Assessing Early Literacy Growth and Development in Three-year-olds using Individual Growth and Development Indicators

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

There are a limited number of valid early literacy assessments for use with preschool age children, and this is especially true for three-year-olds (McConnell et al., 2014). As state and district policies expand their emphasis on school readiness in preschool, meaningful assessments for understanding early literacy growth and development for all preschoolers, including three-year-olds has become an important need in the field (Will et al., 2019). Early educators need easy to use and instructionally relevant measures to be able translate children’s scores to changes in their instructional practices (Codding et al., 2015; VanDerHeyden et al., 2008). Without strong measures to understand the unique features of early literacy skills in three-year-olds, educators are left without data to inform how to support children’s later reading success. This study sought to contribute to the research literature by describing the growth trajectories for three new early literary measures designed specifically for three-year old children. The Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) for three-year-olds (PK3). We focused on the research question: What are the growth curve trajectories for the three IGDI-PK3 measures?

Method
465 children (Mean age = 45 months, SD = 0.3) from five early childhood programs participated in this study. Data collection occurred across three data collection waves (fall, winter, and spring) during one preschool year (2018-2019) in three literacy domains; oral language (OL), alphabet knowledge (AK), and phonological awareness (PA). The IGDIs-PK3 were developed using Rasch modeling to scale and calibrate each item within each measure. Scaled items were administered in computer adaptive testing (CAT) and linear forms depending on the measure and seasons. Each form contained 25 items, except for OL in fall which contained 27-28 items. Trained data collectors administered IGDIs-PK3 measures on an Ipad application to participating children. All data collection was completed in the spring of 2020 and data cleaning is also complete.
To answer the research question, we will conduct hierarchical linear models for each literacy domain, where administrations for a given measure will be nested within students across the three data collection waves. Time will be measured in months and treated as a continuous variable. Statistical significance for fixed effects will be determined using a two-tailed t-test with Satterthwaite’s degrees of freedom and significance for random effects (intercepts and slopes) will be determined using Akaikes’ information criterion (AIC) model fit comparisons. We hypothesize that students will show meaningful progress in all three domains, as indicated by slopes significantly different from zero with standard errors that allow for meaningful differentiation of performance trends across the academic year. Results from the current study will contribute to our understanding of early literacy growth in three-year-olds, which in turn can be used to inform and improve future early literacy assessment and instructional practices. Developing age appropriate assessments is critical to assessing and improving school readiness outcomes in the early years.

Authors

• Marianne Elmquist, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Kelsey Will, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anthony Albano, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Lease, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Scott R McConnell, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alisha K. Wackerle-Hollman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author