Melodie Wenz-Gross|Yeonsoo Yoo|Carole C. Upshur|Anthony J. Gambino
Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness: The Roles of Second Step Early Learning Curriculum and Social Emotional, Executive Functioning, Preschool Academic and Task Behavior Skills
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School|University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School|University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School|University of Connecticut
efforts improve achievement gap lowincome children affluent peers led development classroom interventions curricula increase executive functioning ef socialemotional skills se thought foundational learning second step early learning ssel curriculum commercially available curriculum designed improve school readiness building ef se skills however although widely used widely studied modeling ssels underlying theory change structural equation modeling sem used longitudinally examine effects curriculum lowincome preschool childrens kindergarten school readiness hypothesized mediating role ef se skills improving preacademic skills task behavior preschool cluster randomized trial 972 children attending 63 preschool classrooms within 13 lowincome head start community preschools individually tested beginning t1 end preschool t2 n 836 followed kindergarten childrens average age t1 53 months 51 male 42 angloamerican 26 africanamerican 40 hispanicamerican childrens ef social skills preliteracylanguage premath skills assessed trained child assessors blind study conditions t1 t2 assessors also rated childrens task behavior testing situation t1 t2 school records childrens kindergarten screening scores obtained 345 children t3 expected ssel would direct indirect effects kindergarten readiness improvements childrens se ef skills preschool academic skills ontask behavior found direct effects ssel either preacademic ontask behavior outcomes preschool later kindergarten readiness however ssel significantly increased ef expected ssels theory change growth ef predicted gains preacademics particularly premath ontask behavior preschool endofyear preacademic skills task behavior turn predicted better kindergarten readiness se although impacted ssel direct indirect effects kindergarten readiness thus overall findings largely support ssels theory change particularly relation ef