Results for Year 2 of an Early Reading First Project

Abstract

This paper presents results of Year 2 of an Early Reading First project in a low-income, primarily African American community. Goals of Early Reading First include preparing at-risk preschoolers for school success. This project provided professional development, classroom coaching, books, and materials in support of a literacy-focused preschool environment, and parent education related to early literacy. The sample consisted of the 4-year-old group in Cohort 2, numbering approximately 100 children (treatment) and 30 children (comparison). The kindergarten group in the second year (Cohort 1) numbered 31 (treatment) and 29 (comparison). The comparison group was assumed to reflect higher SES since those children attended fee-for-service child care, while the treatment group attended free child care. Data were collected before and after the intervention by using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III) and a locally developed letter-ID subtest. Additional data from five locally developed subtests were available for the treatment group only. Kindergartners (4-year-olds from Cohort 1) were assessed with DIBELS. On the PPVT-III, more treatment group children moved from lower to higher stanines than did comparison children. Treatment children gained significantly in letter recognition. Additional subtests showed statistically and practically significant gains. Treatment children made substantial gains on all subtests of the DIBELS during kindergarten. At kindergarten's end, the treatment children had higher average scores in Letter Naming Fluency and Nonsense Word Fluency than did comparison children. Treatment children experienced less “summer regression” between kindergarten and 1st grade in Letter Naming Fluency and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency than did comparison students. Findings suggest positive effects of this Early Reading First project in preparing at-risk students for future success.