Zhai Fuhua, Raver C Cybele, Jones Stephanie M
SUNY Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare L2-093 Health Sciences Center Stony Brook, NY 11794.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2012 May 1;34(5):946-954. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.01.026.
The role of subsequent school contexts in the long-term effects of early childhood interventions has received increasing attention, but has been understudied in the literature. Using data from the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP), a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in Head Start programs, we investigate whether the intervention had differential effects on academic and behavioral outcomes in kindergarten if children attended high- or low-performing schools subsequent to the preschool intervention year. To address the issue of selection bias, we adopt an innovative method, principal score matching, and control for a set of child, mother, and classroom covariates. We find that exposure to the CSRP intervention in the Head Start year had significant effects on academic and behavioral outcomes in kindergarten for children who subsequently attended high-performing schools, but no significant effects on children attending low-performing schools. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.
后续学校环境在幼儿期干预长期效果中的作用已受到越来越多的关注，但在文献中却研究不足。利用来自芝加哥入学准备项目（CSRP）的数据，该项目是在“领先起步计划”项目中进行的一项整群随机对照试验，我们调查了如果儿童在学前干预年之后进入高绩效或低绩效学校，该干预对幼儿园学业和行为结果是否有不同影响。为解决选择偏差问题，我们采用了一种创新方法——主得分匹配，并对一系列儿童、母亲和课堂协变量进行控制。我们发现，在“领先起步计划”年接受CSRP干预，对随后进入高绩效学校的儿童在幼儿园的学业和行为结果有显著影响，但对进入低绩效学校的儿童没有显著影响。本文讨论了这些研究结果的政策含义。
