PreschoolFirst Effectiveness: Academic Study Confirms Value to Educators and Families

RESTON, VA – A new study by academic researchers proves that early childhood programs can accurately and easily assess the developmental progress of young children by using an assessment tool provided by the nonprofit PreschoolFirst service. Years of evidence from the field have strongly suggested that PreschoolFirst’s approach is highly successful. To determine whether that evidence from users could be formally confirmed, the developers asked Dr. Lento F. Maez and Dr. Candelario F. Huerta, Jr., both affiliated with Texas A&M University, to conduct a rigorous study of both the validity and the reliability of the PreschoolFirst assessment tool.

PreschoolFirst’s formative assessment instrument observes child behavior in six developmental domains, and helps detect delays and social problems early enough to maximize the positive potenial of early interventions. The study’s data set was drawn from the PreschoolFirst database, based on early childhood educator’s observations of the children in their care. For both reliability and validity, using the Cronbach alpha coefficient scale, a score of 0.70 represents an acceptable degree; a score of 1.00 represents the ideal. The study found that the PreschoolFirst assessment system’s reliability was .86, and its validity was .94.

Steven J. Gorski, President and CEO of Source for Learning, Inc., the nonprofit parent corporation of PreschoolFirst, said, “It’s highly gratifying to have our confidence in PreschoolFirst confirmed. The system has remarkable capability, and this study helps prove its tremendous benefit to teachers, administrators, children, and parents.”

To review the full report contact: Contact:
Mari Blaustein, PreschoolFirst.com, mblaustein@sflinc.org
John Cosgrove, Cosgrove Communications, jcosgrove@sflinc.org