Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention from Head Start through second grade.

TLDR

The study replicated an emergent literacy intervention in Head Start with a new cohort and followed both cohorts through second grade. The intervention was administered to a new cohort of Head Start children and both cohorts were tracked longitudinally through the end of second grade. The intervention’s positive effects at the end of Head Start were replicated and sustained through kindergarten, but did not generalize to 1st‑ and 2nd‑grade literacy outcomes, and growth varied by center and district, and children made substantial gains relative to national norms by second grade.

Abstract

The present investigation is a replication of an emergent literacy intervention in Head Start with a new cohort of children and includes a follow-up of both the original cohort and the replication cohort through the end of 2nd grade. Positive effects at the end of Head Start obtained in the original study were replicated, and effects on emergent literacy skills in both cohorts were maintained through the end of kindergarten. Effects of the emergent literacy intervention did not generalize to literacy outcomes at the end of 1st and 2nd grades. Growth in emergent literacy skills and literacy skills from year to year was strongly influenced by variation in the Head Start centers and school districts attended by children in the sample. Although children in the sample began formal reading instruction with relatively low levels of emergent literacy skills, they showed substantial gains with respect to national norms by the end of 2nd grade.