Prentice Starkey and Alice Klein of WestEd’s Early Math Initiative, along with experts from the University of Nevada Reno and Format Consulting, as well as Sinop University and Hacettepe University in Turkey, will present at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 2023 Biennial Meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 23-25.
SRCD is an international, multidisciplinary, professional association that promotes a deeper understanding of child development through research and knowledge dissemination. This year’s meeting will convene an estimated 6,500 professionals and graduate students in fields ranging from psychology to public health.
The Early Math Initiative aims to enhance mathematical development and learning in young children in public preschool programs. Findings from two projects will be presented at the SRCD Biennial Meeting.
The first project evaluates the effectiveness of the Pre-K Mathematics intervention nationally and is funded by the U. S. Department of Education. This evaluation found that pre-kindergarten children experienced learning loss in mathematics during the COVID-19 pandemic, and children in urban programs experienced significantly greater learning loss than children in rural programs.
The second project is a generalizability study of the effectiveness of the Pre-K Mathematics intervention in Turkey. This study found that the early math intervention was effective for low-socioeconomic status (SES) American children and low-SES Turkish children. The authors concluded that the intervention could be used in other countries and help the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) address its 2015 sustainable development goals of providing universal access to quality preschool education and achieving universal numeracy.
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View a list of WestEd’s presentations below.
Friday, March 24
Flash Talk Session: Low-SES Prekindergarten Children Have Acquired Less Mathematical Knowledge During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Time: 10:30 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Location: Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 2, Room 254 A
Presenting Authors: Prentice Starkey (WestEd), Alice Klein (WestEd), Lydia DeFlorio (University of Nevada, Reno), and Jaime Thomas (Format Consulting, LLC)
Poster Session: Generalizability of the Effectiveness of a Preschool Mathematics Intervention for Low-SES Turkish Children
Time: 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Location: Salt Palace Convention Center, Hall A-B, Board 125
Authors: Prentice Starkey (WestEd), Hilal Karakuş (Sinop University), and Berrin Akman (Hacettepe University)
Email Danny Torres, Associate Director of Events and Digital Media, for more information.