Distinctions Without a Difference? Preschool Curricula and Children’s Development

Abstract

Public preschool programs require the use of a research-based, whole-child curriculum, yet limited research examines whether curricula influence classroom experiences and children’s development. We use five samples of preschool children to examine differences in classroom processes and children’s school readiness by classroom curricular status (curriculum/no curriculum), and across classrooms using different curricular packages. When a teacher reports using a curriculum, their classroom processes are indistinguishable from classrooms where teachers report using no curriculum. Some differences in classroom activities emerged across classrooms using different curricula; however, substantial variability exists across classrooms using the same curriculum. Head Start program fixed effects models and meta-analytic regressions reveal few associations between curricula and children's skills. Findings question whether preschool curricular policy benefit child development.

Keywords:

• preschool curricula
• early childhood education
• classroom quality
• Head Start
• prekindergarten
• school readiness

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Douglas Clements, Kenneth Dodge, Greg Duncan, George Farkas, Dale Farran, Pamela Morris, Anna Gassman-Pines, Sean Reardon, and Deborah Vandell for helpful comments on prior drafts.

Disclosures

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of IES, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Notes

1 Because no published curricula is not an option for Head Start centers under curricula mandates, it is not available in the three Head Start samples (HSIS, FACES 2003 and 2009). Analyses with “No curriculum” classrooms as the reference category are presented in Appendix C for NCEDL only.

2 Our data do not include actual curricular implementation measures, such as coaching, and we recognize this as a study limitation.

3 The measurement scales in NCEDL and PCER are different from the HSIS, and so overlaying those distributions on the HSIS classrooms would be difficult to interpret.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to several institutions that provided generous support for our project. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supported this work through grant numbers R305B120013 (UC Irvine) and R305B170002 (UVA). Research reported in this publication was also supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number P01HD065704 (UC Irvine). The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services supported this work under award number 90YE0184 (UVA).