Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This integrated project addressed the need for effective, research-based, and developmentally appropriate preschool curricula and teacher professional development strategies. The Learning Connections (LC) curriculum and teacher professional development package was the centerpiece of this project. LC is a preschool enrichment curriculum designed to meet the needs of Hawaii's unique multicultural population. LC includes daily, small-group activities that support children's language, literacy, and math development as well as weekly parent-child learning activities done at home. Lessons are developmentally sequenced and highly individualized, to allow each child to learn at his or her unique pace. Teachers are provided with ongoing in-class coaching and support in order to implement the curriculum with high fidelity and ensure continuous improvement in the quality of the classroom environment and instructional interactions. Parents are also given regular support, in the form of
informal bi-weekly drop-in discussion and demonstration sessions. The curriculum package includes a teacher's manual, a parent guide, lesson plans, a curriculum-based assessment rubric, and classroom/home materials packages. The teacher professional development package includes two years worth of sequenced training materials including speaker's notes, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on activities, reflective exercises, reading lists, and classroom action research assignments. We have also developed and validated several research tools, including measures of implementation fidelity, teachers' knowledge and beliefs, classroom practices, home read-aloud practices, and home support for language and cognitive development. Over the course of this project we have conducted the following major activities: (a) conducted a one-year follow-up study of former LC children and their Head Start peers who did not receive LC; (b) implemented a one-semester pilot kindergarten transition support program
in two Head Start classrooms; (c) updated, printed and disseminated 85 copies of the LC curriculum; (d) provided 38 Head Start teachers and supervisors with a per-person average of 108 hours of in-service training workshops and 230 hours of in-class coaching and technical assistance; and (e) implemented the curriculum with 470 children and their families in 12 Head Start classrooms. This project has yielded the following products: 1 journal article, 1 book, 1 book chapter, 1 complete curriculum package, 1 complete teacher professional development training package, 4 technical reports, 6 conference presentations, and seven research instruments. In addition, we have leveraged 3 external grants from federal agencies, for a total of just under $1.9 million in funds.
PARTICIPANTS: Four INDIVIDUALS were involved in this project. Dr. Barbara DeBaryshe served as the PI/PD. Dana Gorecki served as co-investigator and supervised the daily project operations. Lori Mishima-Young and Melanie Ho served as classroom coaches. Salaries for Ms. Gorecki, Ho, and Mishima-Young came from federally-funded grants that were leveraged by this Hatch project. Our PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS were the Honolulu Community Action Program-Oahu Head Start. Maui Economic Opportunities, Inc.-Maui Head Start, and the State of Hawaii Department of Education. TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT opportunities for Head Start teachers included (a) enrollment and subsidized tuition in three college courses, (b) a per-person average of 108 hours of in-service workshops, and (c) a per-classroom average of 230 hours of in-class coaching and technical assistance. Training opportunities for parents included bi-weekly informal demonstration and discussion sessions.
TARGET AUDIENCES: The TARGET AUDIENCE included (a) researchers and academics in the field of early childhood education, (b) Head Start teachers and staff, (c) Head Start parents and family members, and (d) Head Start children age three to five years. Our Head Start population is low-income and of predominantly Asian American/Pacific Islander heritage. Approximately one-quarter of Head Start families are not native English speaking; 22 different foreign languages have been represented in participating classrooms.
Impacts
Only the highest quality preschool programs are able to ameliorate the academic achievements gaps that differentiate low-SES and high-SES children. We need both sound curricula and strong teachers who can deliver these curricula effectively and provide children with sensitive, responsive, and challenging classroom interactions. Learning Connections (LC) is the first empirically validated preschool curriculum and teacher professional development package designed specifically to meet the needs of Hawaii's low-income, predominantly Asian American/Pacific Islander population. Over the course of this project, we provided intensive professional development to 38 Head Start teachers and their supervisors. As a result, we have documented statistically significant and educationally important improvements in the several aspects of classroom quality including (a) the quality of language and literacy materials; (b) curriculum designed to support language, literacy and math
development; (c) the affective quality of the classroom environment; (d) classroom management and productivity; (e) child active engagement in learning; and (f) teacher-child interactions that support language and conceptual development. Teachers report spending more time in focused, small-group instruction; they also report increased knowledge of literacy and math development, and increased confidence in their ability to provide individualized instruction. Over the course of the project we also provided weekly home learning activities to 451 families, and offered these family members support in helping their children learn at home. As a result of this parent involvement component, we have documented positive changes in parents' reports of home read-aloud practices, and a variety of home supports for language, literacy, and math development. Finally, 470 children have benefited from the positive changes accrued in the school and home settings. Children have made statistically
significant and educationally important gains in all areas we assessed including oral language, phonological and phonemic awareness, emergent reading, emergent writing, and emergent math. By improving low-income children's school readiness skills, we expect that LC graduates will have more successful experiences in elementary school. In the long run, we anticipate that LC will reduce the rate of reading problems, low academic achievement, and grade retention in among Hawaii's at-risk preschool population. Participating Head Start teachers have improved skill sets, which will allow them to be more effective teachers both now and in the future. Our program can serve as a model for other early childhood education programs, both locally and nationally.
Publications
- 1. DeBaryshe, B. D. & Gorecki, D. M. (2007). An experimental validation of a preschool literacy curriculum. Early Education and Development, 18, 93-110.
- 2. DeBaryshe, B. D. & Gorecki, D. (2005). Learning Connections: A home-school partnership to enhance emergent literacy and math skills in at-risk preschoolers. In A. Maynard and M. Martini (Eds.). The psychology of learning in context: Cultural artifacts, families, peers and schools (pp. 175-198). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
- 4. DeBaryshe, B. D., Gorecki, D., Schickedanz, J., Dickinson, D. & Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools (2005). Evaluating language and literacy in four-year-olds: A practical guide for teachers. Parsippany, NJ: Pearson Education.
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Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06
Outputs
The main goal of the third year of this integrated project was to support Head Start classrooms in implementing the Learning Connections curriculum and to provide intensive coaching and professional development for teachers. Learning Connections (LC) is a preschool enrichment curriculum designed to meet the needs of Hawaii's multicultural Asian American/Pacific Islander population. LC includes daily small-group activities that support children's language, literacy, and math development as well as weekly home activities that children complete with their parents. Using this Hatch project as a foundation, we received a three-year Early Reading First award from the U.S. Department of Education for over $1.7 million. Between January and June, we worked with 14 teachers and 95 children and their families in 5 Head Start classrooms. Teachers received (a) over $5,000 in classroom materials including the LC curriculum, (b) weekly LC lesson plans, (c) 20 hours of workshops
training on the LC curriculum and developmental issues, (d) nine hours per month of in-class coaching and technical assistance, and (e) free tuition to enroll in a specially-designed course on preschool literacy development and instruction. Families received weekly home activities and bi-monthly coaching on working with their preschool child. Evaluation results indicate that teachers implemented the LC curriculum with reasonable fidelity, scoring an average of 3.98 out of 5.00 on a structured observation of implementation quality. Scores for teachers in the first cohort also improved significantly on the ELLCO, a measure of the quality of the classroom literacy environment and on the CLASS, an observational measure that assesses both the emotional climate and instructional quality of the classroom. These changes in classroom quality translated into positive educational outcomes for the Head Start children. Children gained an average of 5.7 standard score points on the PPVT, a test of
vocabulary size. This represents an improvement of over one-third of a standard deviation for age-adjusted scores. Children also showed significant gains on tests of phonological awareness (a 40% increase in mean raw scores) and early math (an increase of 54% in mean raw scores). All of the five original classrooms continued with our project in the current school year. In July we added five new classrooms, raising the total number of participating teachers to 24 and the number of participating children to 204. Sixteen hours of workshop training was provided in July, and teachers and parents continue to receive ongoing in-class coaching and assistance. A second goal for this project year was to develop new measures for conducting evaluation and research on classroom processes. We drafted and collected pilot data on three new measures: (a) an observational rating of teaching quality, (b) a teacher-report measure of knowledge about preschool literacy development and teaching practices
and (c) a parallel self-report measure of teachers' knowledge of preschool math. We also applied for a Teach Quality Research grant in reading from the Institute for Education Sciences. This proposal was not funded.
Impacts
Nationally there is a need for scientifically-validated early childhood curricula, particularly those that are shown to be effective for at-risk children. Learning Connections is preschool early literacy and mathematics curriculum designed for Hawaii's multicultural preschoolers. Earlier research has shown that Learning Connections is more effective than two other curricula commonly used in Head Start programs. We provided intensive professional development and in-class coaching to 24 Head Start teachers and approximately 300 parents in using the Learning Connections curriculum. Our support led to measurable improvements in the quality of the classroom environment and teaching interactions. By strengthening teachers' classrooms skills and helping parents work more effectively with their children at home, we have also improved Head Start children's school readiness. Results for the 2005-2006 school year show that participating children made significant gains on tests
of language, literacy, and math skills. These results are notable because almost half of the children were English language learners. By entering kindergarten with stronger foundational skills, we expect that Learning Connections graduates will have a successful and positive experience in elementary school. In the long run, we anticipate that Learning Connections will reduce the likelihood of reading problems, low academic achievement, and grade retention among Hawaii's at-risk preschool population.
Publications
- DeBaryshe, B. D., & Gorecki, D. M. (2005). Learning Connections: An emergent literacy and mathematics enhancement curriculum. Measurement. [DVD available from the University of Hawaii Center on the Family, 2515 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822.]
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
The main goal of the second project year was to print and disseminate copies of the Learning Connections curriculum. Learning Connections is an enrichment curriculum used to provide supplementary instruction in emergent literacy and emergent mathematics. The curriculum includes both classroom and home components. Prior research conducted with external funds and with this integrated Hatch project have confirmed that children enrolled in Head Start classrooms that use the Learning Connections curriculum show greater gains over the school year than children in matched Head Start classrooms that use the nationally-acclaimed Creative Curriculum. Work conducted on the curriculum volumes included (a) editing all lessons for clarity, grammar, spelling, and consistent formatting, (b) writing an introduction to the curriculum that provides a theoretical framework, (c) developing a table of contents, (d) discussing graphic design and layout features with the design contractor,
(e) collecting appropriate photographs of children, teachers, and parents engaged in curriculum activities, (f) approving the page proofs, and (g) having the volumes sent to the printer. The final product included two volumes, Learning Connections: An emergent literacy and mathematics enhancement curriculum. Teacher's guide and Learning Connections: An emergent literacy and mathematics enhancement curriculum. Family activity guide and materials kits. The family guide is 66 pages long. It includes instructions for 25 home learning activities, photocopy-ready templates for handouts and materials, and rating sheets for recording parents' reactions to each activity. The teacher's guide is a 192 page volume that includes an introductory chapter, curriculum learning goals, instructions for 91 classroom learning activities, the complete content of the family activity guide, a teacher-completed rubric for observing and recording each child's progress on Learning Connections goals,
photocopy-ready templates for two-dimensional learning materials, and references. The materials kit included all materials needed to implement the curriculum, e.g., tangrams, sound bingo game pieces, rhyming cards, book lists, unifix cubes. Some of these materials were commercially available and others were designed by project team. Fifty complete curriculum sets (guides and materials) were distributed to preschool teachers in Oahu Head Start. A second goal for this project year was an emergent task that was not part of our original plan of work. Based on our knowledge of curriculum sequencing we co-authored a early childhood literacy development rubric. This rubric provides teachers with a tool for observing and rating children's progress on mastering the main age-appropriate development tasks in the areas of oral language development, phonological awareness, print knowledge, print functions, and emergent writing. This rubric can be used by teachers for curriculum planning and
student progress reporting. Overall, the scholarly products from this project year include two curriculum guides, one book chapter, one published curriculum rubric, one journal article submitted for review, and 3 conference presentations.
Impacts
Learning Connections is the first empirically-validated literacy and mathematics curriculum designed for Hawaii's multicultural preschoolers. The curriculum manuals and classroom materials have now been professionally designed and printed and made available to 50 Head Start classrooms. Teachers will be able to use these materials and integrate this effective enrichment curriculum into their more holistic core curriculum. This should result in improved learning in the areas of oral language, literacy, and math. There is also interest in Learning Connections on the mainland U.S. We presented a workshop last fall at the annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. While we planned for 50 attendees, over 300 came to our session. This indicates a high level of interest in the field for a validated enrichment curriculum such as ours. Our early childhood literacy rubric is now available at a national level, via the well-known curriculum
publisher, Pearson Education. The rubric may be used by preschool teachers to rate children's progress on key emergent literacy skills. Because the skills are developmentally sequenced, teachers can use the results for curriculum planning, to individualize their lessons to address each child's unique needs, and to document the progress of individual children and/or classrooms. The rubric is being used in all preschool classrooms in the Charlotte-Meklenburg public school system in Charlotte, NC.
Publications
- DeBaryshe, B.D. and Gorecki, D. 2005. Learning Connections: A home-school partnership to enhance emergent literacy and math skills in at-risk preschoolers. In A. Maynard and M. Martini (Eds.). The psychology of learning in context: Cultural artifacts, families, peers and schools (pp. 175-198). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
- DeBaryshe, B.D., Gorecki, D., Schickedanz, J., Dickinson, D. and Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools. 2005. Evaluating language and literacy in four-year-olds: A practical guide for teachers. Parsippany, NJ: Pearson Education.
- Gorecki, D. and DeBaryshe, B.D. 2004. Learning Connections: An emergent literacy and mathematics enhancement curriculum. Teachers' guide. (Available from the University of Hawai`i Center on the Family, 2515 Campus Rd., Honolulu, HI, 96822.)
- Gorecki, D. and DeBaryshe, B.D. 2004. Learning Connections: An emergent literacy and mathematics enhancement curriculum. Parents' guide. (Available from the University of Hawai`i Center on the Family, 2515 Campus Rd., Honolulu, HI, 96822.)
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
The main goal of the first project year was to conduct a follow-up assessment of children who had participated in the Learning Connections (LC) curriculum during the 2002-2003 school year. Approximately 60% of the former Head Start students are now enrolled in kindergarten; the remaining children were completing a second year at Head Start. We first attempted to reach parents via mail, followed by a telephone call. Many families had moved and/or changed phone numbers from our prior records. We attempted to locate missing families by contacting former Head Start teachers and by searching the phone book and internet listings. In all, 81 families were successfully contacted and participated in the follow-up assessments. While 55% of LC children returned for follow-up, only 38% of control children participated. In addition, the two groups were not evenly balanced in terms of age; 64% of the LC follow-up children had moved on to kindergarten, while only 21% of control
group children had done so. The small and unbalanced composition of the follow-up sample should be taken into consideration when interpreting the follow-up data. Experienced early childhood educators were trained to accurately conduct the follow-up developmental assessments. Children were tested individually on the Test of Early Reading Abilities-3 and the mathematics and writing scales of the Developing Skills Checklist. Teachers and parents were also asked to complete surveys describing children's motivation and achievement in the areas of early math and literacy. A total of 35 parents and 55 teachers returned surveys. Child assessment data were analyzed using two-way analysis of covariance. Treatment condition and current school placement were the two between-group factors; pretest score, pretest age, and degree of familiarity with the tester were the three covariates. One-tailed tests were conducted. Results indicated the LC children showed better performance on two of the three
academic outcomes. LC children scored higher on emergent reading, F(1, 69) = 3.73, p < .03, and on mathematics, F(1, 73) = 10.73, p < .001. There were no group differences on writing skill. Two-way analysis of variance techniques (treatment condition by current school placement) were used to analyze the parent and teacher survey data. LC parents reported providing a more cognitively stimulating home environment, F(1, 29) = 4.02, p < .03. There were no difference on parent report of home literacy and math interactions, home-school communication, or child approaches to learning. There were no differences in teacher perceptions of child academic skill, approaches to learning, or parental involvement. We also advanced the timeline of our original workplan, and began to lay the ground work for the extension activities that will be the focus of the latter years of the project. In preparation for dissemination among teachers and families across the state, the LC teachers' guide and family
guide were sent to a professional editor for review and correction. A graphic design company was contracted to complete the design and lay-out of these two curriculum manuals. This work is currently 80% complete.
Impacts
Nationally, there is a need for scientifically-validated early childhood curricula, particularly those that are shown to be effective for at-risk preschoolers. Learning Connections is the first preschool curriculum designed in Hawaii to meet the needs of our multicultural preschool population of our state, in which Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and immigrant children are highly represented. Earlier work has shown the Learning Connections is more effective than other Head Start curricula in promoting literacy and mathematics learning. In this follow-up study, we showed that the positive effects of Learning Connections last over time. One year after participating in the curriculum, children scored higher on both reading and math than did a matched control group of Head Start children who had been taught using the popular Creative Curriculum. Overall, the research results indicate that Learning Connections is a sound and effective curriculum that can help
economically disadvantaged children close to the performance gap. The upcoming extension activities supported by this project will be devoted to disseminating the curriculum to preschool educators across the state.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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