Click here to see the results of the Children's National Medical Center assessment of Rosemount's program impact

Children’s National Medical Center and Rosemount Center Conclude a Three-Year Early Childhood Education Program with Noteworthy Findings

Monitoring and Assessing Rosemount Services Evaluation shows the impact of Rosemount’s program on its preschool children  and their families.

Washington, DC (November, 2010) —Rosemount Center, a bilingual Early Childhood Education Center in Northwest Washington, DC, largely funded with Head Start and Early Head Start grants, collaborated with Children’s National Medical Center to conduct an evaluation from 2007-2010, which assessed the Rosemount program’s impact on both child and family development.

The MAARS (Monitoring and Assessing Rosemount Services) evaluation, partially funded by the Virginia Cretella Mars Foundation, examined:

• Kindergarten readiness skills
• Bilingual fluency of both native English and native Spanish speaking children
• Social-emotional development of the children
• Self-confidence and empowerment of parents
• Parents’ educational and career attainment
• Parents’ involvement in their children’s education.

Rosemount is a one-of-a-kind Early Childhood Education Center. Eighty percent of Rosemount’s families live at or below the federal poverty level, and the remainder are families who pay tuition. The majority of families are native Spanish speakers. This combination of non-tuition and tuition paying students allows the Center to serve a very economically and culturally diverse community.

Some key findings include:

• Rosemount children who were not native English speakers scored near national averages on measures of cognitive skills related to kindergarten readiness, indicating that these children are not falling behind their native English-speaking peers in these areas.

• Rosemount children were rated high on social skills - social interaction and social independence were particularly strong. Social skills are a critical element when setting the stage for future school success and, developed at this age, put children on a positive trajectory for successful behavior in school. 

• Behavior problems such as turning inward, displaying anxious or sad behavior, impulsivity, inattention, and aggression were rated quite low among Rosemount children. Behavior problems seen in the preschool years have been shown to be predictive of more serious behavior problems in later childhood and adolescence.

• Parents of Rosemount children reported doing many activities at home to support learning.  Other studies have found lower school involvement among lower-income parents.

• Parents of Rosemount children reported that they feel able to control the choices they make for their children and feel confident in their ability to make those choices in their children’s best interest. 

For more detailed information about the MAARS study and Rosemount Center’s program, please contact: Martha Johnson at 202.265.9885 ext. 116 or at Martha.Johnson@rosemountcenter.com. 

About House of Mercy’s Rosemount Center

Rosemount Center was founded in 1972 by the House of Mercy, the oldest existing Episcopal charity in the Diocese of Washington, which was established in the 1880s as a maternity home to help mothers in troubled circumstances. Rosemount Center provides comprehensive early childhood education and family support programs in a bilingual, multicultural setting.  It serves over 300 children, ages six weeks to five years, both at the Center and in the children’s homes, in all wards of Washington, DC. Eighty percent of the Rosemount families are living at or below poverty level, and 70 percent are immigrant families, primarily from Spanish-speaking countries. Rosemount is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and was given Gold Level status by the District of Columbia Division of Early Childhood Education in the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Rosemount’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs have earned the Center a national reputation for excellence. The Center is housed in a beautiful mission-style building located near Rock Creek Park at the corner of Klingle Road (Porter Street) and Adams Mill Road. For more information about Rosemount, please visit www.rosemountcenter.com