Parentcorps Impact from Early Childhood through Early Elementary School

This paper presents the results of a cluster (school) randomized controlled trial (RCT) and long-term follow-up study evaluating ParentCorps impact on academic achievement and emotional and behavioral problems at school, relative to education-as-usual. The RCT was conducted in two school districts in highly disadvantaged minority and immigrant-dense NYC neighborhoods with high school graduation rates ~50%. To be included, public schools were required to have a Pre-K program with at least two classes and a student population >80% Black and >70% low-income. Ten schools were randomly assigned to intervention or an education-as-usual control condition. The RCT enrolled nearly 90% of the Pre-K population over four years. Students have been followed prospectively from Pre-K through the end of 2^nd grade; follow-up through the transition to middle school is ongoing.

Impact on academic achievement was evaluated via standardized achievement tests at the end of KG and G2, and teacher ratings of academic performance and problems at school. As previously reported, there was a significant impact on achievement in KG (total score of reading, writing and math subtests; d = .18; p = .03). Impact on reading achievement was greatest overall (d = .34) and among students who were dysregulated at baseline (d = .44). Among dysregulated students, there was also substantial impact on math achievement (d = .37). Trajectory analyses of achievement test scores in KG and G2 document maintenance of impact (non-significant intervention-by-time interaction term).  Analysis of a composite of teacher-rated performance/problems from Pre-K entry through G2 (by 4 different teachers) revealed an intervention effect on trajectories. Relative to students in control schools, students in ParentCorps schools performed significantly better by the end of KG (d = .25) and this advantage increased through G2.

Analyses of teacher ratings of emotional and behavioral problems from Pre-K through G2 reveal that ParentCorps prevented the development of emotional and behavior problems. Plots show that behavior problems increased substantially for children in control schools from the end of Pre-K through G2; in contrast, among children in intervention schools, behavior problems grew at a much slower rate. These diverging trajectories resulted in children in control schools having significantly higher levels of problems than those in intervention schools, with intervention impact of nearly 1/3 SD at the end of G2.

The magnitude of ParentCorps impact on achievement, behavioral problems at school, and the broad range of benefits suggest the potential to improve on current efforts to reduce the achievement gap and disparities in lifelong well-being and productivity for low-income, black and Latino children.