Evaluating Family-Centered Prevention at Scale in Two Hybrid Implementation-Effectiveness Randomized Controlled Trials within the NYC Pre-K for All System.

Introduction

ParentCorps is a family-centered, school-based intervention that aims to help parents and early childhood teachers to create safe, nurturing and predictable environments to ensure that all children develop social, emotional, and behavior regulation skills. Intervention includes professional development for Pre-K teachers and a program offered to families of Pre-K students, implemented by mental health professionals and teachers. Two cluster randomized trials found impact on early childhood development. In the second trial with more than 1,000 Pre-K students, ParentCorps was found to impact achievement test scores and teacher ratings of academic performance and mental health problems. Effects on academic achievement and mental health were observed across the full spectrum of pre-academic and self-regulation skills. This paper describes two hybrid implementation-effectiveness trials carried out in partnership with the largest urban school district in the country.

Methods

NYU researchers are collaborating with the DOE's Division of Early Childhood Education and the Research Policy and Support Group to carry out two randomized controlled trials launched in 2017 that answers questions critical to the field of early education, such as resource allocation and best practices related to scaling ParentCorps in the context of NYC Pre-K Thrive and the DOE system. One RCT is in Pre-K programs in high-poverty schools (N= 80) and the other is in high-poverty early education centers in community based organizations (N= 23). These studies take advantage of high-quality administrative data on family engagement and classroom environment already collected at scale by the NYC DOE.

Results

This paper presents baseline characteristics on the 100+ programs including observations of classroom quality and family perceptions of school environment captured through the annual DOE parent survey. In addition, in the RCT in 23 centers, we describe the implementation context and characterize implementation fidelity in the first year. We utilize implementation science frameworks and draw on the science of improvement, an emerging framework for research on strategies to improve health care and education. The goal is to build practice-based evidence or the “know how” to effectively engage families and yield positive child outcomes consistently across diverse settings.

Conclusions

Family-centered intervention in Pre-K holds great promise for reducing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in learning, behavior and health. Embedding evidence-based interventions in schools makes population-level reach possible. Careful study of implementation quality and processes as well as impact on teachers, classrooms, parents and children is essential to ensure success in NYC and replication in other urban centers.