Different settings, different patterns of impacts: Effects of a Pre-K math intervention in a mixed-delivery system

Publicly funded Pre-K programs operate across a variety of settings, including both public schools and community-based organizations. Yet, there is limited research examining differences in the quality of children's Pre-K experiences across public schools and community-based organizations. Moreover, there is little information about whether interventions that aim to enhance program quality and child outcomes have consistent effects across Pre-K settings. The current study addresses these gaps by leveraging data from a large-scale randomized trial of a Pre-K math intervention called Making Pre-K Count (MPC; N = 69 schools and centers, N = 173 classrooms, N = 1389 Pre-K students). The study assesses variation in classroom quality across public schools and community-based organizations and estimates impacts of MPC separately within each setting. Descriptive findings revealed that public school Pre-K programs in the control group spent more time on math instruction and had higher quality math instruction than Pre-K programs implemented in community-based organizations. Results from exploratory impact analyses showed that in both public schools and community-based organizations, MPC had large positive impacts on the amount of math instruction children received. MPC improved students’ math outcomes, but not language and executive function, at the end of kindergarten within the public school sample only. In contrast, in the community-based organization sample, MPC improved students’ receptive language in Pre-K and executive functioning in kindergarten, but not children's math skills at either time point. Implications for future scaling and implementation are discussed.