Moving up the grades: relationship between preschool model and later school success.

Publication: Early Childhood Research & Practice

Publication Date: 22-MAR-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Abstract

A follow-up study of children who began school at age 4 (referred to as Year 1 in this study) was conducted to examine the influence of three different preschool models on later school success. These children from an urban school district were studied again in Year 5 as they prepared to leave the primary grades and in Year 6 when they were scheduled to enter fourth grade if not previously retained. The study examined report card grades, retention rates, and special education placement of 160 children at the end of their fifth year in school and 183 children at the end of their sixth year in school. The sample was 96% African American and 54% female, with 75% of the children qualifying for subsidized school lunch and 73% living in single-parent families. Academically, girls surpassed boys at the end of Year 5, and this difference persisted into the next grade level. Children whose preschool experience was more academically directed had been retained less often than peers. No differences attributable to preschool model were found for special education placement. By the end of children's fifth year in school, there were no significant differences in academic performance of children who had experienced three different preschool models. By the end of their sixth year in school, children whose preschool experiences had been academically directed earned significantly lower grades compared to children who had attended child-initiated preschool classes. Children's later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active, child-initiated early learning experiences. Their progress may have been slowed by overly academic preschool experiences that introduced formalized learning experiences too early for most children's developmental status.

View: Marcon article from v4 n1 Lonigan commentary on Marcon article Marcon response to Lonigan commentary Editor's introduction to the discussion

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Introduction

In the ongoing debate over education reform designed to improve academic performance of American children, preschools are under increasing pressure to offer instruction in basic academic skills. This trend is especially prevalent in programs that serve low-income children. Compensatory early childhood programs such as Head Start and state-sponsored pre-kindergarten for low-income families and preschoolers with special needs are designed to help children acquire skills needed for later school success. Although the goal of school readiness is widely shared among early childhood educators, parents, and policy makers, the strategies for achieving this goal vary greatly. Fundamental philosophical and political differences in beliefs about the purpose of schooling, value orientations, and cultural priorities are central to the debate on how to best prepare young children for formal schooling (Kessler, 1991).

Kindergarten retention rates have increased (e.g., Shepard & Smith, 1988), perhaps due to the downward shift in curriculum that introduces formal reading and mathematics instruction much earlier. Escalating academic demands in kindergarten have clearly affected preschool programs for even younger children. Goffin (1994) noted a downward movement of the debate between developmental and academic orientations from elementary education to the preschool setting. When preschool was "reconceptualized as an appropriate beginning for primary schooling (especially for low-income children)," public school programs for 4-year-olds grew in number (Goffin, 1994, p. 120).

Beginning in the 1980s, leading early childhood experts expressed concern about the wisdom of overly didactic, formal instructional practices for young children (e.g., Elkind, 1986; Zigler, 1987). They feared that short-term academic gains would be offset by long-term stifling of children's motivation and self-initiated learning. Later research suggests that these early concerns were warranted. Compared to children whose kindergarten experience emphasized child-initiated learning, primary-grade teachers rated children from didactic, teacher-centered kindergartens lower in conduct and work-study habits, and perceived them to be more distractible, less willing to follow directions, and less prosocial (Hart, Charlesworth, Burts, & DeWolf, 1993). Stipek, Feiler, Daniels, and Milburn (1995) also found motivational differences favoring a child-initiated view of early education compared to a more formalized, didactic approach. They cautioned that early academic gains in reading skills associated with didactic instruction of preschoolers "come with some costs" that could have long-term negative effects on achievement. DeVries, Reese-Learned, and Morgan (1991) expressed similar concerns, arguing that temporary benefits of highly didactic approaches with young children cannot be justified in light of possible negative consequences for social development. Today, as Walsh (1989) predicted, the likelihood that children will experience a highly didactic, teacher-centered approach has increased as preschool is absorbed into public schools where a narrowly focused, externally imposed curriculum makes the preschool experience even more like elementary school.

Although it was once believed that any well-implemented preschool program would achieve positive results (e.g., Lazar, Darlington, Murray, Royce, & Snipper, 1982), a growing research base suggests otherwise (see Marcon, 1999, for a review of research on different preschool approaches). Of particular interest in the present study was sustainability of an earlier preschool approach's influence on academic performance. Several researchers have found that later school success declined when the intervention was discontinued. For example, Miller and Dyer (1975) found a drop in school achievement for children who entered a nondidactic program following a direct instruction preschool experience. Similarly, when the highly didactic Direct Instructional System for the Teaching of Arithmetic and Reading (DISTAR) was discontinued after third grade, children's previously high achievement in reading and mathematics declined (Becker & Gersten, 1982). Early academic success fostered by a child-initiated approach has been documented by a number of different researchers (e.g., Burts, Hart, Charlesworth, & DeWolf, 1993; Marcon, 1993, 1999; Weikart, Epstein, Schweinhart, & Bond, 1978). Some long-term benefits of this approach have been found for school achievement (e.g., Miller & Bizzell, 1984) as well as for social behavior and general school competence (e.g., Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997; Schweinhart, Weikart, & Larner, 1986). Little is known, however, about the long-term effect of early intervention that combines didactic, teacher-centered strategies with child-initiated learning experiences. In the short term, this combination approach has varying outcomes, with some research favoring the strategy, especially for lower functioning children (e.g., Mills, Dale, Cole, & Jenkins, 1995). A preponderance of the research evidence, however, has failed to support the combination approach (e.g., DeVries et al., 1991; Marcon, 1999; Pfannenstiel & Schattgen, 1997; Rawl & O'Tuel, 1982). Knowing how later school success of these children compares with that of children exposed to other preschool models would be useful in determining the effectiveness of a combination strategy.

A second area of interest in the present study involved sex differences in later school success. Academically, studies of low-income children have found that girls did better than boys in pre-kindergarten (e.g., Marcon, 1999), kindergarten (e.g., Burts et al., 1993; Marcon, 1993), and in first grade (e.g., Reynolds, 1989). Boys do notably better in both the short and long term when their early learning experiences have been more child initiated rather than more didactic in nature (e.g., Marcon, 1993; Miller & Bizzell, 1984). Successful transition between grade levels may also be moderated by sex. Parents and principals believe boys have more difficulty than girls in making the transition from third to fourth grade (Mayfield, 1983). Furthermore, differences in school competence (especially rates of nonpromotion) among African American children may be intensified by negative attitudes and behaviors toward school exhibited as early as fourth grade by African American boys (Rowan, 1989). Further examination of sex differences in later school success of low-income children and possible interaction with preschool model would add to our understanding of the often difficult transition from the primary to the later elementary school grades.

The present study provides follow-up data for one cohort of low-income, minority children who had attended two years of school (preschool and kindergarten) prior to entering first grade. These children had experienced one of three different types of preschool: child-initiated, academically directed, or a "combination" approach. In this earlier quasi-experimental study, Marcon (1999) compared the three different approaches for their effect on children's development and mastery of basic skills at the end of preschool. Findings indicated that children whose preschool experiences had been child-initiated demonstrated greater mastery of basic skills at the end of preschool than did children in programs where academics were emphasized and skills were directly taught. At the end of preschool, children in the "combination" model did significantly poorer on all measures except self-help and development of social coping skills compared to children in either the child-initiated or academically directed models. Preschool girls outperformed boys in all areas except...

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