Poster Session at the Head Start National Research Conference

First 5 LA and LA Universal Preschool (LAUP) research staff, joined by a team of researchers from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., American Institutes for Research and the National Center for Latino Child & Family Research, participated in a poster symposium at Head Start National Research Conference in Washington D.C. on June 24, 2008.  First 5 LA's poster session was entitled Evaluation and Measurement Challenges of Research for a New Universal Preschool Initiative in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Community and focused on the challenges of assessing English language learners (ELL), the limitations of current assessment approaches and the potential of new approaches being developed in the context of First 5 LA's Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS).

The goal of the session was to discuss methodological and measurement challenges related to the evaluation of Los Angeles Universal Preschool initiative. The posters addressed various English Language Learners (ELLs) assessment challenges (e.g., differential home language experiences, rates of language and literacy development within each language, exposure to classroom instructional practices, and determination of appropriate language of assessment), as well as limitations of current assessment approaches (e.g., psychometric properties of measures and measurement equivalence analyses).

Click on the links below to download the Session's Posters:

• Poster # 1: Vision for Research on Universal Preschool: Background, Purpose, and Goals of the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Program and its Evaluation.
• Poster # 2: Development of Language Routing Protocol to Determine Bilingual Spanish Speaking Children's Language Assessment.
• Poster # 3: Use of Conceptual Scoring to Increase Reliability and Validity of Direct Child Assessments with Linguistically Diverse Preschoolers.
• Poster # 4: Measurement Equivalence of Teacher Rating Scales of Social- Emotional Development with a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Sample of Preschool Children.
• Poster # 5: What Do Parents Mean When They Rate Their Children's Behavior?
• Poster # 6: Development of "The Respect for Differences Scale" (RDS): A New Parent Report Measure.
• Poster # 7: Associations of Parent Ratings of Children's Behavior with Child Development in an Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse Sample if Preschool Children.
• Poster # 8: Outreach and Communication with Practitioners about Measures and Research: Development and use of a Compendium and Consumer's Guide.
• Poster # 9: The Ethnic/Racial and Linguistic Diversity of Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP): Implications for Supporting Cultural Competency.