The effectiveness of the BOOST policy (Building Optimal Outcomes through Systematic Transitions) on Academic Outcomes in Swedish schools: A pragmatic two-arm cluster randomized trial.

School entry marks an important milestone in every child’s life, introducing a new physical, social, and academic arena for children to navigate and adjust to. Studies implicate that the perceived quality of the early school experiences serve as precursors of concurrent and long-term academic outcomes and school engagement (Chetty et al., 2011; Harrison & Murray, 2015), possibly through setting off “achievement trajectories” where early behavioral patterns and perceptions of school may cascade throughout schooling (Cook & Coley, 2017). One key moment during early childhood in the schooling career is the transition from daycare to primary education. Research has shown that children who are facilitated in their school transitions by the use of transition practices can yield positive school outcomes. In the literature, transition practices are referred to as activities that preschools and schools implement in order to facilitate the transition for children and their caregivers (e.g., Boyle et al., 2018). Examples of commonly reported transition practices are information transfer regarding school entrants (e.g., passing on written and/or oral information), familiarization with the future school (e.g., visits to future classroom), joint events for caregivers (e.g., open houses), individual meetings with teachers, information sent to caregivers, home visits by teachers, and shorter school days at the beginning of school (e.g., Ahtola, 2010; Cook & Coley; 2016; Schulting et al., 2005). Several studies report that participation in various transition practices is linked to higher levels of self-regulation, social competence, and academic achievement (e.g., LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2008). However, certain transition practices have been shown to be of larger importance than others. Ahtola and colleagues (2010) report that teacher collaboration over curriculum and information transfer regarding school entrants between teachers are the strongest predictors of academic competence. LoCasale-Crouch and colleagues (2008) find that communication between preschool and elementary school teachers regarding curriculum and/or specific children showed the most consistent association with teacher-rated social and behavioral adjustment at the beginning of the first school year, but not academic competencies. The authors speculate that faster adjustment may lead to children subsequently gaining more from available learning opportunities, which may facilitate higher academic competencies towards the end of the first school year. This is also in line with the idea of dynamic complementarities in economics (Cunha and Heckman, 2007). Thus, existing literature attests to the importance of transition practices, and particularly those involving joint revision of curriculum and information transfer on school entrants, in promoting school success. However, previous studies have largely relied on correlational evidence to demonstrate these relations. It is plausible that better-functioning schools and preschools are more inclined to implement transition practices and/or engage in other activities that may explain these associations. Consequently, the intrinsic value of transition practices remains unclear, necessitating randomized trials examining the effectiveness of transition practices in promoting academic outcomes. Examining the efficiency of transition practices for childhood outcomes is important, both the most optimally design programs, but also because it requires resources from both sets of teachers that could have been used for classroom teaching. To this end, the current randomized trial will examine the effectiveness of transition practices, and in particular, whether implementing information transfer relating to school entrants into preschool/school policies (i.e., the BOOST policy, more on this below) can improve academic outcomes both short and long-term. The implementation of BOOST policies will be conducted by the local Board of Education and academic outcomes will be observed through existing registry data from national screenings and tests performed in all schools across the nation. The objective of the randomized control trial is to expand the knowledge on ways to facilitate children in their transitions to school and between school grades, and subsequently how this relates to academic outcomes. More specifically, the objective is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing BOOST (Building Optimal Outcomes through Systematic Transitions) policies for children’s transitions from preschool to preschool-class and from preschool-class to year 1 in increasing short-term (preschool-class), medium-term (year 1 of elementary school), and long-term (year 3 of elementary school) academic outcomes. The BOOST policies comprise an extended information transfer procedure between teachers collaborating throughout the transitions. Beyond the impact on children’s academic outcomes, teacher perceptions are crucial for informing future policy. In Uppsala municipality there is a working group dedicated to improving transitions, as these have been identified by teachers as highly important for children’s schooling and as an area in which the organizations need to strengthen their practices, a view that aligns with our informal conversations with teachers and headmasters. Therefore, we will also evaluate potential differences in teacher perceptions of factors such as the transition process, child adjustment and workload between teachers in control and intervention clusters, as a complement to child academic outcomes. Against the background of previous findings, namely that communication between preschool and elementary school teachers regarding curriculum and/or specific children was predictive of behavioral adjustment but not academic achievement in the beginning of the school year (LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2008) whilst Ahthola and colleagues (2010) found that the same transition practices were predictive of academic achievement in the spring of the first school year (i.e., a year after receiving transition practices), it could be speculated that the effectiveness of transition practices needs time to consolidate in order to yield benefits in academic outcomes. Moreover, it has been postulated in previous studies that positive early school experiences may contribute to the launch of achievement trajectories, whereby positive attitudes and higher levels of engagement may cascade academic achievement throughout schooling (Cook & Coley, 2017). In this sense, several time points are of interest in order to map out the schooling trajectories potentially launched by the use of transition practices. In the current study, we will assess the short, medium and long-term academic outcomes of transition practices. Although the largest effects are expected in year 1 of elementary school (medium-term outcomes), short and long-term outcomes are important in extending knowledge on the trajectories spiraled by transition practices. In addition, the current study will only be utilizing existing registry data to assess academic outcomes, using screenings and tests performed in all schools across the nation. These tests vary in terms of how objectively they are scored (see Variables), making them all important in order to gain more precise measures of academic outcomes throughout schooling.