Building Bridges to Student and Teacher Learning: Early Literacy Assessment and Intervention Planning Grant

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

The project will expand the work of a teacher-researcher collaboration in the area of early literacy development, particularly early identification of and intervention for children at-risk for reading failure. The objectives of this work are threefold: (a) refine and pilot test the efficacy of a comprehensive literacy assessment and accompanying interventions to be used with at-risk children in kindergarten and first grade in preparation for a future large-scale efficacy study, (b) use the software tools developed by TIMSS Video-R project and LessonLab to create a digital video library of illustrations of literacy assessments and interventions, and to document changes in instructional practices in the classroom as a result of implementing the literacy assessment and intervention, and (c) using information from the pilot efficacy study and the digital library, begin to develop a model program for literacy assessment and intervention to be used in teacher professional development. The pilot efficacy study involves two treatment conditions and one no-treatment comparison condition. One of the treatment groups uses the assessment and interventions with full support from the project team for formative evaluation purposes, a second is supported only by the web-based (digitized materials to examine the assessment s use under anticipated future implementation conditions. If successful, this study will show that it is possible to affect change in reading out comes for at-risk children by providing teachers with assessment tools and intervention choices focused on early literacy development. Results of the study will aid in the design and implementation of the large-scale efficacy study and the development of a model program for early identification and intervention that can be disseminated electronically.