Literacy Development: CFS Evaluates Impact Of Program For Early Childhood Educators And Preschool Children
A project providing a unique, comprehensive approach to improving literacy, reading readiness and social-emotional functioning of children from birth to five years of age was recently implemented in Pinellas County. The Early Learning Opportunities (ELO) Act: Impact on Early Childhood Educators and Preschool Children(1.18mb pdf) project offered opportunities for caregivers and teachers from publicly funded and private children’s programs to increase their level of professional education, earn college credit, gain early literacy teaching skills, receive tools and materials for their classrooms, and promote healthy social-emotional development in the children they serve.
The project provided teacher educator opportunities within a college course whose framework and structure was based on the HeadsUp! Reading (HUR) curriculum.
“While ELO was directed toward teachers, the overall goal was to accelerate early literacy development in the students of the teachers targeted,” said Kathi Armstrong, PI of the project. “Numerous resources were provided to the ELO teachers, such as books for classroom libraries, props for dramatic play and story telling, and magnetic alphabet letters with display boards.”
The project also implemented the use of Literacy Coaches who visited teachers in their childcare settings. During the coaching sessions, the coaches engaged in a cycle of observing the teacher, providing feedback, modeling instructional strategies, and setting goals for the teacher for subsequent coaching sessions.
“This was certainly a first step toward developing a community training system for childcare providers that reflects research on the early literacy and social/emotional competencies needed for young children to become successful students,” said Armstrong. “This effort addressed these competencies by offering college coursework and instructional materials to the individuals providing their day-to-day care, and training activities were reinforced by a coaching component, which facilitated transfer of training from the college classroom to the workplace setting.”
The ELO project impacted 22,687 citizens of Pinellas County. In order to evaluate the impact on the early childhood centers, participating teachers and children, nine broad questions were used to collect data.
ELO Evaluation Questions:
1. Are LCP activities and objectives implemented in a timely fashion?
2. Does the home visiting model enhance child and family outcomes?
3. Does the classroom-teaching component increase knowledge and skills of child care providers?
4. Does mentoring and coaching of child care providers improve their competence and confidence?
5. Do participating children show improvement in skill acquisition?
6. Do participating children demonstrate readiness for kindergarten?
7. What are the factors associated with efficient implementation of this model in the community?
8. Are families and providers satisfied with this model?
9. What is the cost of implementing this model?
Findings were presented in a recent report completed for the funding agency, the Department of Health and Human Services Administration. The report describes evaluation measures and data collection, with detailed specifics regarding each of the questions asked during the evaluation.