The evaluation of Educare of Omaha focused on determining the overall effectiveness of the program in providing early childhood services, parenting education, and family support services. Generally based upon a Utilization-Focused evaluation design (Patton, 2012), the evaluation plan employed multiple methods to describe and measure the quality of implementation, the quality of programming, and to report student and family outcomes.
The evaluation strives to answer the following questions:
Who does Educare serve?
Are staff and classrooms of high quality?
Are students benefitting and achieving positive outcomes?
Are families benefiting and achieving positive outcomes?
Summary of Key Findings and Implications for Program Improvement Implementation Key Findings:
Educare of Omaha operated 32 classrooms: 21 were infant or toddler classrooms and 11 were preschool classrooms 387 students and their families were served (diverse, high poverty, almost half were English language learners, about 18% verified for special education) Staff were highly qualified
Classroom Quality Key Findings:
Environment Rating Scales showed no significant change from 2010 to 2014, remaining generally in the high quality range o ITERS from 6.13 to 6.40 o ECERS from 6.09 to 6.26 Pre-K CLASS showed no significant change from 2010 to 2014 with two of three domains in or approaching the high quality range and Instructional Support centering in the moderate quality range Infant and Toddler CLASS ratings were in or approaching the high quality range and showed no significant change from the previous year
Student Outcome Key Findings:
Preschool students significantly improved vocabulary with modest effect sizes (d=0.23, PPVT) Children significantly improved in auditory comprehension in English with standard scores improving from 90 to 94 (d=0.40) but no significant change in Spanish (89 to 90) Students were significantly more prepared for kindergarten with effects within the targeted zone (d=0.59, BSRA) Students showed significant increases in total protective factors with small (d=0.19, DECA) Longitudinal results showed that students who attended two or more years performed significantly better and with medium to large effects in reading, mathematics, and writing than their peers who attended Educare less than two years (3rd through 8th grade) Family Partnership Key Findings:
Strengths:
87% of parents expect their child to obtain a bachelors or graduate degree Parent child relationships were rated as close (4.71 on a 5 point scale) Parental distress was low (25th percentile) The average number of life events was relatively low (2.66) Parents reported doing supportive learning activities with their children about 3-5 times weekly Dialogic reading skills were used about 84% of the time Parents of kindergarten bound students reported generally positive thoughts about schooling (4.72 on a 5 point scale) Challenges to Address:
52% of parents reported they didnt find their neighborhood to be supportive to them About half of the parents of kindergarten bound students reported making a close friendship with another Educare parent 37% of parents worried about running out of food sometimes/often About 10% of parents screened positive for possible depression Parent involvement activities reported by kindergarten bound parents were in the low- to mid-range (occurring between once or twice a year to almost every month)
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