DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36723.v1
title: Head Start Miami-Dade County, 2014-2015
title: Version 1

description: The Head Start Miami-Dade County, 2014-2015 study seeks to validate a novel computerized measure of motivation orientation among 350 low-income preschoolers served by the Head Start program. To address the lack of developmentally appropriate and reliable measures of motivation orientation, a Computer Administered Battery of Observable Motivation (CABoOM) was developed. CABoOM consists of three tasks (sling shot, escape the grid, and memory matching) ranging in solvability and level of difficulty. The assessments were collected twice in the spring, once on the full sample and a second time within two weeks on a subset of the sample. Direct assessments of school readiness outcomes such as children's language and science abilities were collected, along with a teacher rating scale of approaches to learning in order to allow for the examination of gains across the year.
description: This study aimed to address the lack of developmentally appropriate and reliable measures of motivation orientation for young children. In pursuit of this aim, a computer-based direct assessment of motivation orientation was developed. The study assessed the test reliability and the response process validity of CABoOM, as well as, concurrent and predictive validity by examining associations with approaches to learning and gains in school readiness outcomes from the beginning to the end of the Head Start year.
description: Assessments took place over two sessions within a week. During the first session all participants completed a pretest version of all three tasks to establish a baseline ability. They were also given pictures of two puzzles and asked to identify which puzzles were easier and which were harder in order to test for response process validity. The respondents were then administered each task (sling shot, escape the grid, and memory matching game) 7 times with ranging solvability and difficulty. Throughout the process each child was allowed to retry 'failed' tasks or determine the level of difficulty for the next task. The same method was used to collect data in the second session however, only a subset of the sample was assessed.
description: The data contains 80 variables. 16 of these variables pertain to the slingshot task, 16 to the memory matching task, and 16 to the escape the grid task. The remaining variables are demographic variables (ig. gender, age) and composite scores.
description: Presence of Common Scales: 
Lens on Science
Learning-to-Learn Scale 
Computer Administered Battery of Observed Motivation
description: The final sample consist of 316 children, across 35 classrooms, in 9 Head Start Centers. Mean age of children was 51.38 months (range=37.9 to 62.7) and 52.5 percent of children were female (n=166). The retest sample consists of 60 children randomly selected after stratifying for age and gender. Mean age of children was 52.7 months (range-40.7 to 61.6) and 55 percent of children were female (n=33). Data was collected during the 2014-2015 school year.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Head Start Miami-Dade County, 2014-2015
description: Preschoolers served by Head Start in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Smallest Geographic Unit: County
description: coded on-site observation