Evaluation and Results

Invest in Children programs are evaluated using both internal and external evaluation processes, including the expert evaluation work of Case Western Reserve University’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development.

Key Highlights from Recent Program Evaluations

 

Parents as Teachers Program

Evaluating Parent-Child Interactions and the Implementation of the PICCOLO Assessment:  This report describes results from two studies of Parents As Teachers (PAT) use of the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO assessment). The first is an evaluation of participants’ parenting skills as measured by the PICCOLO, and the second study examines Parent Educators’ experience implementing the PICCOLO one year after it was first added as a PAT assessment.

 

Universal Pre-kindergarten Program

A recent evaluation of children attending kindergarten in urban and inner-ring public school districts in Cuyahoga County documented the the benefits of participation in Cuyahoga County’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program compared to high quality, non-UPK preschool. A couple of key highlights include:

  • Sixty-six percent of children who attended at least 18 months of UPK were ‘On-track’ for Language and Literacy at kindergarten entry, compared to 47% of similar children in a high quality, non-UPK site.
  • Children who attended 18 months of UPK scored nearly ⅓ standard deviation units higher on the Third Grade Reading Guarantee than similar children in high quality, non-UPK sites.
  • Overall, boys tended to have lower scores on the Social Foundations subscale than girls. However, the gender gap was 7.2 points smaller among children in UPK compared to children in high quality, non-UPK settings.

 

UPK Outcomes 2020 Final

 

 

Children Exposed to Lead

In 2018, our research investigating lead exposure among children 0 to 6 in Cuyahoga County found:

  • Of children born in 2012 and who had been screened by age 5, 10.7% had an elevated blood lead level. Most of these children lived in Cleveland.
  • Cuyahoga County accounted for 14% of Ohio’s lead tested children, but 41% of Ohio children with elevated blood lead levels.
  • Despite rules requiring children on Medicaid to be screened at ages 1 and 2, only 50% were tested at age 1, and 34% were tested at age 2.
  • Children with elevated lead levels are half as likely as their peers to be ready for kindergarten, even after controlling for a range of background factors.

   Read the Full Report  Read the news coverage of the research

 

Prevention and Inclusion Programs  (Formally known as Special Needs Child Care)

Prevention and Inclusion Programs, (offered through a close partnership with Starting Point) deploy trained social workers, therapists, and nurses to provide technical assistance and specialized equipment to teachers caring for children with special needs. The program’s most recent evaluation looked at both process and outcome findings to document implementation of the enhanced program and initial outcomes achieved after a single year. 

  • According to technical assistants’ and external expert observers’ Reflective Checklist ratings, classrooms ratings generally improved from pre- to post-observation in the three major areas assessed: Daily Routines, Caring Connections and Activities & Experiences. Interestingly, however, teachers did not see improvement at the subscale level. They rated themselves similarly at pre- and post-assessment on three of the five subscales (See full report for greater detail).  
  • Eighty percent of teachers reported that they implemented the strategies suggested by the technical assistant and slightly more than half said it helped to reduce their job stress. Seventy-five percent said they felt confident to handle the challenging behavior in their classroom.


Prevention and Inclusion Programs Evaluation




  
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