Opportunities for Studying Later Effects of Follow Through: Executive Summary.

This document summarizes a study designed to assess the feasibility of conducting relatively low cost later effects studies of Follow Through (FT) programs without extensive new data collection, relying instead on existing data resources including the national FT data base, sponsor and site data bases, school and community records, and potential new data collection of modest scope. Six data sets were selected as meeting the criteria (adequate sample size, availability of a wide range of measures, and good local comparison groups). Research questions that can be addressed by existing data bases were identified as follows: (1) What are the causal relationships among academic achievement, IQ, process measures, and affective measures? (2) Do achievement effects associated with FT participation increase, decrease, or stabilize after program completion? (3) What is the relative importance of the current academic year and the child's previous academic history as determinants of academic success? (4) What are the causal relationships between academic performance and school attendance in and after FT? (5) What is the relationship between post-FT academic performance and length of FT participation? (6) Is it possible to predict post-FT patterns on different measuring instruments? (7) What differences in post-FT performance exist among different models at the same site? (Author/MK)