Evaluating Transition to School Programs

Learning from Research and Practice

Sue Dockett, Bob Perry

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000464559
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Transition to school represents a time of great change for all involved. Many transition to school programs have been developed to support positive transitions to school. While these programs have involved complex planning and implementation, often they have not been evaluated in rigorous or systematic ways. This book brings together Australian and international perspectives on research and practice to explore approaches to evaluating transition to school programs.

For children, school is quite different from anything else they have experienced. For families and educators, there are considerable changes as they interact with new people and take on new roles. Developing effective transition to school programs is a key policy initiative around the world, based on recognition of the importance of a positive start to school and the impact of this for future school engagement and outcomes. Throughout the chapters of this book, authors from Australia, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Jamaica share examples of evaluation practice, with the aim of encouraging educators to reflect on their own contexts and adopt evaluation practices that are relevant and appropriate for them. The book brings together the fields of evaluation research and transition to school. A wide range of examples and figures is used to relate research and practice and to illustrate possible applications of evaluation strategies.

Evaluating Transition to School Programs highlights the importance of multiple perspectives of the transition to school and offers suggestions about how the perspectives of children, families, educators and community members might be included and analysed in evaluation strategies. Other themes throughout the book include the importance of collaboration, respectful and trusting relationships, practitioner-driven inquiry, strengths-based approaches and developing programs that are responsive to context. This book is written for educators and leaders in early years and primary school settings, and will also be of interest to researchers, students and policy makers in the field.

1

Setting the scene

Sue Dockett and Bob Perry

DOI: 10.4324/9781003055112-1

Introduction

Welcome to Evaluating Transition to School Programs: Learning from Research and Practice, an innovative text which takes the authors and the readers on a learning adventure. This adventure builds on and contextualises the large amount of national and international research, policy, and practice around the development, implementation and evaluation of effective programs which link families, children, early childhood and school educators, and many others, as children begin their school education journey.

Evaluating Transition to School Programs: Learning from Research and Practice synthesises research, policy, and practice from around the world to assist local transition to school communities as they determine whether the programs and practices they have created, adopted, and implemented are the most effective possible. While this is not a book about the construction of transition practices and programs, per se, it does build on more than 20 years of work by the authors and many national and international colleagues aimed at ensuring that children, their families, and all other participants in the transition journey experience the best possible start to school.

Evaluating and monitoring transition

The book addresses a gap in the evaluation of transition programs. Little has been written with a specific focus on the evaluation of transition to school programs and individual transitions for children, families, and educators. Anecdotal responses to the question “How do you know that your transition program was effective?” are often along the lines of “There were fewer tears this year than last”, “I didn’t hear any complaints”, and “The children have settled well and are straight into the curriculum”. Given the amount of effort and resources dedicated to transition to school programs across the world each year, there need to be better ways of evaluating the effectiveness of these programs. Evaluating Transition to School Programs: Learning from Research and Practice utilises extant national and international research and practice to fill this gap.

Internationally, efforts to monitor and evaluate transition practices often have focused on assessing the readiness of individual children (Ahtola et al., 2011; Dockett & Perry, 2013; Petriwskyj, Thorpe, & Tayler, 2005). Meisels (2007, p. 44) has cautioned that such assessments of individual children are not sufficient measures to “render a valid decision about whether a program is realising its promise or achieving its goals”. Rather, more comprehensive measures that incorporate a range of perspectives (including those of children, families, educators, and other stakeholders), are required to consider the context in which programs operate, the purposes and aims of programs, as well as how well the programs achieve these. Specifically, we need strategies that provide a holistic approach to understanding the effectiveness of programs in supporting children and families as well as the work of educators.

These views are supported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2017) focus in Starting Strong V, which advocates for a broad view of transitions moving away from the traditional focus on individual children’s readiness, supporting instead the contemporary view that effective transitions involve many people and attend to the ways in which schools and communities respond to children and families, as well as what children bring with them to school (Centre for Community Child Health, 2008; Dockett & Perry, 2014; Margetts & Kienig, 2013). While a great deal of national and international research exists on the topic of transition to school (see, for example, Brooker, 2008; Dunlop & Fabian, 2007; Kagan & Tarrant, 2010; Lillejord et al., 2017; O’Kane, 2016; Perry, Dockett, & Petriwskyj, 2014; Peters, 2010), there is limited research about the evaluation of transitions and the ways in which this can be used to identify effective practices within specific contexts, promote equity of provision and access to effective transition practices, and provide feedback about the relative effectiveness and impact of transition practice (OECD, 2017). Equity issues have been recognised as significant at the time of transition, with families and children experiencing disadvantage or marginalisation identified as less likely than their more-advantaged counterparts to access transition programs (Dockett, Perry, & Kearney, 2010, 2011; OECD, 2017; Smart et al., 2008).

The country background reports for Starting Strong V indicate that most monitoring of transition programs and/or practices is done at the local level, often using informal means, although, for example, national surveys in Norway seek limited information about transition practices (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2017). While there are no common measures to monitor transition practices, Sweden has developed a self-evaluation form for educators responsible for the preschool class and the first year of school, with the aim of identifying effective practices as well as areas for improvement (Ministry of Education and Research, 2016). Finnish, Danish, and Austrian transition practices are also monitored at the local level (Charlotte Bühler Institut, 2016; Ministry for Children and Social Affairs, 2017; Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland, 2017). The aims of monitoring transition programs seem to be twofold: supporting individual children’s transitions and also considering the overall impact of the transition program. The latter may involve surveys for families as well as educators.

A recent New Zealand report indicated that schools and early childhood settings considered responsive to their children, families, and communities undertook regular review of their transition programs:

… in schools with only informal review processes, teachers were reactive. They monitored children’s progress and made adjustments to their programme to suit the child or group of children in the new entrants’ class. Teachers and senior leaders’ discussions about transition practices were based on anecdotal evidence, including feedback from parents, rather than analysis of sound data. Senior leaders rarely reported to the board about the effectiveness of transition practices.

Most of the ‘very responsive’ schools had robust, formal self review practices, and their responses were proactive. They analysed data and looked for how they could improve the whole process of transition. Senior leaders considered children’s wellbeing as well as assessment data and sought parents’ and children’s views. Their focus was on providing a smooth transition to ensure minimal disruption to each child’s learning.

(Education Review Office, 2015, p. 49)

It is challenging to identify comprehensive measures that address both program and individual components at the point of transition to school, as early childhood education and care (ECEC) and school sectors “work in different worlds in terms of the dominant methods and metrics for assessing their work” (Schultz, 2010, p. 274). However, differences in expectations, understandings, and perspectives can be bridged in a number of ways – including the sharing of information and participation in professional networks (Boyle & Petriwskyj, 2014; Dockett & Perry, 2006, 2014; Edwards, 2011; Karila & Rantavuori, 2014). In addition, some specific evaluation tools have been developed to promote connection between ECEC and school experiences. These include the sharing of documentation, such as transition statements. While these statements have become a feature of many Australian transition programs supported by various state and territory departments of education, they have also been used internationally (O’Kane & Murphy, 2016a, 2016b). The use of transition statements is not without critique (Hopps, 2014; Hopps-Wallis & Perry, 2017). While transition statements are recognised as a potentially important element of transition programs, they are not sufficient to monitor or evaluate such programs overall.

For whom is the book written?

Ultimately, Evaluating Transition to School Programs: Learning from Research and Practice is written for all of the children starting primary school in any particular year. Its prime purpose is to help these children experience as effective a transition to school as possible. It is unlikely, however, that (m)any of these children will read this book so, perhaps it is better to think of them as the motivation for the book but not the readership.

The book is aimed towards educators in ECEC and primary school settings and those preparing for such roles. Leaders in both settings will delve into the book to assist them in making relevant decisions around the evaluation of transition practices in their contexts. Some family members, particularly those working with educators in transition networks, may wish to consult parts of the book. Researchers, research students, and policy makers in the early childhood field will also find much in the book which will be helpful to them.

While Evaluating Transition to School Programs: Learning from Research and Practice is based on the extensive body of research in transition to primary school, it is, first and foremost, a practical book which provides a sound basis of national and international research and practice. Using this information, transition to school programs can be evaluated at the local level with the aim of ensuring their effectiveness for all participants. However, the book does not provide recipes for success, as all processes and practices need to be judged against their appropriateness and fit with the local contexts. The book does provide systems, guidelines, and suggested experiences which can complement the local expertise of adults and children to plan, implement, and evaluate the most effective transition to school programs possible.

Transition to school as a field of research, practice, and policy making

Over the last 25 years, transition to school has been the subject of very active research agendas in many areas of the world. Initial emphasis, particularly in the USA, was on children’s school readiness; that is, how well children are prepared for the academic and structural requirements of school – what literacy and numeracy skills do the children have, and how well do they fit into the school classroom? Notions of transition to school have broadened conceptions of school readiness over the ensuing years, although there is still emphasis in many jurisdictions on what children know and can do as they enter school.

A key impetus for reconceptualising transition to school came from the work of Uri Bronfenbrenner and his colleagues, whose ecological systems theory was applied to starting school. A definitive article by Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta (2000) provided a framework for research into ecological and dynamic models of transition and became one of the critical foundation stones for our (and many others’) work in the field (see, for example, Dunlop, 2014). The critical importance in the ecological model of systems of processes and interactions across contexts reflected the reality of transition to school, where there are many participants – not only the children starting school but their families and communities, educators in ECEC and schools, and many others – interacting within the specific contexts surrounding the children. The importance of the relationships which are formed during processes of interaction among the participants began to be emphasised, and the establishment of such relationships became one of the key aspects of what were seen to be effective transition to school programs. In 2001, we published a set of ten guidelines for effective transition to school programs with the first being “effective transition programs establish positive relationships between children, parents and educators” (Dockett & Perry, 2001b, p. v). This commitment has stayed with us ever since. While the language of effective transitions now incorporates the pillars of opportunities, expectations, aspirations and entitlements (Educational Transitions and Change (ETC) Research Group, 2011), the belief that the critical outcomes of effective transition programs are trusting and respectful relationships among all the participants is still foundational to our work and to this book.

There have been many developments in research and practice in the field of educational transitions. A range of theoretical frameworks has been applied, including Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2006) bioecological model of human development and the consequent exposure to proximal processes, context, and time and their implications for transitions (Dockett, Griebel, & Perry, 2017). An overview of this and other theoretical frameworks is provided in Chapter 2. The impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations (UN), 1989) and Childhood Studies (James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998) have meant that children’s voices are now seen as an essential component of the planning and implementing of transition to school programs. This book also positions these voices as essential elements of the evaluation of such programs.

Transition to school practice has evolved in direct response to the changed directions in research. Transition to school programs are now much more than traditional short-term orientation programs run by the receiving school and designed to have the children and, sometimes, their families, get to know what is required of them by the school and, to a lesser extent, allow the school to learn something about the children. Many programs are designed to encourage the development of relationships among children and between children and their potential first-year-of...