Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Cities like Somerville work hard to boost children’s outcomes by making sure that preschool educators communicate with elementary school teachers.

Now a new research study points to some of the benefits of this approach.

The study – “Who benefits? Head start directors’ views of coordination with elementary schools to support the transition to kindergarten” – analyzes interviews of 16 Head Start directors.

The study found “numerous ways in which Head Start directors coordinate with elementary schools to share information about individual children and program practices,” according to the abstract.

This analysis “revealed that coordination may benefit children indirectly through both improved teaching practices, increased alignment and parent supports. Findings indicate the need for additional research to explore indirect links between coordination and children’s success.”

Among the study’s highlights:

• Head Start “initiates activities with schools to support the kindergarten transition”

• Head Start “shares information to transfer knowledge and to align systems,” and

• Head Start “serves as a bridge between families and elementary schools”

The study’s lead author, Kyle DeMeo Cook, tells us:

“My research interests focus on the transition to kindergarten and aligning the multiple contexts that children and families experience during the transition. I have experience conducting both early childhood education research and K-12 research which has led me to focus on research that can improve continuity across these systems.“

Cook is a research associate at the Education Development Center – and, before that, she was the early childhood field director here at Strategies for Children. Her co-authors are Rebekah Levine Coley and Kathryn Zimmermann, a former Strategies intern.

This research was conducted at Boston College where Cook is a doctoral student in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.

In 2016, Cook “was named an Early Care and Education Research Scholar by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for her research on coordination efforts between Head Start programs and elementary schools during the transition to school,” according to her bio.

She adds, “This is one part of a two-part study on coordination between Head Start programs and elementary schools around the transition to kindergarten.”

Stay tuned for more research to come. As Cook says, “While the research shows that Head Start programs are initiating many activities to coordinate with elementary schools, more research is needed to examine the benefits of these coordination efforts for children.”

To learn more, you can pay a fee and download a copy of the study. Or contact Kyle DeMeo Cook at KDeMeo@edc.org.