| This dissertation involves 3 papers that examine the effects of the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) guidelines and their effects on children's academic achievement. The first paper is a literature review, summarizing and critiquing the previous studies examining the effects of DAP. The second paper evaluates the psychometric properties of a new observer measure of DAP, and the third paper examines the effects of DAP on standardized measures of child outcomes in first through third grades. Most of the previous work is found to have methodological flaws, potentially leading to the ambiguous findings reported. A Developmentally Appropriate Practices Template (ADAPT) is found to be a reliable measure, assessing those aspects of DAP that occur regularly within a classroom. Finally, using the ADAPT, DAP is found to not be systematically related to longitudinal differences in child outcomes. Together these three studies suggest a critical assessment of the use and advocacy of DAP. |
