THE REGENTS OF THE SCHOOLING &Cognitive Development: A

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research has five broad aims. First, the work seeks to examine the nature and sources of cognitive, language and literacy skills growth during the transition from preschool to the early school years. Combining an ecological perspective with a natural experiment (school cutoff), the research will examine specifically the interactive role of child, family and schooling factors in shaping trajectories of cognitive growth from three years of age to second grade. Second, the project will explore the utility of constructing and charting developmental pathways to literacy, utilizing a combination of analytic tools, including multiple regression, structural equation modeling and a homogeneous grouping strategy. The combination of methods will permit creation of frameworks for describing the complex, dynamic interactions among child, family and schooling factors that shape literacy acquisition in school-age children. Third, the "pathway" framework will permit direct examination of selected sources of domain-specificity in aspects of cognitive and literacy growth. Domain-specificity will be seen in part as a function of an interaction of child and family characteristics and instructional experiences in school. Fourth, the pathway notion will be applied to an examination of stability and change across age in cognitive and literacy skills. It is argued that whether children's cognitive, language or literacy skills remain relatively stable or not will depend, in part, on the interaction of earlier influences (child, family) with concurrent influences in the schooling environment. Finally, the work will attempt to apply the pathway strategy to examination of issues of risk and resilience in childhood. Here too, fuller understanding of the factors that place a child at risk for later negative outcomes or serve to protect the child from consequences of adverse circumstances will be enhanced by examining the interaction of risk versus protective factors over time as they shape unique trajectories of growth.