September 2000

Professor Kathy Sylva
Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford
00 44 (0)1865 274 008 / email kathy.sylva@edstud.ox.ac.uk

Professor Edward Melhuish
School of Social Science, Cardiff University
00 44 (0)290 874 853 / email melhuishec@cf.ac.uk

Professor Pam Sammons
Institute of Education, University of London
00 44 (0)207 612 6323 / email p.sammons@ioe.ac.uk

Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford
Institute of Education, University of London
00 44 (0)207 612 6218 / email i.siraj-blatchford@ioe.ac.uk

Research Co-ordinator
Brenda Taggart
Institute of Education, University of London
00 44 (0)207 612 62198 / email b.taggart@ioe.ac.uk

This linked study is currently operating in Northern Ireland.
Research Team
Kathleen McSherry
Stranmillis University College
Queens University, Belfast
00 44 (0) 1232 384 373 / email K.McSherry@stan-ni.ac.uk

Louise Quinn
Stranmillis University College
Queens University, Belfast
00 44 (0) 1232 384 353 / email louharrys@hotmail.com

EPPE Project Address :

EPPE Project
Room 416
University of London
Institute of Education                         Tel: +44 (0)207 612 6219
20 Bedford Way                                 Fax: +44 (0)207 612 6230
London WC1H 0AL                            Email: b.taggart@ioe.ac.uk

Or visit our website on ....................................... http://www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/eppe/

This five year longitudinal study assesses the attainment and development of children between the ages of 3 to 7 years. Research began in 1997 and both quantitative and qualitative methods (including multilevel modelling) are used to explore the effects of pre-school education on children's cognitive attainment and social/behavioural development at entry to school and any continuing effects on such outcomes two years later at the end of Key Stage 1 (age 7). In addition to pre-school centre effects, the study investigates the contribution to children's development of individual and family characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, language, parental education and the educational environment of the home. The research design addresses a variety of research issues (methodological and practical) in investigating the impact of pre-school provision on children's developmental progress.

Information on the characteristics of over 2000 children drawn from 114 different pre-school centres, who entered pre school during the period 1997-1998, has been analysed. The EPPE sample was recruited at age three years plus from four types of pre-school centre; nursery class, playgroup, private day nursery and local authority day care centres. Children were assessed individually by trained researchers at entry to their pre-school centres (age 3 years plus) using measures of verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills. Measures of their social and behavioural development were also collected from centre staff. In addition, interviews with parents provided detailed information about children's personal and family characteristics (including socio-economic status and home environment)

The relationships between young children's entry assessments and various child (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity) and parent characteristics (e.g. educational and occupational background) are explored, to examine the extent to which variation between children in their cognitive and social-behavioural attainments can be accounted for by different factors.

Marked differences between individual pre-school centres were identified in terms of the characteristics of children entering the EPPE study. In order to investigate the impact of different types of provision and of individual pre-school centres it is essential to have accurate baseline data about children's cognitive attainments and details of their social and behavioural development, so that subsequent progress and development can be measured. The information is also interesting in its own right because it provides a snapshot of children and families at the start of the study. Only in this way will it be possible to establish whether children attending specific centres show greater progress or more positive social and behavioural outcomes by entry to school. Control for differences in the characteristics of children at entry to the study is also necessary to examine any differences in effects related to type of pre-school experience (e.g. nursery class, playgroup, private day nursery or local authority day care nursery).

Information on the characteristics of the parents, families, and children was collected by parental interview at the start of the study. This information was used to describe the sample in terms of the parents (labour market participation, socio-economic characteristics, qualifications, marital status and age), the family (composition, ethnicity and language), the child's health, development and behaviour, the child's activities in the home, the use of pre-school provision and childcare history. Research papers consider the variation of the sample's characteristics related to the different types of pre-school centre and also to socio-economic status. Consideration has been given to whether type of pre-school centre differences reflect socio-economic status or whether the differences between the users of different types of pre-school centre go beyond differences in socio-economic status.

The characteristics of parents, families, children, home activities all showed differences related to the family's socio-economic status, and the variation between pre-school groups largely reflected differences related to socio-economic status. However childcare histories showed variation between pre-school groups which did not reduce to socio-economic differences.

The childcare histories revealed great diversity across the whole sample and within each pre-school group. Overall the children using private day nurseries and LA centres had more than twice as much non-parental care as the children in the nursery classes and playgroups. There was also a strong association between level of maternal paid employment and previous childcare use. Those mothers who were employed for longer hours had a history of using greater amounts of childcare.

This study looked at the impact of recent government initiatives on early childhood care and education for 3 to 5-year olds in the full range of pre-school centres in the study. This was based on interviews conducted with 135 heads of pre-school settings and 12 local authority co-ordinators in six local authorities. At a time of rapid policy development and because of the diversity in pre-school provision, the EPPE study recorded how recent changes in local authority under-fives provision might be affecting the centres that are being studied. The findings relate primarily to the impact of recent initiatives concerning Early Years Partnership Plans and increased collaboration across pre-school services, the introduction of the Desirable Learning Outcomes and associated inspection arrangements, new funding arrangements and plans for training.

In addition to the above interviews, which focused on the macro climate of pre-schools, a separate interview was conducted with the heads/managers of 140 centres focussing specifically on the individual characteristics of their centres. These interviews were designed to provide information to complement the observational profiles (reported in Technical Paper 6 in this series). The interviews revealed wide differences in provision across the sectors in terms of resources, professional facilities and support. The report also details information on staffing and staff development opportunities, qualifications and training and programmes in operation and parental involvement across the range of providers.

As part of the study all pre-schools were assessed using an observational assessment known as the Early Childhood Rating Scale, (ECERS-R) plus an extension to it (ECERS-E) based upon the Desirable Learning Outcomes (QCA 1996). ECERS provides measures of the quality of education and care which children receive in settings plus some measures of facilities relating to facilities and human resources. Completion of the ECERS profile required one day of observation plus talking to staff about aspects of the routine which were not visible during the observation session (e.g. weekly swimming or seasonal outings). The researchers administering the assessments were all very familiar with the settings.

The ECERS has 43 items which are divided into seven sub-scales. These sub-scales are: space and furnishings, personal care routines, language and reasoning, activities (e.g. fine motor, art, blocks, dramatic play etc), staff-child and child-child interactions, programme structure (schedule, free play, group time, provision for children with disabilities), and provision for parents and staff.

The additional scale devised by the EPPE research team was based upon Desirable Learning Outcomes and pedagogical practices associated with it covers: literacy, mathematics, science and environment, and diversity.

Analysis of the scores across all of the items indicates that nursery schools, nursery schools combining care and education, and nursery classes are rated consistently good-to-excellent on both assessment scales. Local authority day care (Social Services) centres are rated as adequate-to-good provision. Private day nurseries are rated as minimal/adequate provision. Pre-schools/playgroups are consistently lower than all the other types of provision, although on the 'social interaction' dimension they approach the good range.

The linked study in Northern Ireland used ECERS-R on the following types of provision :- playgroups, day nurseries, nursery classes, nursery schools and reception groups and classes. The profiles were broadly similar, although playgroups in Northern Ireland, in general, had higher scores than playgroups in the main EPPE study.

The EPPE Project collected detailed information about children's personal and family characteristics and their home learning environment for 2800 children from 141 pre-school centres and 200+ without pre-school experience. Children have been tracked from beginning pre-school to entry into reception class. The sample centres were drawn from six types of pre-school provision (playgroups, nursery classes, Local Authority day nurseries, private day nurseries, nursery schools and combined centres).

The research monitors children's progress across the pre-school period in order to identify whether children in particular centres, or experiencing different forms of provision make greater progress than others. An educational effectiveness design has been adopted which uses multilevel modeling techniques. This explores the impact of child, parent and home influences on children's attainment between the ages of three and seven. The impact of amount of pre-school provision (length of time and number of sessions a week attended), and characteristics of pre-school experience have also been investigated.

The analysis reported here is based on more than 2100 children (75% of the total sample) from 138 centres. The data were collected at entry to reception. The final report will be published on the full sample. Two key issues are addressed:

1. the impact of background factors and of pre-school experience on later cognitive attainment at school entry, using measures of children's language, non-verbal skills, emerging literacy and early number concepts.

· Girls scored more highly than boys in literacy, early number skills and non-verbal measures but not on the language assessment.

· Age was significant for all four outcomes with older children scoring more highly.

· Children classified as premature at birth had significantly lower literacy and non-verbal scores at school entry but their language and early number attainments were not significantly different from other children.

· Children from larger families (with 3 or more siblings) also showed lower scores on each measure.

Children eligible for free school meals had lower performance on all cognitive measures.

· Mother's education was highly significant. Children whose mothers have higher levels of academic qualifications showed better results on all measures.

After controlling for the impact of parents' occupations and education, aspects of the home learning environment were found to have a significant impact on children's cognitive development both at age 3 years plus and again at school entry.

· The frequency with which parents reported reading to their child was associated with higher scores in all outcomes while frequency of library visits showed a positive association with language, literacy and early number attainment at school entry.

· Frequency with which parents said they taught their child songs or nursery rhymes showed a significant positive impact on language scores at school entry controlling for other factors.

While still very important predictors of attainment, the same set of child, parent and home environment characteristics which were related to performance at age three plus accounts for less variance in children's attainment at school entry for language and literacy measures. This modest reduction in the influence of background factors on children's attainment may reflect the positive impact of pre-school education and its ability to help reduce inequality in cognitive development which we found at age three. Further follow up of the same group of children at the end of reception and end of Key Stage 1 will show whether the impact of parent and home background factors continues to diminish as children move through the early years of primary school or whether such differences stabilise or increase.

The preliminary results support the view that pre-school education, while by no means eliminating the powerful impact of inequalities, can play some role in helping to reduce their impact and thus is an important policy tool in combating social exclusion. The strength of background influences on children's cognitive development at entry to pre-school likewise points to the importance of policies to promote support for families of children in the 0 to 3 years age group.

The characteristics and school entry attainments of a sample of 269 children who had not experienced pre-school were compared with the EPPE pre-school sample. These children were recruited from reception classes attended by EPPE children. It should be noted that it proved difficult to identify 'home children' who had no pre-school experience, reflecting increase in provision of, and access to, pre-school.

· On every measure of attainment at school entry the home children's mean scores were found to be markedly lower than those of children with pre-school experience. These differences were significant even after controlling for other background factors.

Such children may be at risk of difficulties in adjustment to school because of low initial attainment at school entry. We cannot conclude that these lower scores are necessarily a direct result of lack of pre-school experience, due to the very different characteristics of the home child sample. Far more were of minority ethnic backgrounds and spoke English as an additional language, the proportion in receipt of free school meals was also significantly higher. A controlled experiment (which would not be feasible on both ethical and practical grounds) would be needed to draw causal conclusions. Nonetheless, the data suggest that there is an important association. Further analyses will be conducted to explore the progress of these 'home' children during Key Stage 1 to establish whether the 'gap' in achievement reduces or remains constant as they progress through school.

Children's progress was analysed over the pre-school period controlling for age and prior attainment at entry to the pre-school study. These 'value added models' tested all child, parent and home environment measures identified as statistically significant in earlier analyses.

· There were significant differences related to the particular pre-school centre attended for children's progress in literacy, language, early number concepts and non-verbal skills. These analyses measured attainment at reception after controlling for prior attainment at the start of the EPPE study, and child, family/parent and home environment influences. The pre-school centre effects on children's progress were largest for literacy outcomes. More and less effective centres were identified in each type of provision in the study. Case studies of centres which had a positive impact on children's attainment are currently being conducted.

Quality of pre-school provision was measured by two observational assessments known as the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales (ECERS-R[Revised] and ECERS-E[Extended]). The ECERS-E scale was developed for the EPPE study to reflect the presence of the pre-school curriculum and pedagogy related to the Desirable Learning Outcomes. Pre-school ratings on ECERS-E were positively related to children's subsequent attainment in language, early number and non-verbal development. The literacy sub-scale of ECERS-E was also positively related to progress in literacy skills. Significant variation between centres in their scores on the ECERS instruments were reported in EPPE Technical Paper 6.

The preliminary analyses indicate that registered attendance at pre-school for 10 sessions a week (full time) did not produce any more beneficial effect on children's cognitive progress than attending 5 sessions a week (half time).

Influential factors relevant to progress over the pre-school period have been identified. The educational effectiveness research design adopted for the EPPE study demonstrates the power of large scale, longitudinal studies to address pre-school effects. The design can allow for intake differences in terms of children's prior attainment and child, parent and home environment characteristics. Cross sectional studies and those that focus on descriptions of educational practices alone cannot address the questions of impact on children's outcomes.

The full analysis will be completed until next year and will provide more robust results, although the size of this sample (76% of the total) means that this preliminary analysis should provide a fairly sound guide to the final results concerning cognitive progress. The impact of pre-school centres on children's social and behavioural development and adjustment to school is an major feature of the EPPE study. These data are currently being analysed to establish whether pre-schools also vary in the impact on these important non-cognitive outcomes.

The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (R and E) assessments conducted in pre-school settings were also used in reception classrooms. Observational profiles of 25 reception classes, distributed evenly across 5 geographic regions, were carried out.

Technical Paper 6 (Sylva et al, 1999) reported significant differences between the various forms of pre-school on both measures. The study investigated reception classes alongside these scores. Reception classes had profiles that were similar to local authority day care centres, playgroups and private day nurseries on ECERS-R, but had lower scores than nursery classes, nursery schools and combined centres. Reception classes had higher scores than playgroups and private day nurseries on the ECERS-E, but overall could not be differentiated from the remaining forms of state provision on this measure.

Technical Paper 1 - An Introduction to the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project 

ISBN : 085473 591 7 Publication Date : Autumn 1999

Technical Paper 2 - Characteristics of the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project sample at entry to the study

ISBN : 085473 592 5 Publication Date : Autumn 1999

Technical Paper 3 - Contextualising EPPE: Interviews with Local Authority co-ordinators and centre managers 

ISBN : 085473 593 3 Publication Date : Autumn 1999

Technical Paper 4 - Parent, family and child characteristics in relation to type of pre-school and socio-economic differences.

ISBN : 085473 594 1 Publication Date : Autumn 1999

Technical Paper 5 - Report on centre characteristics (Interviews)

ISBN : 085473 595 X Publication Date : Autumn 2000

Technical Paper 6 - Characteristics of the Centres in the EPPE Sample: Observational Profiles

 ISBN : 085473 596 8

Technical Paper 6A - Characteristics of Pre-School Environments

ISBN : 085473 597 6 Publication Date : Autumn 1999

Technical Paper 7 - Social/behavioural and cognitive development at 3-4 years in relation to family background 

ISBN : 085473 598 4 Publication Date : Autumn 2000

Technical Paper 8 - First multi-level results on pre-school effects at school entry

ISBN : 085473 599 2 Publication Date : Autumn 2001

Technical Paper 9 - Report on age 6 assessment

ISBN : 085473 600 X Publication Date : Spring 2003

Technical Paper 10 - Intensive study of selected centres

ISBN : 085473 601 8 Publication Date : Autumn 2001

Technical Paper 11 - Report on the continuing effects of pre-school education at age 7

ISBN : 085473 602 6 Publication Date : Summer 2003

Technical Paper 12 - The final report

ISBN : 085473 603 4 Publication Date : Spring 2004

or

Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford
Kathy Sylva is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oxford. Her research centres on evaluation of pre-school and primary educational interventions, with a special focus on the predictors of cognitive, linguistic and social outcomes in longitudinal research. She has also led research projects on literacy interventions, supporting parents, and the effects of child care on children and families.

School of Social Science, Cardiff University
Professor Edward Melhuish is a developmental psychologist. His research interests are in studying environmental influences on social, cognitive and communicative development, often using longitudinal studies. Interests include pre-school care and education; parenting; and the linking of research on child development with social policy. Previous research influenced the 1989 Children Act.

Institute of Education, University of London
Professor Sammons is a leading authority on school effectiveness and improvement research. She is a Professor in Education at the Institute of Education and Associate Director of its International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre. She has directed a range of studies on primary and secondary schools funded by ESRC, DfEE, SOEID, DENI, OFSTED, QCA and several LEAs.

Institute of Education, University of London
Professor Siraj-Blatchford is a specialist in Early Childhood Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests include early childhood curriculum and pedagogy. She has published on issues of Early Childhood quality and equality. She has directed projects for several bodies including the DfEE, Aga Khan Foundation, Esme Fairburn Trust and the Leverhulme Trust. She has been a consultant to UNESCO. Currently she is evaluating several Early Excellence Centres.

Institute of Education, University of London.
Brenda Taggart has a background in primary education, having been a teacher, primary advisory teacher, deputy head and acting head. She has worked as both an initial and in-service trainer of teachers. She has worked on a number of research projects focusing on primary and early years education. This has included work for the ESRC, SCAA, NUT, DENI, the DfEE and several LEAs.