Effectiveness of a Program to Accelerate Vocabulary Development in Kindergarten (VOCAB)

The current study used an experimental intent-to-treat design to measure the impact of an established intervention, the on-site caregiver training component of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), on child development and child care program quality. The PITC was developed by WestEd in 1985, in partnership with the California Department of Education. Over the next 25 years, more than 1,500 early childhood trainers across 30 states became PITC certified trainers. More than 1,000 Early Head Start trainers have also been trained by the PITC. Regional Educational Laboratory West, administered by WestEd, contracted with Berkeley Policy Associates to conduct a third-party evaluation of the PITC. Berkeley Policy Associates and its subcontractors, the University of Texas, Austin, and Survey Research Management, conducted the evaluation independently of the WestEd staff who developed and implemented the intervention. The primary questions focus on child outcomes: • What is the impact of the PITC on a composite measure of children’s cognitive and language skills, at least 6 months after its full deliver to the children’s child care programs (within an average of 23 months after random assignment)? • What is the impact of the PITC on a composite measure of children’s social and behavioral skills, at least 6 months after its full delivery to the children’s child care programs (within an average of 23 months after random assignment)?

The secondary questions focus on child care quality: • What is the impact of the PITC on global child care quality at least 4 months after the PITC ends (within an average of 21 months after random assignment)? • What is the impact of the PITC on a composite measure of the quality of child care programs’ staff-child interactions at least 4 months after the PITC ends (within an average of 21 months after random assignment)? The primary findings are: • The PITC did not have a statistically significant effect on a composite measure of children’s cognitive/language scores, measured approximately 6 months (on average) after it ended. xiv • The PITC did not have a statistically significant effect on children’s composite behavior scores, measured at 6 months after it ended. Sensitivity analyses, conducted with two alternative approaches to missing data treatment, had results consistent with these findings. Secondary research questions addressed the effects of the PITC on child care program quality at, on average, four months after the intervention ended. These estimates also found no significant effects. Findings of this analysis are: • The PITC did not have a statistically significant effect on global program quality, as measured by trained observers administering the ITERS-R and the FCCERS-R. • The PITC did not have a statistically significant effect on staff-child interactions, a composite measure incorporating interactions items from the environment rating scales and from the PITC-PARS. Results of sensitivity analyses were consistent these findings.