Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study

To assess the effectiveness of special education services for young children, the U.S. Department of Education funded another landmark early intervention study to examine “the characteristics of children receiving preschool special education services, the services they receive, their transitions across educational levels, and their performance over time on assessments of academic and adaptive skills” (Carlson et al., 2009, p. xi). Started in 2003, the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS) involved over 3,104 children with disabilities, their caregivers, and

sample of children with disabilities who were ages three through five years of age when the study began (Carlson et al., 2009). As these students progressed through school, researchers collected data in yearly waves on their academic and adaptive skills up through 2009. Collected via several different instruments, data included one-on-one assessment of children, phone interviews with parents, and written questionnaires for teachers or service providers for each child (Carlson et al., 2009).

Research questions focused on the characteristics of students and programs in addition to the nature of their transitions between preschool and kindergarten (Carlson et al., 2009).

Researchers correlated data to determine which child, service, and program characteristics were associated with children’s academic and adaptive performance over time (Carlson et al., 2009).

Study methodology included one-on-one student assessment, telephone interviews with parents, and surveys mailed to teachers, service providers, school principals, district administrators, and state education administrators (Carlson et al., 2009). Data collection began in the fall of 2003 with follow-ups in the winters of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009.

Data from the third wave of the PEELS revealed that school readiness skills and the nature of impairment affect the ease of a child’s transition to kindergarten (Carlson et al., 2009). Children whose parents reported an ease in transition to kindergarten had adequate receptive vocabulary skills, higher scores in letter and word identification, better-developed social skills, and stronger problem solving/math analysis skills as measured by standardized assessment (Carlson et al., 2009). Similarly, children whose parents rated the significance of their impairment as more severe had difficult kindergarten transitions reported by their parents than did students whose disabilities were less significant (Carlson et al., 2009).

Furthermore, PEELS data indicated both parents and teachers reported that the ease of transition to kindergarten was associated with the receiving school’s ability to initiate actions that supported the transition process along with the capacity of that school to provide support to its teachers (Carlson et al., 2009). The importance of the receiving school’s readiness was a critical factor in transition success. The school’s initiation of transition activities, the involvement and support of teachers during transition planning, and supports provided directly to the child and family to enhance transition denote some of the highly rated practices (Carlson et al., 2009).

Eighty-five percent of the parents who reported an easy transition for their child participated fully in the transition process (Carlson et al., 2009). The significance of the readiness of a receiving school to support transition was also one of the recommendations made in an earlier report by the National Education Goals Panel (1998). This report emphasized the importance of striving for continuity between early care and education programs and elementary schools (National Education Goals Panel, 1998).

According to the PEELS, teachers of students with disabilities upon their entrance to kindergarten used a variety of strategies to facilitate the transition process, while special educators reportedly used more strategies to facilitate this process than did regular education staff members (Carlson et al., 2009). Teachers with students having ease with kindergarten transition used more transition supports than those who reported difficult adjustment (Carlson et al., 2009). Both parents and teachers reported the use of more transition strategies in medium-sized suburban districts than in large urban schools.

The PEELS Wave 3 data showed that the support and involvement of schools in the process of transitioning to kindergarten was significantly associated with the ease of transition as perceived by parents and teachers (Carlson et al., 2009). Although the use of more strategies by teachers and

parents was associated with reports of easy transition, this varied by district size, metropolitan status, and district wealth. Larger, less wealthy urban districts had staff members reporting not only transitions that were more difficult, but also the use of fewer transition supports, raising concerns over the equity of transition services (Carlson et al., 2009). Likewise, there were significant differences in parental reports regarding ease of transition based on race/ethnicity and family income. Twenty-six percent of Hispanic parents reported transition difficulties as did 16%

of Black parents in comparison to 13% of White parents (Carlson et al., 2009). In an earlier study of Wave 1 PEELS data, Markowitz et al. (2006) reported that more than one-third of preschool transition coordinators and almost 40% of K-12 public school administrators when surveyed selected “Improvement of Transition Practices” as an area of focus in both their states and in their schools. These administrators noted the impact of transition practices on student success both upon and following their entrance to kindergarten (Markowitz et al., 2006). Although a significant percentage of public school administrators expressed the need to improve transition practices, the literature continued to show a paucity of studies around the topic.

Daley, Munk, & Carlson (2011) used PEELS data to examine transition practices for children with disabilities as they moved to kindergarten, based on a survey of receiving kindergarten teachers. Daley et al. (2011) examined child, family, school, and district factors to predict which children and families received high or low intensity transition supports and what kinds of supports they received. High intensity practices included home visits and visits to a child’s preschool setting from kindergarten teachers, phone calls to parents’ homes, and participation in the development of a child’s IEP (Daley et al., 2011). Review of records and the sending of written information to a child’s home from the receiving school encompassed some of the low intensity practices (Daley et al., 2011).

An examination of data showed that teachers utilized 2.5 high intensity practices and 3.5 low intensity practices to support transition to kindergarten for children with special needs (Daley et al., 2011). Teachers of children with disabilities expressed more concern about the ability of these students to transition without difficulty. Characteristics related to the child and family, the school and district, and the kindergarten classroom were predictors of transition practices that were used (Daley et al., 2011). Larger districts provided fewer and less intense practices than did smaller ones, and children with more severe disabilities appeared to receive more high intensity supports. Families of higher SES had children who received more high intensity supports.

Additionally, students who attended both preschool and kindergarten in the same setting received more of both high and low intensity supports than those who transitioned to kindergarten from another preschool setting. Preschool teachers interacted daily with kindergarten teachers in these settings, accounting for the use of more high intensity supports. Four direct predictors of a child’s likelihood as to whether or not they received high or low intensity transition supports included the overall size of the school district, the district urbanicity, the district poverty level, and whether a child moved from preschool to kindergarten in the same setting or in a different one (Daley et al., 2011). Table 4 summarizes the landmark transition studies for early education programs.

Table 4. Landmark Transition Studies for Early Education Programs

Study Year Purpose Conducted By

National Transition Study

1988 Determine how public school supported transition from preschool, day care, and

1996 National Survey of 3,600 kindergarten teachers to examine transition practices

National Center for Early Development and Learning

into kindergarten of regular and special