Experimental Evaluation of the Tools of the Mind Pre-K Curriculum. Fidelity of Implementation Technical Report. Working Paper

The "Experimental Evaluation of the Tools of the Mind Pre-K Curriculum" study was designed to compare the effectiveness of the "Tools of the Mind" ("Tools") curriculum to the curricula the school system is currently using in enhancing children's self-regulation skills and their academic preparation for kindergarten. In addition, compared was the effectiveness of each into kindergarten and first grade. The research plan in 2010-11 (Cohort 1) and 2011-12 (Cohort 2) involved assessing the consented children in both "Tools" and "Comparison" classrooms at the beginning and end of the school year using a variety of self-regulation tasks and child achievement measures. Each classroom was also observed three times during the year using multiple measures designed to capture the differences between classrooms using Tools and those using other curricula. The evaluation involved two cohorts of children. Cohort 1 included the four Tennessee school systems and Guilford County Schools in North Carolina with children from 60 classrooms ("Tools" = 32) in 45 schools ("Tools" = 25). Cohort 2 included Alamance-Burlington School System in North Carolina with children from 20 classrooms ("Tools" = 10) in 12 schools ("Tools"= 5). "Tools of the Mind" is a complex and dynamic curriculum with a specific sequence of preschool activities designed to develop children's ability to learn, as well as direct content knowledge, across the school year, with this sequence varying to some extent upon the strengths of the students within the classroom. At the time this project began, there were 62 activities but no developed measure of fidelity of implementation for the curriculum in this version. Project staff and the curriculum developers and trainers participated in a series of meetings to discuss (1) the important aspects of the curriculum that set it apart from other early childhood curricula; (2) how these characteristics could be measured or quantified; and (3) once measured, what implementation with fidelity would look like. This report focuses on vertical fidelity, or measures of fidelity designed to differentiate among classrooms enacting "Tools." Also collected was other data designed to measure horizontal fidelity, or the aspects of the curriculum thought to differentiate classrooms using "Tools" from those using another curriculum. The report offers a conclusion and future directions. [For the full technical report: "Experimental Validation of the Tools of the Mind Prekindergarten