Ruth A. Kaminski

Enhancing the Parenting Skills of Head Start Families During the Transition to Kindergarten

Head Start centers provide an excellent context for the implementation and success of family-based interventions, particularly home visiting. Based on a developmental–ecological model, a universal family-centered intervention was implemented with Head Start families. Outcome data from this parenting and home visiting program is presented (Project STAR: Steps to Achieving Resilience). Results suggest that both parenting groups and home visiting interventions are effective at enhancing parenting skills: however, home visiting programs have a higher participation rate. Additionally, home visiting by familiar staff was particularly successful at improving parenting skills at follow-up. Results suggest that embedding targeted interventions in universal strategies can be an effective means of engaging families in services. The results have implications for service delivery methods in early childhood as a means of enhancing parent participation.

General Growth Outcomes for Young Children: Developing a Foundation for Continuous Progress Measurement

Public expectations of accountability in our education system have increasingly focused on young childrens development, in part because of Goal 1 of the National Education Goals (By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn). Few sensitive measurement systems have been developed, however, to monitor young childrens growth over time. Building such a system requires a parsimonious but comprehensive set of developmental outcomes expected of children between birth and age 8. In the two studies presented here, investigators formulated a set of 15 general growth outcomes for young children, and conducted a survey of parents of children with and without disabilities and professionals in early childhood and early elementary education to validate the outcomes.

Prevention of substance abuse with rural head Start children and families: Results of project STAR

The effectiveness of a comprehensive intervention with preschool children aimed at reducing the risk of later substance abuse was examined. The intervention targeted risk factors during the preschool years linked to later substance use in adolescence and adulthood. Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. A classroom-based curriculum was delivered by Head Start teachers who received a number of training workshops and continued consultation. Parent training and home visits were also provided to intervention families. Positive parenting as well as parent-school involvement increased over the 1st year of intervention. Intervention families maintained the positive effects on parenting into the kindergarten year over a matched control group; however, effects on school bonding were not maintained. Improvements in social competence, reported by teachers and parents, were found at the end of kindergarten. No changes were found for self-regulation.

Is a Response to Intervention (RTI) Approach to Preschool Language and Early Literacy Instruction Needed

Preschool experience plays a role in children’s development. However, for programs with language and early literacy goals, the question remains whether preschool instructional experiences are sufficiently effective to achieve these goals for all children. In a multisite study, the authors conducted a process-product description of preschool instruction, and children’s growth and outcomes in typical programs (i.e., Pre-K, Title 1, Head Start, Tuition-Based) using a response to intervention (RTI) perspective. Results indicated that (a) students in their preschool year prior to kindergarten made small gains, but students starting the year in lower Tier 2 and 3 performance levels did not close initial skills gaps, (b) variations were noted by program types with varying sociodemographics and instructional processes, and (c) the quality of instruction (Tier 1) received by all was low with room for improvement. Implications for future research on the application of the RTI approach and potential benefits are discussed.

Teaching Vocabulary in Storybooks : Embedding Explicit Vocabulary Instruction for Young Children

Tara is a teacher in an inclusive preschool classroom. Largeand smallgroup storybook readings are part of her classroom’s early literacy activities. Although Tara knows that vocabulary is an important part of early literacy instruction, she struggles to find the best words to teach and the best ways to teach these words. Today she is reading Noisy Nora (Wells, 1997) to her class. “No Nora in the cellar, No Nora in the tub,” she reads. She asks her class, “What does cellar mean?” Ramon calls out, “Pizza!” Tara tries to explain the meaning of cellar but she isn’t sure how to describe it and there is no picture of a cellar in the storybook. Her students look at her blankly, clearly ready for her to get on with the story. Ramon has stopped paying attention and is playing with his shoelace. Tara returns to reading the story, knowing that she needs to finish the story and move to the next activity. Like many teachers, Tara faces some challenges in her classroom. Many of her students come from families with low socioeconomic status, and several have been diagnosed with oral language impairments. When Tara completed her fall screening, many of the children in her class performed below age expectations on the vocabulary measure. Tara knows that storybook reading can provide an opportunity for vocabulary instruction, but she is not sure of the best way to do this. Also, Tara is concerned that the children in her class have different levels of vocabulary knowledge. How can she develop ways to provide vocabulary instruction that is appropriate for the individual children in her classroom?

Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Preschool and Kindergarten: Development and Initial Validation of First Sound Fluency

This article presents initial findings from a study examining First Sound Fluency (FSF), which is a brief measure of early phonemic awareness (PA) skills. Students in prekindergarten and kindergarten (preK and K) were assessed three times (fall, winter, and spring) over one school year, which resulted in multiple reliability and validity coefficients. In addition, a subset of students in both preK and K was assessed monthly between benchmark periods using alternate forms of the FSF measure to estimate delayed alternate-form reliability. The FSF measure displayed adequate reliability and validity for decision making in early literacy for students in both grades. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Identifying Preschool Children for Higher Tiers of Language and Early Literacy Instruction within a Response to Intervention Framework.

Response to Intervention (RTI) or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is beginning to be implemented in preschool programs to improve outcomes and to reduce the need for special education services. The proportions of children in programs identified as struggling learners through universal screening have important implications for the feasibility of these approaches as well as for the way programs might allocate resources and staff implementing tiered models of intervention. The expected proportions of children who might be identified for higher tiers of instructional support in pre-kindergarten settings are relatively unknown. The proportions of children who would have been identified for higher tiers of instructional language/literacy support when using three different universal screening measures are described. Participants were 659 children participating in the Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) Tier 1 Study. Results indicated that the proportions of children at Tier 2 and Tier 3 performance levels were higher for children in low-income eligibility programs and varied by program-level characteristics including numbers of English language learners and children with special needs, as well as the universal screening measure used. Implications of these findings suggest the importance of increased focus on early literacy and language in Tier 1 instruction in programs serving high proportions of children at risk as a means of preventing reading failure in future years.

Development of a Tier 3 Curriculum to Teach Early Literacy Skills.

Children with the lowest oral language and early literacy skills at entry to kindergarten are the most vulnerable to poor literacy outcomes. This article describes the programmatic development of a Tier 3 early literacy intervention for preschool children who are most in need of intensive support to achieve early literacy outcomes. The intervention consists of carefully sequenced activities and games to promote early literacy development and is designed to be implemented by an early childhood educator with small groups of one to two children during center time or small-group instruction time in the classroom. Development of, and research on, the intervention followed an iterative process leading to a sequence of studies demonstrating moderate to strong effect sizes for children who qualified for Tier 3 support. Children who received intervention were a diverse group who presented an array of challenging characteristics that required individualization of the intervention. Children progressed at different rates, and some children clearly needed more opportunities to receive the intervention. Further research is needed to investigate factors related to effectiveness of Tier 3 interventions, including characteristics of the intervention, such as duration, time, and group size, as well as the characteristics of children who respond/do not respond.

The Preschool Early Literacy Indicators: Validity and Benchmark Goals.

Assessment is at the center of a decision-making model within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Assessments that can be used for universal screening and progress monitoring in early childhood RTI models are needed that are both psychometrically sound and appropriate to meet developmental needs of young children. The Preschool Early Literacy Indicators (PELI), an assessment tool developed for screening and for progress monitoring, was designed to incorporate psychometrically sound assessment practices within an authentic assessment format. The current study provides data on concurrent and predictive validity of the PELI as well as analyses leading to the development of preliminary benchmark goals on the PELI. The PELI demonstrates significant differences in performance by age and growth in early literacy and language skills across the preschool years. Correlations between the PELI and criterion measures of similar skills are moderate to strong and predictive probabilities with respect to outcome measures are moderate to strong.

The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood Developing Evidence-Based Tools for a Multi-Tier Approach to Preschool Language and Early Literacy Instruction

The prevalence of struggling readers by third grade nationwide is estimated at one in three. Reports trace the roots of this problem to early childhood and the opportunity to learn language and early literacy skills at home and in preschool. Reports also indicate that one-size-fits-all preschool language and literacy instruction is beneficial for only some children. The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) was funded by the National Center for Special Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to conceptualize and develop evidence-based assessment and curricular tools that early education programs could include in their plans for teaching language and literacy skills using a multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) or response to intervention (RTI) approach. CRTIEC also was directed to provide leadership in disseminating information about progress in applying MTSS approaches to instruction in early childhood. The articles in this issue summarize the work of the Center through descriptions of the process of developing and validating tools needed for an MTSS approach and summaries of the research completed by the Center.