Sam Odom, IndianaUniversity, Principal Investigator

Gretchen Butera, IndianaUniversity, Co-Investigator

Karen Diamond, PurdueUniversity, Co-Investigator

Marci Hanson, San FranciscoStateUniversity, Co-Investigator

Eva Horn, University of Kansas, Co-Investigator

Joan Lieber, University of Maryland, Co-Investigator

This is a collaborative project between researchers at Purdue University, Indiana University, University of Maryland, University of Kansas and San Francisco State University. The aim of the project is to examine immediate and long-term effects of a curriculum, called Children’s School Success. This curriculum is designed to prepare 4 year old children at risk for school failure, to be successful in preschool and the early elementary grades (K - 2). It is designed to support children’s development of language, literacy and reasoning skills and social-emotional competence. The project employs a randomized cluster design, in which teachers/classrooms at each site are randomly assigned to participate as a program classroom (in which the curriculum is implemented) or a control classroom. (Control classrooms will become program classrooms the following year). The study begins in preschool classes, with follow-up assessments occurring in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classes for most of the children (i.e., depending on which year of the project they enter the study). The Purdue portion of this study includes children enrolled in Head Start classrooms in Indiana.

Specific questions related to the impact of using the curriculum include questions related to: 1) whether children in the CSS curriculum model have more beneficial outcomes during pre school, kindergarten, first and second grade than children enrolled in a preschool classroom using a traditional curriculum model; 2) whether children with disabilities or who are English language learners have more beneficial outcomes during preschool, kindergarten and first and second grade than comparable children enrolled in a preschool classroom using a traditional curriculum model; 3) whether institutional personnel and cost factors serve as barriers or facilitators for the successful implementation of the CSS curriculum model; and, 4) whether previous amounts of training in early childhood education relate to the successful implementation of the CSS curriculum model.

Both undergraduate and graduate students participate as research assistants on this project.

Funding: NICHD (National Institutes for Child Health and Human Development)

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