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Description
The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the services provided by the Circle of Education (COE) program, a music- and literacy-based school readiness program, in preschool and kindergarten classrooms in a school serving mostly low-income, Latino children. This paper describes the implementation of running the program that entailed college student interns leading twelve lessons in the classrooms, while parent leaders led eleven lessons in Spanish with parents who left the classes with materials needed to run the activity at home with their children. Lessons were selected from the COE program that corresponded with trauma related symptoms (e.g., self-esteem, emotional regulation, friendship and cooperation, self care, and school climate). Additionally, these lessons incorporated Latino cultural values: familismo, personalismo, and respeto. The results of this study provide feedback from student interns and parents who participated in the program implementation during the school year and reflected on the program’s efficacy in improving school readiness. The results of this study are inconclusive in suggesting that the intervention program, COE, was effective in enhancing school readiness skills in preschool and kindergarten children from high risk populations. However, much was learned about the process of coordinating services between multiple stakeholders. Results of this study suggest that improving the implementation of the COE program with greater treatment fidelity, generalization, and maintenance may lead to increases in fostering self-esteem, improving emotional regulation, promoting friendship and cooperation, encouraging self-care skills, and improve school climate. Further investigation is warranted in how to better implement the program in order to reproduce and duplicate positive results of parent engagement across settings.
