaching twice a month. In their second year of implementation, classrooms met previously defined technical assistance benchmarks for three out of four main curricular components (Whole Group, Small Group, and Hands-On Math Centers). Implementation of the fourth component, computers, improved across the year but lagged behind the other three.

            Impact Findings. Using multi-level modeling to account for the nested structure of the data, program impacts were estimated by comparing mean outcomes for the program group to corresponding means for the control group with a regression-adjustment for selected background characteristics and block dummy variables. Across a three-hour observation, assignment to BB resulted in more math instruction (12 additional minutes and nearly 2 more math activities; ES = 0.55 and 1.16) among teachers in program-assigned as compared to control-assigned preschools. These impacts were on top ofwhat was generally observed to be relatively high control group levels of math instruction (35 minutes of teacher-led math instruction), although levels of math instructional quality in both groups were low. Contrary to expectations, teachers assigned to the program group did not demonstrate other positive changes to their instructional quality, however. Impacts on child outcomes, including math, language, and executive function, are forthcoming and will also be presented in this panel.

            Discussion. The implications of scaling up and implementing a comprehensive math intervention in a complex, urban environment will be discussed in light of the impacts. It is possible to change teacher practice on a large scale, with the appropriate supports in place. The presentation will also discuss the implications of the impacts on the program on children’s outcomes.