FISS Sample

The Follow-up Intensive Substudy (FISS) sample is composed of students from Cohort 2 of the full RCT whose parents consented for their students to participate in this subsample beginning in their third grade year. Of the 763 students in the FISS ITT sample, 378 were offered admission to TN-VPK, and 385 were assigned to the TN-VPK waitlist. Some students who were initially on waitlists enrolled at other TN-VPK programs, and some students who were offered admission to TN-VPK either declined participation or did not show up. In total, 449 students ended up attending TN-VPK and 314 students did not attend TN-VPK. Click here to see the FISS consort chart. 

In each year of data collection, PRI staff assessed students individually. Students completed an interview and a few measures of executive function. Additionally, PRI staff completed phone interviews with each participant’s parent, and each participant’s teacher completed an online questionnaire and a survey about their classroom climate.

The surveys are composites created from measures selected to focus on behavioral outcomes that may become especially salient during the middle school developmental period—risky behaviors, students’ attitudes and educational expectations, school engagement, peer relationships, conscientiousness, and executive function. These are behaviors that could plausibly have been affected by TN-VPK attendance.

The interview items, questionnaires, and surveys used in each year of the study are available below. For each, the source of the set of questions used is referenced.