In 2006 Massachusetts and New Mexico launched three curriculum intervention approaches in preschool classrooms designed to prevent the development of learning disabilities in young children and to improve the cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional outcomes of children with such disabilities.

Were these efforts successful? To find out, Abt Associates, worked with researchers at Florida State University, to conduct a five-year evaluation of this initiative funded by a grant from the Institute for Education Statistics. Abt’s methodology involved assigning four curriculum alternatives to preschool classrooms serving at-risk children, using a randomized cluster design. This longitudinal study followed children from preschool through the end of first or second grade, depending on whether they entered preschool in the first or second year of the study.