Impact of an Early Reading First program on the language and literacy achievement of children from diverse language backgrounds⋆,⋆⋆
Section snippets
Early language and literacy skills
Longitudinal studies consistently find strong predictive relationships between early skills in language, literacy, and mathematics and later performance in school (Duncan et al., 2007, LaParo and Pianta, 2000, National Early, 2008). Clusters of literacy- and language-related variables appear to be among the strongest predictors of later school performance. Kurdek and Sinclair (2000), for instance, found that verbal readiness at kindergarten entry was the strongest predictor of first through
Can preschools enhance language and literacy development?
Largely as a result of the research on the importance of early academic competencies, prekindergarten programs and prekindergarten attendance have increased rapidly in the past 20 years; there are now state-funded programs in more than three-fourths of the states (Barnett, Hustedt, Friedman, Boyd, & Ainsworth, 2007). With income requirements in over 70% of these state-funded programs, many more disadvantaged children have access to preschool than ever before. At the same time, government
Efforts to improve preschool quality
Our program was guided by several recent programmatic and professional development efforts that have been made to enhance the impact of preschool on both literacy and language development. Among the variety of enhancements for improving preschool, coaching appears to be important to all successful endeavors and has been used in interventions that improved classroom quality and teaching (Dickinson and Caswell, 2007, Girolametto et al., 2003, Hsieh et al., 2009, Jackson et al., 2006, Justice et
Can preschools enhance language and literacy development for English-language learners?
For English-language learners, preschool attendance shows positive effects and may be particularly important for preparing these children to get the full benefits of kindergarten. For example, Gormley’s (2008) work on the effects of preschool for Hispanic children found significant effects for preschool on English letter knowledge and phonological awareness, with larger effects for children at highest risk (i.e., those whose parents were born in Mexico and those who spoke Spanish at home). Work
The current study
The concept behind Early Reading First funding was that existing preschool programs could improve school readiness for low-SES preschoolers via enhanced professional development and the use of evidence-based curricula. Given that few Early Reading First programs were evaluated with rigorous designs, however, our knowledge of the effectiveness of the package of curriculum, professional development, and coaching is limited, especially for English-language learners. One objective of the present
Regression discontinuity designs
The age-based eligibility requirement for Early Reading First prekindergarten programs makes the programs suitable for evaluation using a regression discontinuity design, the approach we adopted. Regression discontinuity designs revolve around a selection variable that determines each participant’s assignment to a treatment or control condition depending on whether that individual’s score is above or below a designated cutting point on the selection variable (Imbens and Lemieux, 2008, Shadish
Research design
The evaluation of the Enhanced Language and Literacy Success (ELLS) project was designed as an independent evaluation of the program and was directed by the first author. All aspects of the evaluation design, data collection on students, classroom observations, and data analysis were conducted independently by the evaluation team. The program itself and the professional development were coordinated and delivered by the second and third authors, who served as co-directors of the ELLS project.
Integrity of the design
Before turning to a discussion of our results, we briefly mention two important issues with regard to the quality of the regression discontinuity design: the integrity of the selection variable and the continuity of the relationship between the selection variable and the outcome (cf. Schochet et al., 2010). We examined the integrity of the selection variable both institutionally and statistically. The institutional integrity of the variable was evident because the birthday cutoff was strictly
Discussion
Returning to our first research question on the effects of a monolingual English-language Early Reading First program on the English literacy achievement of ELL and non-ELL preschoolers, we found that the ELLS program significantly impacted literacy outcomes for both native English speakers and English-language learners. Regarding our second research question on the effects of the Early Reading First program on the English-language achievement of ELL and non-ELL preschoolers, the program was
Possible mechanisms
It is noteworthy that both ELL children and native English speakers achieved significant benefits from prekindergarten in literacy and on some of the language outcomes. This finding provides further evidence that a sustained effort that includes coaching, professional development, and use of a strong curriculum delivered in public schools by certified teachers can have educationally meaningful effects on learning. However, because the counterfactual in the design was no preschool (as opposed to
Concluding thoughts
Our results provide strong evidence that a sustained effort to improve the quality of preschool classrooms that are taught by certified teachers working in public schools can yield major benefits, especially for children learning English. The strong effects on literacy skills may be the result of the combination of efforts to target these skills through games, group demonstrations of writing, and individualized support for writing during small groups and centers time. The effects on vocabulary
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Exploring the relations between child and word characteristics and preschoolers' word-learning
2021, Journal of Applied Developmental PsychologyCitation Excerpt :Prior research indicates that differentiated instruction, tailored to the linguistic resources and needs of DLLs from low-SES families, can eliminate differences in word-learning, even without controlling for prior English vocabulary knowledge. For example, studies that combined verbal definitions of words with visual and multimedia supports found that DLLs learned as much as EOLs (Silverman, 2007; Silverman & Hines, 2009), suggesting that word-learning differences may be ameliorated when instruction is multimodal (e.g., Wilson, Dickinson, & Rowe, 2013). Moreover, research on DLLs indicates the importance of choosing words that leverage children's home language resources (e.g., cognates) and/or teaching higher-frequency words (Nelson, Vadasy, & Sanders, 2011).
Literacy and language outcomes of comprehensive and developmental-constructivist approaches to early childhood education: A systematic review
2016, Educational Research ReviewCitation Excerpt :Regression discontinuity studies that permitted comparisons of alternative preschool approaches would have been included, but none were found. Studies that compared innovative preschool treatments to no preschool were excluded (e.g., Gormley, Phillips, & Gayer, 2008; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013; Wilson, Dickinson, & Rowe, 2013). Sample size.
The effects of content-related shared book reading on the language development of preschool dual language learners
2016, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :Although previous preschool studies conducted with native English speakers have documented mixed effects on standardized language measures (see WWC, 2015), Wasik and colleagues (Wasik & Bond, 2001; Wasik et al., 2006) attributed low-SES preschool children’s significant language outcomes to a comprehensive interactive book reading approach, opportunities for vocabulary extensions throughout the preschool day, and extensive PD with systematic and frequent individualized coaching for preschool teachers to become acclimated to novel instructional and conversational practices. Further evidence suggests that targeted within-classroom coaching with more intensive feedback loops (e.g., weekly) during the implementation of a comprehensive preschool language development curriculum may be essential for DLL’s global language growth (Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013; Wilson, Dickinson, & Rowe, 2013). In the current study, the PD model was more limited in scope (e.g., did not include weekly individualized coaching) and may not have been sufficient to support individual teachers’ scaffolding abilities to extend DLL’s vocabulary learning.
Dual language development of Latino children: Effect of instructional program type and the home and school language environment
2014, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :These findings align with previous research indicating that dual language children who begin school with higher language abilities continue to develop each faster than children who enter with lower proficiencies (Oller & Eilers, 2002; Sparks et al., 2009). These are important findings considering that children with strong dual language proficiencies may also benefit from cognitive correlates of bilingualism (Adesope, Lavin, Thompson, & Ungerleider, 2010), such as greater metalinguistic and metacognitive skills (Bialystok, 2001), stronger symbolic representation, abstract reasoning skills (McLeay, 2003), and better learning strategies (Wilson, Dickinson, & Rowe, 2013). The benefits associated with bilingualism are mostly confined to children who have extensive bilingual experience, while those children with limited proficiency in one of their languages are not as likely to demonstrate the same cognitive advantages (Wilson et al., 2013).
Case- and form-sensitive letter frequencies in children's picture books
2020, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :Caregivers and teachers need to be cognizant of children's exposure to all letters of the alphabet, providing plentiful opportunities for children within the classroom and beyond. Although we focus on providing children with an adequate number of books to ensure adequate exposure to all letters of the alphabet, caregivers and teachers can also facilitate children’s development of letter knowledge in other contexts such as writing activities (Fears, Walsh, & Lockman, 2020; Li & James, 2016; Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou, & Velay, 2005; Schickedanz & Casbergue, 2004), environmental print (Neumann et al., 2013), literacy-enriched play (Strickland & Schickedanz, 2004; Wilson, Dickinson, & Rowe, 2013; Yaden, Rowe, & MacGillivray, 2000) and specific classroom instruction on the alphabet (Bleses et al., 2018; Piasta & Wagner, 2010; Wilson et al., 2013). Given the lower relative frequency of certain letter forms in children’s picture books, overexposure to these lower frequency letter forms in other activities in the classroom as well as their everyday lives may improve children's letter knowledge and identification overall.
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The Enhanced Language and Literacy Success Project was funded by grant S359B080078 from the U.S. Department of Education.
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Dickinson is a co-author of the curriculum employed in this study; therefore, consistent with Vanderbilt University policies, this paper was reviewed by an external monitor to guard against bias before it was submitted. We thank Linda Espinosa, Jeanne Fain, and Carin Neitzel for their contributions to the project and are grateful to the teachers with whom we collaborated and the literacy coaches who supported them.