Kids in Transition to School (KITS) Year 2 Evaluation Report

In 2016, United Way of Lane County expanded the Kids in Transition to School (KITS) program to 13 school districts in Lane County, Oregon. KITS is a kindergarten readiness program designed to help prepare high-risk children and their parents for entry into elementary school. It focuses on teaching children literacy, numeracy, prosocial and self-regulation skills that are critical for school readiness and positive school adjustment. Parents also participate in workshops in which they learn skills for supporting learning at home, promoting positive child behaviors, and becoming involved in their child’s school.

Study Goals:

The goals of the Impact Study were to:

• Conduct a randomized outcome study of the KITS program in schools identified as potentially able to recruit more families than could be served.
• Conduct a process/implementation study focused on learning more about key issues identified in Year 1.

Research Questions:

The evaluation included both impact and implementation studies. The research questions were:

• Impact Questions:
  • Do children randomly assigned to the KITS program have higher self-regulation skills and more positive social behaviors at the end of the KITS program participation compared to children assigned to the control group?
  • Do children randomly assigned to the KITS program have higher scores at school entry on the Oregon Kindergarten Assessment (OKA) of early literacy, social skills, and self-regulation skills compared to children assigned to the control group?
  • At the end of the KITS program, do parents randomly assigned to KITS, relative to controls, provide more developmental and academic supports for learning at home?
  • At the end of the KITS program, do parents randomly assigned to KITS, relative to parents in the control group, report greater confidence in their discipline methods and greater use of more positive guidance and behavioral management skills?
  • At the end of the KITS program, do parents randomly assigned to KITS, relative to parents in the control group, report higher levels of parent involvement in school?
  • Do children randomly assigned to the KITS program have higher scores at school entry on the OKA of early numeracy compared to children assigned to the control group?
  • What is the relationship of changes in particular aspects of parenting behavior to child outcomes?
  • Among KITS participants, what is the relationship of program attendance to improvements in child and parent outcomes?
• Implementation Questions:
  • What supported or hindered recruitment and attendance for families during Year 2? What is the average level of attendance in KITS program groups?
  • To what extent do children and parents in the control group participate in other programs that support school readiness and kindergarten transition?
  • What can be learned about the experiences of: (1) Hispanic/Latinx and Spanish speaking children and families and (2) children with disabilities?
  • What can be learned about the influence of KITS training on teacher practices? Specifically, how do teachers who have participated in one vs. two years of KITS training differ, and how is the KITS training and approach being used by teachers beyond the KITS program?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

• KITS led to significant changes in parents’ self-efficacy and confidence in supporting children’s readiness and success in school. The randomized control trial produced a moderate level of evidence for these impacts.
• The evaluation produced moderate evidence to support KITS’s ability to foster the key positive relationships between parents and kindergarten teachers and school staff.
• There is preliminary evidence that KITS may lead to improvements in parenting skills, specifically parents’ abilities to set clear boundaries and more effectively support children’s self-regulation.
• This study did not detect any significant effects with regard to child outcomes, although larger samples may be needed.
• Interviews with staff and Latinx parents suggest key areas where the program could be improved to better engage and support Latinx parents and children.
• Implementation support in the form of staff to help with outreach and recruitment of families and ongoing training and coaching of KITS staff is critical to success.
• Kindergarten teachers who were trained to deliver the KITS curriculum reported that they gained important new knowledge and skills for better supporting positive child behavior, and that they subsequently used these in their regular classroom teaching.

For more information, download the full report and report brief.