Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 Jun 1998

Vol. 491 No. 6

Written Answers. - Educational Projects.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

266 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the nature of the evaluation of the Early Start teaching and counsellors' programmes which are now under way; the parameters in respect of which these schemes are being evaluated; and whether it involves performance in standardised tests compared to a control group. [12618/98]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

The Early Start and the teacher/ counsellor projects are two separate initiatives. Different procedures were used to evaluate each project.

The Early Start pre-school project which was initiatied in September 1994 and targeted at three year old children from disadvantaged backgrounds was evaluated by the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra. A standardised test was administered to a control group of junior infants in the original eight Early Start locations in December 1994. The same test was administered to a random sample of the first Early Start cohort of children in December 1995 when they were in junior infants and again to a sample of the second Early Start cohort in December 1996.

In 1994 two standardised tests, English reading and mathematics, were administered to a random sample of pupils in second class in the eight original Early Start centres which will enable comparisons to be made between Early Start pupils and the control group as well as between the two Early Start cohorts. These tests will be administered to samples of the first two Early Start cohorts in December 1998 and in December 1999 respectively when they are in second class. Also, teachers of junior infants were asked their opinion of Early Start pupils compared with pupils who had not been in Early Start and whom they had taught previously. Junior infant teachers were also requested to complete a pupil rating form in 1995/96 and again in 1996/97 comparing the pupils in their classes who had been in Early Start with those who were not.

The teacher/counsellor project was set up in September 1995 on a three year pilot basis to provide an additional resource for schools in supporting pupils with disruptive or withdrawn behaviours. The method of evaluation which was used involved a report by inspectors in my Department on aspects of the project and the collection of information by questionnaire data from teacher/counsellors, class teachers, school principals, chairpersons of the boards of management and from parents. The evaluation involved the collection of information about aspects of the teacher/counsellors' work and the inspectors' evaluation of that work as well as the involvement of the other parties in the project and their estimate of the effectiveness of the intervention.