Abecedarian Project
Major Research Projects
Allegiances or attachments: Relationships among infants and their daycare teachers
A study of infants’ social interactions and relationships with alternative caregivers in child care
Reports & Papers
Child Care and Early Education Quality Features, Thresholds and Dosage and Child Outcomes: Study Design (Q-DOT)
This two-and-a-half year design project will examine associations between the quality of early care and education settings and child outcomes, asking whether certain thresholds of quality or dosage need to be met or particular aspects of quality need to be present before links are apparent. The project is intended to provide guidance to ACF, other federal agencies and other stakeholders to guide new research on the quality of early care and education; support quality improvement initiatives and practice; and inform policy decision-making at the state and national levels. The project will focus on center-based settings serving children from birth through age 5, focusing on children from low-income families. The research questions are: (1) What specific features of quality in center-based early care and education for children from birth to age five lead to gains in child outcomes?; (2) Are there thresholds of quality above and below which the strength of the associations between quality and child outcomes differ? For example is there a level of quality above which improvements are associated with accelerated gains in child outcomes?; (3) Is there a minimum threshold of quality necessary to affect child outcomes?; (4) Do greater dosages of quality care lead to greater gains in child outcomes?; (5) How do quality features, thresholds and dosage relate independently to child outcomes? In relation to one another?; (6) How well are existing measures of quality care capturing these thresholds and dosages?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Comparing universal and targeted prekindergarten programs
A comparison of classroom characteristics and preschooler achievement outcomes in universal and targeted pre-k programs based on a sample of over 400 children in over 800 classrooms
Reports & Papers
Competencies and credentials for early childhood educators: What do we know and what do we need to know?
Arguments for the use of professional development programs to improve the quality of child care and early education programs
Other
The complex interplay between biology and environment: Otitis media and mediating effects on early literacy development
An examination of the influence of Otitis media with effusion (OME) on children’s early language and literacy skills, and of the interactive or independent influence of a children’s home and child care environments on early language and literacy acquisition
Other
Cost, quality and child outcomes in child care centers: Executive summary
A summary of findings from a study of the relationship between child care costs and quality and the concurrent effects of child care quality on children's cognitive and socioemotional outcomes, based on data from licensed community childcare sites in Los Angeles County in California, the Hartford corridor in Connecticut, the Frontal range in Colorado, and the Piedmont region in North Carolina
Executive Summary
Cost, quality, and child outcomes in child care centers: Public report
Findings from a study of the relationship between child care costs and quality and the concurrent effects of child care quality on children's cognitive and socioemotional outcomes, based on data from licensed community childcare sites in Los Angeles County in California, the Hartford corridor in Connecticut, the Frontal range in Colorado, and the Piedmont region in North Carolina
Reports & Papers
The Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers Study
A longitudinal study of the relationships between children's experiences in center-based care and school and their social, emotional and cognitive outcomes
Major Research Projects
Cost, quality and child outcomes in child care centers: Technical report
An outline of the structure and design of the Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers Study, with descriptive comparisons of the centers from which data was drawn, and a presentation of analytic study results
Reports & Papers
Early care and education quality and child outcomes
An overview of research on the relationship of child care and early education quality to children's cognitive, social, and academic development
Fact Sheets & Briefs
Early intervention and long-term predictors of school status
A longitudinal study of the effects of early intervention education for at-risk children beginning in infancy on long term schooling, using data from the Carolina Abecedarian Project
Reports & Papers
The effects of Smart Start on the quality of preschool child care
A study of the effects of a broad-based community initiative, Smart Start, to improve the quality of preschool child care between 1994 and 1996
Reports & Papers
Empirical approaches to strengthening the measurement of quality: Issues in the development and use of quality measures in research and applied settings
A discussion of obstacles to the development and improvement of tools to assess and measure quality in early childhood education and care programs
Other
How well do our measures of quality predict child outcomes?: A meta-analysis and coordinated analysis of data from large-scale studies of early childhood settings
An examination of the accuracy of quality assessments in the prediction of child outcomes, based on secondary analyses of 25 studies on the relation of child care environment to children's outcomes
Reports & Papers
Language skills of children with different preschool experiences
A study of the effects of a language-enriched child care program on the language skills of children three months to five years of age from socioeconomically disadvantaged families
Reports & Papers
Maternal employment, child care, and cognitive outcomes
A discussion of the controversies among professionals of the impact of early group care on young children’s development
Reports & Papers
National Center for Early Development and Learning Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten, 2001-2003
The National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten examined the pre-kindergarten programs of six states: California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, and Georgia. For this study, pre-kindergarten (pre-k) included center-based programs for four-year-olds that are fully or partially funded by state education agencies and that are operated in schools or under the direction of state and local education agencies.
The study had two primary purposes:
1) To describe the variations of experiences for children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs in school-related settings (public schools and state-funded pre-k classrooms in community-based settings).
2) To examine the relationships between variations in pre-kindergarten/kindergarten experiences and children's outcomes in early elementary school.
The above information pertains to the Main Child Level Public-use version and the Main Child Level Restricted-use version. From these main datasets, subsets were created at the classroom level for Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K Classroom Level Public-use version and Pre-K Classroom Level Restricted-use version) and for Kindergarten (Kindergarten Classroom Level Public-use version and Kindergarten Classroom Level Restricted-use version).
Data Sets
Preschool center quality and school readiness: Quality effects and variation by demographic and child characteristics
An examination of the relationship between preschool center quality and children's school readiness, and the moderating role of child entry demographic background, cognitive skills, attention skills, and problem behaviors on that relationship, based on data from approximately 6,250 3- to 5-year-olds from four large-scale child care studies
Reports & Papers
Quality Interventions for Early Care and Education (QUINCE) -- Partners for Inclusion, 2004-2007 [California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina]
The Quality Interventions for Early Care and Education Partnership for Inclusion (QUINCE-PFI) study is one half of a multistate study of two assessment based, individualized on-site consultation models. The Partnerships for Inclusion (PFI) consultation model, was implemented in California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Carolina and included consultations of child care provider training for providers and teachers in both centers and homes, with a special emphasis on providers in family child care homes, including license-exempt care. The goal of this research was to determine the conditions under which a very specific assessment based, on-site consultation model of child care provider training enhances the quality of the family home or child care classroom and results in positive child change.
The PFI consists of two main components, the assessment tools used to index quality -- The Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised, (ITERS), 2003, The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale--Revised, (ECERS ), 1998, and Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS), 1989, measures developed by Harms, Clifford and Cryer, and the theory-based, collaborative, problem-solving model of consultation developed by Pat Wesley. The model builds on the literature that suggests greater change is possible when individuals are involved in assessing their own needs, receive individualized support over an extended period of time, and have opportunities to apply new knowledge and skills in their own work setting.
The public release of the data files includes only datasets containing summary variables from direct interviews and scale scores. The restricted release contains all data available for release including all direct interview variables, roster information and demographic variables.
Data Sets
The QUINCE-PFI study: An evaluation of a promising model for child care provider training: Final report
An examination of the efficacy of an individualized, assessment-based, on-site consultation model of professional development for the quality improvement of early childhood programs, based on 108 child care classrooms and 263 family child care homes from twenty-four agencies in five states assigned to a group to receive a professional development intervention or to a control group
Reports & Papers
Ready to learn?: Children's pre-academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs
An evaluation of the effects of program structural and process quality, materials, effective teaching, and teacher-child relationships on academic and social skills outcomes in a sample of 2800 children from state-funded pre-kindergarten programs in eleven states
Reports & Papers
Relations between preschool children's child-care experiences and concurrent development: The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study
A longitudinal study of the effects of child care experiences on concurrent child outcomes, taking into account the quality of child care and the moderating influence of family and child characteristics.
Reports & Papers
Supporting optimal child development through Early Head Start and Head Start Programs: Secondary data analyses of FACES and EHSREP [Special issue]
A special issue of the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly, focusing on the outcomes of select groups of children, the participation and characteristics of families, and the quality of settings and programs, in both Head Start and Early Head Start, based on secondary analyses of the datasets of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) and the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP)
Other
Timing of high-quality child care and cognitive, language, and preacademic development
A study of the relationship between exposure to different combinations of high- versus low-quality child care during two developmental periods--infant-toddlerhood and preschool, and children's cognitive, language, and preacademic development, based on data from 1,364 young children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care
Reports & Papers
