Educators and Parents Teaching Together to Support At-Risk Head Start Students’ Language and Literacy Skills

• In Event: 1-207 - Exploring Recent Techniques in Classroom Vocabulary Interventions

Integrative Statement

Introduction
Experimental research shows that both teachers and parents can effectively support critical language and literacy skills that lay the foundation for school readiness (e.g., Puranik, Phillips, Lonigan & Gibson, 2018; Wasik, Bond & Hindman, 2006). Yet few experimental studies have examined interventions aligned across school and home contexts. This study investigated effects of a new program designed to improve young children’s language and literacy skills with a tiered intervention delivered by both teachers and parents.
Research Questions/Hypotheses
In the final year of a development project we used an underpowered randomized control trial to examine effects of a new program, Teaching Together (TT). Our primary research question was: What are the effects of the TT intervention contrasted with the business-as-usual (BAU) condition on preschoolers’ language and literacy outcomes? We designed the study to examine effects of increasingly comprehensive supports across one of three additive conditions: a) Tier 1: whole-group classroom instruction and parent-child workshops, b) Tier 2 Basic: added small-group classroom instruction plus home learning materials, or c) Tier 2 Enhanced: added parent coaching. Thus, our second research question asked: What are the effects of each level of tiered intervention contrasted with other intervention conditions and BAU condition? We hypothesized the intervention program would improve outcomes relative to BAU. We also expected that each increasing level of home supports would be associated with modest gains relative to the basic program.
Study Population
This study occurred in 33 Head Start classrooms randomized to either BAU (n=16) or TT (n=17). All students in participating classrooms were screened; children were eligible for the study if they scored below a predetermined cutpoint. We sampled four to eight consented (n=170) students per classroom with a larger ratio within intervention classrooms (n=98) relative to control classrooms (n=72). Children in TT classrooms were randomly assigned to the three additive conditions above.
Methods
Following screening, students completed a battery of pretest language and literacy assessments in November/December; posttest occurred in April/May. Focal measures include: rapid letter naming (RLN); basic, rapid vocabulary naming (RVN); and a sophisticated TT vocabulary task, assessing words taught or untaught/exposed in the intervention.
The classroom-based intervention included 23 weeks with 4 Tier 1 lessons and 4 Tier 2 lessons per week. Six Tier 1 family workshops were offered at school sites. Family Tier 2 supports featured 10 activities/books and 4 individual coaching sessions.
Results
Analyses used multilevel models of posttest outcomes with pretest as covariate. Preliminary findings indicate no main effects relative to BAU when all three TT conditions are combined. However, for second research question, Tier 2 Enhanced statistically outperforms BAU (main effect) on the TT taught vocabulary outcome; see Table 1. Additionally, a significant moderation for RLN was observed between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Enhanced based on children’s initial RLN ability. This was a negative interaction such that those who were lower on RLN gained more in Tier 2 Enhanced relative to Tier 1; see Table 2. The TT Enhanced parent coaching condition appears most effective for students at risk.

Authors

• Tricia Zucker, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  Presenting Author

• Sonia Cabell, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yaacov Petscher, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Landry, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heather Mui, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  Non-Presenting Author