Early childhood curricula and interventions

Before making investments in this strategy, city and county leaders should ensure it addresses local needs.

The Urban Institute and Mathematica have developed indicator frameworks to help local leaders assess conditions related to upward mobility, identify barriers, and guide investments to address these challenges. These indicator frameworks can serve as a starting point for self-assessment, not as a comprehensive evaluation, and should be complemented by other forms of local knowledge.

The Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Framework identifies a set of key local conditions that shape communities’ ability to advance upward mobility and racial equity. Local leaders can use the Upward Mobility Framework to better understand the factors that improve upward mobility and prioritize areas of focus. Data reports for cities and counties can be created here.

Several indicators in the Upward Mobility Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality programs. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

• Effectiveness of public education: Average per-grade change in English Language Arts achievement between the third and eighth grades. These data are available from Stanford University’s Education Data Archive.

• School economic diversity: Share of students attending high-poverty schools by student race or ethnicity. These data are available from the Urban Institute’s Education Data Portal.

Mathematica's Education-to-Workforce (E-W) Indicator Framework helps local leaders identify the data that matter most in helping students and young adults succeed. Local leaders can use the E-W framework to better understand education and workforce conditions in their communities and to identify strategies that can improve outcomes in these areas.

Several indicators in the E-W Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality programs. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

• Access to early intervention screening: Percentage of children with identified concerns who are connected to services or percentage of children needing selected special education services in kindergarten who were not identified and connected to services before kindergarten.
• Access to quality pre-K: Percentage of public pre-K programs that meet Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) state benchmarks of quality.
• Kindergarten readiness in terms of approaches to learning, cognition, language and literacy, physical development, and social-emotional development: Percentage of children meeting benchmarks on teacher-reported kindergarten readiness assessment.
• Mental and emotional well-being: Percentage of youth with mental or emotional health needs as identified by a universal screening tool.
• Physical development and well-being: Percentage of students meeting benchmarks on self-rated surveys of physical health, such as the California Healthy Kids Survey Physical Health & Nutrition module.

• Align curriculum selection with local conditions: Evidence-based early education curricula and interventions vary significantly in terms of scope, skills, and pedagogical approaches. Evaluate a range of curricula and interventions before selecting one or more for implementation. Criteria for selection should include alignment with state and local benchmarks (especially the local school district) for age-appropriate skills development; a high degree of cultural responsiveness; and frequent opportunities for measurement and evaluation.
• Invest in frequent teacher training: Many evidence-based early childhood curricula and interventions include substantial training and materials prior to delivering the model; they may also offer in-year workshops and subject matter learning opportunities. Position early childhood educators to leverage those opportunities frequently, including paid time for training and lesson planning. Early education programs should also provide regular assessments for teachers with actionable feedback for improvement.
• Collaborate with families: Families can play a major role in reinforcing and supplementing classroom learning. From its earliest phase, the implementation process should include a formal family engagement component. This can include soliciting input and/or feedback on curriculum/intervention selection, which can also help build trust; setting student goals in consultation with family; and offering workshops to train caregivers on how to deliver components of the curriculum at home.
• Include social-emotional learning: Many evidence-based curricula and interventions focus on helping children develop academic skills, like recognizing letters and numbers. To provide children with a holistic experience, dedicate regular class time (at least a few times each week) to interventions that focus on social-emotional learning skills, like regulating emotions or sharing with classmates. Such skills will better position young children to learn and develop at an age-appropriate rate once they reach kindergarten.