Session: Early Childhood Intervention and Well-Being: From Mechanisms to Sustainable Practice (Society for Prevention Research 21st Annual Meeting)

This symposium presents findings on the effectiveness of the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Education Program on life course well-being. CPC is an innovative preschool-to-third grade (Pk-3) intervention developed in the Chicago Public Schools that provides continuous education and family support services to children at risk. Although evidence is growing on the beneficial effects of Pk-3 practices, the impacts of comprehensive approaches are just beginning to be identified. Research on pathways is important for identifying active ingredients necessary in the scale-up and sustainability of program effects.

Two papers describe the contributions of two pathways through which CPC improves well-being: the family support and school support hypotheses. Applying these processes to the program design, the third paper reports the initial implementation of the CPC expansion project in five Illinois and Minnesota communities. Based on the accumulated research on long-term effects of CPC, the symposium illustrates how identified pathways contribute to implementation fidelity, impact evaluation, and sustainability.

The first paper, “Parent involvement as a generative mechanism of impact in the Child-Parent Centers” presents findings on the complex effects on CPC preschool of measures of parent involvement in children’s learning. Parental involvement in school in the early grades is found to mediate the effects of program participation on school achievement, high school graduation, and adult well-being.

The second paper, “School quality, stability, and the long-term effects of early intervention” summarizes the contributions of school support factors to the effects of CPC participation. Elementary and high-school quality and low school mobility account for impacts of CPC participation on achievement, graduation, and adult well-being.

The third paper, “Fidelity Measurement in the Midwest Expansion of the CPC Preschool to Third Grade Intervention” reports on the implementation of the preschool component in 2012-2013 in 26 sites for 2,500 preschool children. The CPC Midwest Expansion is designed to test a generalizable Pk-3 model using six key elements: collaborative leadership, effective learning experiences, parent involvement, continuity and stability, aligned curriculum, and professional development.

After the paper presentations, the interactive discussion will examine key factors for promoting effectiveness in the scale up and sustainability of the CPC Pk-3 program and related interventions. The organizational, resource, and research requirements necessary to ensure fidelity to program principles are emphasized as well as how the identification of mechanisms can strengthen the generalizability of effects.