Every Child Succeeds: Transition to PreSchool and Kindergarten Readiness

Every Child Succeeds (ECS) serves families that are considered high-risk due to low economic status, young maternal age, inadequate prenatal care, limited social supports, mental illness, or substance abuse. Participants in ECS receive two to four visits a month from home visitors to ensure that mothers have access to parenting support, and infants and young children receive the care, nurturing, and interaction they need to have a successful start in life. ECS relies on two national evidence-based models: Healthy Family America ® (HFA) and Nurse Family Partnership ® (NFP).

Evaluation of the ECS Preschool Transition program focuses on assessing both program implementation and its preliminary outcomes. Implementation goals were tracked primarily by ECS by logging numbers for: hours of training each staff member received, families eligible for transition services, families provided with preschool information packets, and families receiving transition services and participating in transition groups. ECS assessors administered either the Bracken or the DIAL 4 depending upon service delivery area. The Bracken is a measure of receptive language that assesses concept knowledge. The DIAL-4 is used as a complement to measures of kindergarten readiness.

Findings include:

• 59% of eligible families worked to develop a transition plan or goal for their children.
• 62% of eligible families participated in home visits with Transition Program coordinators.
• Children assessed as a part of transition activities were developmentally on pace with their peers and produced scores in the "average" range for both Bracken and DIAL-4 measures.
• ECS graduates with preschool experience outperformed ECS graduates without preschool by 0.3 points on the KRA-L.
• ECS graduates with preschool experience also outperformed a comparison group of students without either preschool or ECS experience by 3.4 points.