Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Comprehensive Child Development Program

OVERVIEW

The Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) aims at enhancing child development and ensuring the delivery of early and comprehensive services to low-income families. Funded by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, CCDP delivers case management and early childhood education by building on programs already in existence in most communities. An evaluation study of CCDP showed that the program did not produce any important positive impacts on participating families. Changes did occur, however, in lives of both the CCDP families and the control families participating in the study, leading to suspicion of faulty random assignment.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Families that include a pregnant mother or child under the age of one and have an income below the Federal Poverty guidelines.

The Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) aims at enhancing child development and ensuring the delivery of early and comprehensive services to low-income families. Two key services are delivered to families: case management and early childhood education. Families enrolled in the program are assigned a case manager who works with the family to assess goals and services needed, developing a plan of action, referring proper services, and providing counseling and support to family members. CCDP also delivers early childhood education for children from birth to five years. Education was either center-based or provided through home visitation. A childhood coordinator selects and develops a curriculum for the home visits. Home visits focus on educating parents and parenting skills. The bi-weekly sessions last thirty minutes.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: An impact study of CCDP was funded in the spring of 1990 using families recruited for CCDP projects. These families were randomly assigned to the CCDP group of the control group. Data collection began the fall of 1991 and occurred annually over a 5-year period. The study included 21 of the original 24 projects. The evaluation included 4,410 families, with 2,213 families assigned to CCDP and 2,197 assigned to the control group. Of the sample families, 43 percent of the children were African American, 26 percent were Hispanic, and more than one-third of the mothers in the sample were teenagers.

Approach: The researchers collected data by interviewing mothers and testing children each year for several years. Data collection occurred primarily in the home. Teams of researchers included an On-Site Researcher and a Child Tester. Child assessment measures included the Kaufman-ABC and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Mothers were asked to complete a maternal interview. Cross sectional analyses were used to research the impact of CCDP on family income and child’s cognitive achievement at the end of the study. Another analytic approach was used to examine differences between program and control families in patterns of change over time. Also, no important positive impacts were found for subgroups, such as teen mothers, single parents, or boys or girls. Moreover, non-experimental analyses did not find better outcomes for those who participated longer.

Results: A review of program impacts and cost found that CCDP did not produce important positive impacts on participating families. Specifically, the CCDP did not show significant impacts on the economic self-sufficiency of participating mothers or on their parenting skills. Furthermore, the program did not show significant impacts on the cognitive and social-emotional development of participating children.

Researchers concluded several possibilities as to why CCDP produced disappointing findings. They do not think the program was poorly defined or poorly implemented. However, some sites lacked adequate time to start-up the program effectively. The services could have not been of sufficiently high quality or were too diluted to be effective. Also, many families in the control group received similar services.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

St. Pierre, R. G., Layzer, J., Goodson, B. D., & Bernstein, L. S. (1999). The effectiveness of comprehensive, case management interventions: Evidence from the national evaluation of the comprehensive child development program. American Journal of Evaluation, 20(1), 15-34.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: / Program age ranges in the Guide: Early Childhood (0-5), Mid. Childhood (6-11), Adolescence (12-14)

Program components: provider-based, home visiting; parent or family component

Measured outcomes: life skills; Education and Cognitive Development;

Program information last updated 09/22/06.