HOME START: FAMILY-CENTERED PRESCHOOL ENRICHMENT FOR BLACK AND WHITE CHILDREN', 2

RALPH SCOTT

University of Northern Iowa

It is acknowledged generally that preschool compensatory education programs, such as Operation Head Start, have failed to provide disadvantaged preschool children with the environmental boost they require if they are to succeed within the classroom (Evans, 1969). The failure of preschool programs to bring about durable I& or achievement gains of vulnerable children has led some authorities to propose that the goals of early childhood programs may not be feasible and to suggest that adolescence may be the prime time for educational intervention (Rohwer, 1971). Many educators, however, continue to assert that environmental enrichment can be carried out most effectively during the preschool years. Those who subscribe to this position reason that the failure of current preschool programs discloses the need for more thorough strategies of early compensatory education. Hunt (1969) has taken the view that preschool programs really have never been developed and refined. After an extensive review of various preschool programs, Spicker (1971) concluded that differential approaches and results must be considered when various early childhood models are assessed. Still other researchers have emphasized the potential value of cumulative sequential learning over a period of a t least several years and of parental and community involvement (Evans, 1971; Peck, 1971; Scott, 1967, 1971). In a recent discussion of pending federal efforts in preventive education, Zigler (1971) indicates that a series of Home Start projects will seek to discover new and more effective ways to work with parents in their own homes.

This paper presents some results of a Home Start program that was designed as a total milieu effort to shape the interaction of children, families and community into a sequence of experiences conducive to physical, social, emotional, and cog- nitive growth. The Home Start program was conceived as a result of a series of Title I funded seminars attended by representatives of various community agencies and elective officials (Scott, 1966). In their assessment of unmet community needs the seminar participants placed top priority on prevention of educational problems, which led to the submission of a Title I11 Home Start proposal (Stewart, Thompson & Scott, 1968).

METHOD The Programs

Home Start consisted of two distinct types of program enrichment that ran concurrently, Horizontal Home Start (HHS) and Vertical Home Start (VHS). The HHS program consisted of classroom-centered educational enrichment for 4-year-old children during the school years 1968-69 and 1969-70 (40 children per year). HHS provided an academic year of prekindergarten enrichment, 2% hours

'This research wag supported in part by grants from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (OEG-3-7-068526-2086, Project No. 6-8526 and OEG-0-8-055780-2937, Project No. 68- 05578-0), by Title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Community Development Division (67-003- 027), and by Research Grant 302-67, University of Northern Iowa.

2The author wishes to acknowledge the most helpful comments and assistance of Duane Stewart, Helen Thompson, Glenda Mabry and Agnes Walsh during the execution of the study.

HOME START : FAMILY-CENTERED PRESCHOOL ENRICHMENT 141

per day and 5 days per week. The teacher was a college graduate with a major in early childhood education, but no previous teaching experience until the 1968-69 school year. Early in the prekindergarten year, the children were given the LRS Seriation Test (LRS ST) and each child’s performance on the five LRS ST factors was assessed to formulate individualized learning strategies (Scott, Dunbar, & Nelson, 1968). Each day activities began with 20 to 30 minutes of sequential learning activities in the Learning Readiness System: Classification and Seriation (Scott, Ratekin, & Kramer, 1968). These activities emphasized child-to-child learning and drew heavily upon the Piaget-Inhelder view that a child’s early in- tellectual growth and development are largely dependent on the progressive elab- oration of seriation and classification (Inhelder & Piaget, 1964). For each child, smaIl ascending steps within the cognitive processes of seriation and Classification were sequenced. These included such varied tasks as label, index label, relate, classify, size and pattern seriation, double seriation, trial-error and operational problem solving (Scott, 1969, 1970; Scott & Sattel, 1972). Although HHS activities were conducted with a teacher-pupil ratio of 20-1 the program was largely individual and small-group oriented and consisted of art, songs, dances, and small groups of individual play with manipulative toys and games.

VHS provided a single group of children with readiness enrichment over a span of 3 years, while the children were from 2 to 5 years of age. The core program of VHS consisted of hourly visits, once per week, to the child’s home. In these visits paraprofessional home workers, who resided within the “target area” served by the program, conferred with the mother or mother surrogate concerning family inter- action. Focus was upon what the child had been doing in the home, questions that any family member might have with respect to what the child might be doing, how books and toys could be selected appropriately and made available. A large inventory of toys and books was maintained, and parents of VHS children were encouraged to visit the storeroom and check out materials.

Content and process of the paraprofessional home workers’ parental contacts were assessed in weekly staff meetings attended by professional VHS staff members who included a director who was a trained preschool teacher, a social worker, a speech therapist, a home economist, two preschool consultants, a part-time nurse and a part-time school psychologist. In staff meetings, questions related to children’s development were raised and questions were entertained as to whether a profes- sional VHS member should become involved in the home to assess the feasibility of referral to a community agency.

In VHS, efforts to individualize enrichment were centered around diagnostic results from an achievement-oriented preschool test, the Iowa Tests of Preschool Development (ITPD), which contains four subtests (Language, Visual Motor, Memory and Concepts). The ITPD was administered by paraprofessional testers a t 6-month intervals. After each testing, a report was prepared by the school psychologist and sent to the VHS Director. This report suggested various types of activities that would be appropriate for the child. The VHS Director discussed the results with the home worker and any professional member of the VHS staff who happened to be working with the family.

In the year prior to kindergarten admission, VHS Ss also were provided with the HHS program, in addition to continuing and regular home visits. During the

142 RALPH SCOTT

third year of the prekindergarten classroom activities, VHS Ss also were given the LRS ST; the mean I& of black VHS Ss on this measure was 92.3, for white VHS Ss i t was 103.7.

Subjects HHS Ss consisted of 4-year-old children who were residing in four ‘(target”

school attendance centers of Waterloo, Iowa that had been designated by the Office of Economic Opportunity as socioeconomically disadvantaged. Enrollment was limited to 40 Ss (20 black, 20 white) during each of the 1968-69 and 1969-70 school years. Mean CA of white Ss upon admission to HHS was 4 years and 5 months; mean CA of black HHS Ss was 4 years and 6 months. Parents of HHS Ss were invited to visit the school and talk with the teacher about any problems that concerned them. Due largely to HHS staff limitations, there was little parental involvement in HHS.

Selection of VHS Ss was initiated during the summer of 1968. Census tract cards were employed to identify parents of all children (a) who resided in the four “target” attendance centers from which HHS Ss were drawn and (b) who were eligible to attend kindergarten in the fall of 1971. The Home Start director con- ferred with community agencies to increase the likelihood that new arrivals to the city would be included in the program.

The parents of 89 VHS children (51 black, 38 white) applied for admission to VHS, and all were accepted. At time of enrollment, mean CA was 3 years and 2 months for black Ss, 3 years and 3 months for white Ss. These CA differences were not statistically significant. Upon enrollment in VHS, the Ss were given the Stanford-Binet (LM) by a trained psychologist. Mean I& of black Ss was 92.4, for white Ss 103.7. The Verbal Scale of the WAIS was administered to the mothers by a social worker who had been trained by a qualified psychologist. Mean Verbal I& for black mothers was 83.3, for white mothers 104.0.

Seventy-one VHS Ss (47 blacks, 24 whites) were still residing in the target areas and participating in the program when they reached their fifth birthday. Average length of program participation (ALPP) for black VHS Ss was 1 year and 10 months, for white VHS Ss 1 year and 8 months; these differences were not statistically significant. There was no evidence of selective migration, inasmuch as Stanford Binet IQs of Ss who moved from the target areas were not significantly different from IQs of Ss who remained in the target attendance centers. The mean I& of the four black Ss who transferred out of the target areas was 93.1; the mean I& of the 14 white Ss who transferred from the target areas was 102.8. VHS Ss continued in the program until August, 1971. Not a single VHS S dropped out of the program who still lived in the target area a t the time of kindergarten enrollment.

In view of the evidence that matching by traditional SES criteria fails to control for home background factors (Bloom, 1964; Goldstein, Cary, Chorost, & Dalack, 1970; Scott & Smith, 1972; Wilson, 1969) it was decided to employ older siblings of HHS and VHS Ss as control Ss. The feasibility of such an approach was suggested by Bachman (19701, who found little if any relationship between ordinal position and I& or school achievement. It was possible to secure first-grade group PMA scores on older siblings of 17 HHS black and 23 HHS white Ss and of 26 VHS black and 6 VHS white Ss. The siblings of 12 VHS Ss (4 black and 8 white)

HOME START : FAMILY-CENTERED PRESCHOOL ENRICHMENT 143

attended parochial schools, where they were tested in small groups a t the request of the experimenter. This resulted in a total N of 44 VHS control Ss.

Instruments The tests of Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) were utilized to assess the impact

of the Home Start programs inasmuch as this instrument yields not only a total I&, but also four subtests scores that provide a general but educationally useful readiness profile. The Verbal Meaning (VM) subtest of the PMA measures receptive language. Other PMA subtests are Perceptual Speed (PS), which requires Ss to find similar objects, Number Facility (NF), and Spatial Relations (SR), which requires the child to reproduce a geometric design with a pencil and to identify which of several geometric figures are missing from partially completed squares.

Within a month after VHS Ss reached 5 years of age, they were given the PMA in clusters of three to five children. This testing was conducted by a trained social worker with a paraprofessional aide who worked as a team and who had been trained by a qualified psychologist. HHS Ss as well as siblings of HHS and of VHS Ss were given the PMA as part of standard first-grade group testing con- ducted by the Waterloo Community Schools. Mean CA a t time of PMA first-grade testing was 6 years and 5 months for black HHS Ss and 6 years and 6 months for white HHS 3s. Mean PMA CA of siblings of black HHS Ss was 6 years and 6 months, for siblings of white HHS Ss 6 years and 5 months. For siblings of the 26 black and 6 white VHS Ss tested in first grade the mean CA was 6 years 5 months and 6 years 6 months, respectively. None of these CA differences was statistically significant. Mean CA of the 12 older siblings of VHS Ss attending parochial schools was 8 years 5 months (mean Total PMA I& 103.6) for the 8 whites and 9 years 2 months (mean Total PMA I& 91.5) for the 4 blacks. Separate Mann-Whitney U Tests were computed for black and white VHS siblings, comparing the difference in Total PMA IQs of VHS Ss and (a) siblings tested in first grade and (b) older siblings attending parochial schools. The results indicated that difference scores of VHS Ss and their first-grade or parochial-school siblings were not of such a magnitude as to lead to sampling variations.

RESULTS The results are summarized in Table 1 and reveal no significant differences

in PMA subtest or total scores achieved by HHS blacks and their siblings. As shown in Table 1, white HHS Ss secured significantly higher scores than their siblings on the PS and NF subtests. Table 1 also shows that black VHS Ss secured significantly higher VM, PS and Total PMA IQs than their siblings, while VHS white Ss obtained significantly higher scores than their siblings on VM, N F and Total PMA. It is noted, however, that the mean I& differences between VHS white Ss and their siblings in PS were somewhat larger than mean I& differences in PS between HHS white Ss and their siblings. It is entirely possible that the lower N of VHS whites explains the absence of significant differences in the PS IQs of VHS whites and their siblings.

The results also suggest that the HHS and VHS programs drew from different black and white populations and that these differences may be linked to basic

144 RALPH SCOTT

TABLE 1. PMA IQs AND t-scorns, BLACK AND WHITE HOME START PARTICIPANTS AND THEIR SIBLINGS

Horizontal Home Start Blacks (N 17)

Siblings of Horizontal Home Start Blacks (N 17)

Horizontal Whites

Home Start (N 23)

Siblings of Horizontal Home Start Whites (N

Vertical Home Start Blacks (N 30)

Siblings of Vertical Home Start Blacks (N

23)

30)

Vertical Home Start Whites (N 14)

Siblings of Vertical Home Start Whites (N 14)

Verbal Meaning

(VM)

105.0

t=1.16

100.7

103.9

t=0.01

103.9

107.1

t =5.02**

94.1

119.6

t=3.4**

105.7

Perceptual Speed (PS)

106.4

t=0.64

103.7

108.5

t=1.75*

101.7

110.2

t=2.a**

100.3

119.1

t=1.68

111.1

Number Facility

(NF)

105.6

t=1.04

100.7

105.9

t =2.49**

96.8

91.0

t = .37

92.6

110.3

t=2.21*

98.0

Spatial Relations (SR)

92.9

t=0.16

93.8

95.2

t=0.13

95.8

92.8

t=1.37

86.9

103.4

t=0.52

100.3

Total PMA I&

102.4

t=1.0

99.3

102.6

t=0.82

100.2

100.9

t =2.88**

93.5

113.3

t = 2.76**

103.4

family-related factors. Thus HHS black Ss secured significantly higher scores on NF than VHS blacks (105.6 us. 91.0, p < 01) and siblings of HHS black Ss obtained significantly higher scores than siblings of VHS black Ss on VM ( p < 05), NF ( p < 05), SR ( p < 05) and Total PMA ( p < 05). The trend for HHS Ss to secure higher scores was reversed with white Ss, inasmuch as VHS white Ss secured the higher scores. VHS white Ss earned significantly higher scores than HHS on VM (119.6 vs. 103.9, p < 01), PS ( p < Ol), SR ( p < 05) and Total PMA ( p < 01). Siblings of VHS white Ss obtained significantly higher scores than siblings of HHS white Ss on PS ( p < 01).

The findings summarized in Table 1 also were assessed with respect to intra- subgroup subtest scores. This analysis revealed that HHS blacks secured sig- nificantly lower scores on SR than on the other three PMA subtests (SR 92.9, VM 105, N F 105.6, PS 106.4; all differences p < 01). The same trend is noted with siblings of HHS blacks ( p < 05) and siblings of VHS blacks ( p < 05). VHS black Ss secured significantly lower PMA scores in SR and N F than in VM and PS (p < 01). With white Ss SR does not emerge as an area of almost uniform cog- nitive deficiency, since only HHS white Ss secured higher scores on all PMA sub- tests than SR (p < 05). The siblings of HHS white Ss and VHS white Ss obtained significantly lower scores in SR and N F than in VM (p < 05 and p < 01, respec-

HOME START : FAMILY-CENTERED PRESCHOOL ENRICHMENT 145

tively). The siblings of VHS white Ss secured significantly lower scores in SR and N F than in PS, but not VM.

DISCUSSION Generalizations about the findings of this study must be qualified in view of

the nature of the community and sample size as well as the fact that PMA scores of 5- and 6-year-old children are not precisely comparable. Nonetheless, there may be important curricular implications in the observation that black and white VHS Ss secured mean IQs well within the average range on the Total PMA as well as above-average scores on the VM and PS subtests and that VHS Ss outscored their non-Home Start siblings on all of the six PMA within-race comparisons that reached statistical significance.

The major finding of this study was that type of Home Start program directly influenced the experimental outcomes. Thus no significant differences were noted when scores of HHS blacks were compared to those of their siblings. However, black VHS Ss earned significantly higher scores than their siblings on three PRlA measures. HHS white Ss obtained significantly higher subtest scores than their siblings on two PMA measures, while VHS white Ss secured significantly higher scores than their siblings on three PMA measures. These results indicate that if black Ss are to manifest more durable gains, perhaps enrichment programs should extend over a longer period of time and maximize parental involvement.

The experimental results indicate that, irrespective of ethnicity, Ss achieved higher VM scores as a result of participation in VHS. On the other hand, some results appear to be ethnic-specific. VHS black Ss secured higher PS scores than did their siblings, while VHS white Ss secured higher N F scores than did their siblings. If replication studies were to confirm these findings, there would be ob- vious curricular implications. Additional investigation also is warranted to ascer- tain whether intervention prior to 2 or 3 years of age, designed to facilitate visual- motor coordination and development of manipulative skills, would enable black children to gain skill in spatial relations types of tasks, since these appear to be the “Achilles heel” of black Ss in the present study.

When program participation or lack of program participation is controlled, there was a consistent tendency for black HHS Ss to secure higher scores than black VHS Ss, but for white VHS to obtain higher scores than white HHS Ss. In seeking to understand this unexpected finding it was noted that in the “target” areas there were more black than white families as well as an outward-migration trend of whites. Moreover, HHS participation was limited to 20 black and 20 white Ss per year, whereas VHS had unlimited enrollment. It is possible that the more alert black parents, who provided their children with greater and more varied educational stimuli within the home, enrolled their children in the HHS program. On the other hand, some white parents needed encouragement before they enrolled their (HHS) children. There is therefore some reason to believe that the parents of HHS blacks may have been more responsive to enrichment opportunities than black VHS Ss’ parents, while for white parents just the opposite conditions pre- vailed. Obviously, these possibilities provide only a partial explanation for the apparent relationship between ethnicity, program and cognitive profiles, and further study into these areas merits consideration.

146 RALPH SCOTT

SUMMARY The findings of this experiment reveal no evidence that black Ss profitted

from a single year of prekindergarten classroom-oriented activities, but indicate that black Ss derived cognitive benefits from a more extensive and home-centered program. On the other hand, white Ss appeared to profit from participation in either of the Home Start programs. The study also has provided some evidence that a program with limited enrollment, such as HHS, may be less likely to reach more vulnerable black Ss, but more likely to reach more advantaged white Ss. Additional research into these questions is suggested.

Educational Clinic University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, Ia. 50613

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