Preschool experience plays a role in children's development. However, for programs with language and early literacy goals, the question remains whether preschool instructional experiences are sufficiently effective to achieve these goals for all children. In a multisite study, the authors conducted a process-product description of preschool…

A modification of the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts for use with pre-kindergarten children is presented. Guidelines for administration, age norms and information on reliability and validity are provided. (Author)

This volume consists of a series of technical reports on each of the individual test measures administered in both Years 1 and 2 of the Longitudinal Study of Disadvantaged Children and Their First School Experiences. Each report includes: (1) relevant background information concerning the task's purpose and related research findings; (2) general…

The appropriateness of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests for economically deprived urban children was the subject of this article. It was concluded that due to item difficulty other tests should be considered. (Author/BY)

The overall purpose of the national Head Start evaluation is to assess the impact, on the children and parents being served, of: (1) the educational services component of Head Start, and (2) a new demonstration program within Head Start, Basic Educational Skills. The evaluation deals with a total of 65 Head Start programs and their families. This…

THE PRESCHOOL INVENTORY BEGAN AS AN ANSWER TO THE NEED FOR SOME TYPE OF INSTRUMENT THAT WOULD PROVIDE AN INDICATION OF HOW MUCH A DISADVANTAGED CHILD, PRIOR TO HIS INTRODUCTION TO HEAD START, HAD ACHIEVED IN AREAS REGARDED AS NECESSARY FOUNDATIONS FOR SUBSEQUENT SUCCESS IN SCHOOL. MEASURING BASIC INTELLIGENCE WAS NOT THE GOAL. RATHER, THE…

As a measure of gender identity constancy, The Boy-Girl Identity Task was administered in both Year 1 and Year 2 of the ETS-Head Start Longitudinal Study. The instrument consists of two parallel tasks, each with five items. In Task I, a pricture and name of a girl and presented to the subjects. Items consist of hypothetical changes introduced by…

In this research project, the problems studied were as follows: (1) Are there differences in scanning patterns between preschool children who show Positional Response Sets (PRS) and normal adults? (2) Do the techniques utilized in "An Exploration of PRS in Disadvantaged children and a Technique for Reduction of Such Sets" change scanning patterns?…

The prekindergarten program in the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) is described. The program was developed to meet the needs of disadvantaged four year old children. Students were chosen with respect to age, residence in a Chapter I attendance area, and a low score on the Preschool Screening Evaluation (PSE). Areas of learning…

The Preschool Academic Skills Test was developed from an analysis of first-grade reading and mathematics materials to identify those behaviors that were assumed to be in students' repertoires prior to first grade. The 105 items are grouped in 10 subtests: Vocabulary, Color Naming, Classification, Functional Relationships, Visual Matching, Auditory…

The Dale Avenue Early Childhood Education Project Was developed in the Dale Avenue School in Paterson, New Jersey through funding from the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title III. The Project was validated in 1973 by the standards and guidelines of the U.S. Office of Education as innovative, successful, cost effective, and exportable. As a…

The Children's Auditory Discrimination Inventory (CADI) was used in the longitudinal study to evaluate the child's ability to identify, between two pictures that have been given oral word equivalents, the picture that represents the orally presented stimulus word. The task, which takes 10 minutes, uses 38 cards with two pictures on each and 38…

This analysis of current research on prekindergarten programs for the disadvantaged covers more than 40 evaluative studies drawn from public school systems, program developers and federal agencies throughout the U.S. Findings from most of the studies included were made public between 1970 and 1975, although some earlier research is included. A…

The Open Field Test was used to assess variables that might not be manifested in a more standard testing situation. In this test, the child was shown 10 standard play objects in the room, and was told to do anything he wished with the toys. The tester initiated no interaction with the child and responded minimally to any overture made by the…