A Follow-up Evaluation of the Houston Parent-Child Development Center

Abstract

The Houston Parent-Child Development Center is a 2-year parent-child education program for low-income Mexican-American families. Families enter the program in annual cohorts when their child is 1 year of age and complete the program when the child is 3. End-of-program comparisons of randomly assigned groups have demonstrated that it has had positive effects on mothers and children. This report is of a follow-up evaluation of the program's effect on child school performance in the second through the fifth grades. There were no program effects on school grades, but on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, program children achieved at a significantly higher level on the Reading, Language, and Vocabulary scales and also on the Composite score. On teacher ratings of classroom behavior, program children were less hostile. Groups did not differ in retention in grade or referral to special education classes. Fewer program children were in bilingual classes at the time of the survey.