Preschool Quality and Child Development: How Are Learning Gains Related to Program Ratings?
The Learning Policy Institute (LPI) released a report on preschool quality in partnership with the UC-Berkeley BEAR CENTER and WestEd. Preschool Quality and Child Development: How Are Learning Gains Related to Program Ratings? investigates the relationships between preschool quality based on the Quality Counts California (QCC) system and children’s learning and development.
Analysis was conducted of child- and program-level data from approximately 70,000 children who were 4.5 to 5.5 years old in 1,700 QCC-rated public preschool programs, the majority of which were center-based California State Preschool Programs (CSPPs). Learning and development were assessed using children’s fall and spring scores on three domains of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a developmental assessment administered by children’s classroom teachers.
Key findings include the following:
- Children in higher-tier programs showed more learning and development than those in lower-tier programs.
- Multilingual Learners, children with disabilities, and children from all racial/ethnic groups exhibited more learning and development in higher-tier programs.
- Preschool children who are Black, Multiracial, or Latino/a were underrepresented in higher-quality programs.