Evaluating the Impact of Small Group Supplemental Math Enrichment in Kindergarten
This article reports findings from a one-year evaluation of a kindergarten math enrichment program. A randomized design was used to assess the impact of High 5s on children’s math skills, attitudes towards math, language ability, and executive function for a sample of kindergarten students in New York City. High 5s math clubs were designed to provide small group math enrichment delivered in a game-like format. Participants included 655 kindergarten students in 24 schools. Students assigned to the High 5s group met outside of class in small groups with a trained facilitator three times per week. The High 5s program produced a positive impact on one of two measures of math skills. We find no impact of the program on other outcomes.
Publication: Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness
Notes
1 The analytic sample includes 18 students whose parents did not give consent to participate in High 5s, but who were randomized in a second phase to maintain the internal validity of the comparison with a control group of children who did not receive Making Pre-K Count in pre-K. Students in the second randomization phase did not receive the High 5s program even if they were assigned to the treatment group. The analytic sample also only includes those students who remained in the same school between preK and K. Results without these 18 students and including students who did not remain in the same school between preK and K are the same as those presented here. See Mattera et al. (Citation2018) for details.
2 While all students, regardless of participation, were included in analyses of child outcomes, the 19 students who discontinued participation in the program were dropped from attendance totals once they were no longer participating (e.g., after they had left the school).
3 Comparisons were only possible in the spring. Items were not aligned well enough on the fall protocols.
4 The standardized measures of the difference in outcomes at the end of kindergarten for children in the 90th income percentile and children in the 10th income percentile in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) conducted in the 2010–2011 year (as described in Reardon & Portilla, Citation2016) was equivalent to 1.046 standardized units. The estimated effect size produced by the High 5s clubs (0.19) is equivalent to 19% of that gap.
Additional information
Funding
Making Pre-K Count and High 5s are also supported with lead funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation and the Robin Hood Foundation.
