The primary purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate two instructional programs designed to enhance early literacy skills of pre-kindergarten 4-year-olds enrolled in Head Start. A second goal was to compare literacy task assessment measures of three instructional groups, (1) explicit literacy instruction (ELI; N= 26), (2) shared book reading (SBR; N = 25), and (c) no specialized treatment (NST; N = 29), prior to the onset of treatment and again 15 weeks later. Pre-treatment group differences on measures of early literacy and receptive vocabulary were not significant. Intervention for the ELI group focused on providing explicit, systematic, developmentally appropriate instruction to enhance phonological awareness skills and increase alphabet knowledge. The SBR intervention, which focused on enhancing oral language, involved scaffolding strategies. Children in the two intervention groups received instruction two times per week for 15 weeks. Post-treatment outcome measures obtained for these two groups were compared with each other and also with scores of children in the NST group who received Head Start standard curriculum instruction only. ANOVA results indicated that post-treatment scores for the ELI group were significantly better than those of the other two groups on overall primary literacy measures and for the phonological awareness component, but not for alphabet knowledge. Differences between the SBR and NST groups were not significant for any measures. These results indicate that explicit, systematic early literacy instruction can improve Head Start children's literacy scores. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. / "December 2006." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-90)

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Across the country, there is growing awareness of the dividends of early reading success and the stark consequences of early reading failure. A number of assessment studies in recent years have shown that the educational achievement of learners in South African schools is unacceptably poor. The 2011 Annual National Assessment results indicate a 35% literacy rate for South African learners in Grade 3 and a 30% literacy rate for learners in the North West Province of South Africa. According to Kanjee (2008), there is a growing trend in South Africa towards the use of assessment to improve learning. The aim of this study is to develop a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system for early literacy skills. In beginning literacy the development of this school-wide progress monitoring assessment system will be based on the premise that useful assessment of learner progress should be formative in its instructional effects and that it needs to focus teacher attention on data representing the results of their efforts. The development of a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system can help identify and strategically intervene before learners become part of the low South African literacy rate statistic. It is generally recognized that reading is developmental and acquired over time. From the convergence of more than 30 years of scientific research, researchers now have a solid scientific understanding of the core foundational skills in beginning reading. Foundational skills are prerequisite and fundamental to later success in a content area or domain. These skills differentiate successful from less successful readers and most important are amenable to change through instruction. One example of a comprehensive assessment system designed to assess these key foundational skills of early literacy for young learners is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). DIBELS measures, by design, are indicators of each of the Basic Early Literacy Skills. In this study, the aim is to collaborate with subject specialists (district level), school management teams (school level), and teachers (classroom level), in order to obtain an in depth understanding of assessment practices in general, and specifically progress monitoring assessment as well as the assessment support needs of teachers and learners. The collaborative aim is to establish a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system that will not only enhance the assessment practices of teachers, but also the system-wide decisions that need to take place so that effective instructional decisions can be made at all levels, and most importantly at the classroom level. In this study I chose to conduct a 16 month action research project in one primary school (i.e., the Happy Valley School) in one specific district (i.e., the Cloudy District) in the North West Province. From the data it is clear that ANA dominates conversations related to assessment, especially in foundation phase. Both at district and school level there is no clear indication that the information generated from assessments is key evidence to continuous improvement in teaching and learning. The data also indicates that the government documents play a crucial role in guiding the actions of the stakeholders. The data indicates that progress monitoring relates specifically to “showing” or “proving” improved learning in language/literacy as measured by ANA. In addition to ANA, and at classroom level, teachers monitor progress fairly “randomly”; they can decide what to ‘look’ for, usually by using their summative assessment marks, when deciding whether a learner is making progress or not. It is possible, therefore, that no two teachers will look at the same foundational literacy skill when deciding whether the learner is making progress in a particular skill. There is also no guideline for teachers in terms of what to aim for in order to ensure that learners make progress in core foundational literacy skills that evidence-based research has shown to have a major effect on reading achievement. In this study, I used a metaphor to illustrate the core components of a progress monitoring assessment and support rocket system. The aim of the rocket is to ensure that all learners achieve “lift off” and hit the identified targets, at all grade levels, on the way to reading success. In order to ensure that the rocket is launched effectively, all stakeholders have to fulfil essential tasks or roles. The assessment and support rocket system implemented in this study was developed to provide a prevention-oriented, assessment and support decision-making system to pre-empt early reading difficulty and ensure progress step-bystep toward outcomes that result in reading achievement for all children. / PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Across the country, there is growing awareness of the dividends of early reading success and the stark consequences of early reading failure. A number of assessment studies in recent years have shown that the educational achievement of learners in South African schools is unacceptably poor. The 2011 Annual National Assessment results indicate a 35% literacy rate for South African learners in Grade 3 and a 30% literacy rate for learners in the North West Province of South Africa. According to Kanjee (2008), there is a growing trend in South Africa towards the use of assessment to improve learning. The aim of this study is to develop a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system for early literacy skills. In beginning literacy the development of this school-wide progress monitoring assessment system will be based on the premise that useful assessment of learner progress should be formative in its instructional effects and that it needs to focus teacher attention on data representing the results of their efforts. The development of a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system can help identify and strategically intervene before learners become part of the low South African literacy rate statistic. It is generally recognized that reading is developmental and acquired over time. From the convergence of more than 30 years of scientific research, researchers now have a solid scientific understanding of the core foundational skills in beginning reading. Foundational skills are prerequisite and fundamental to later success in a content area or domain. These skills differentiate successful from less successful readers and most important are amenable to change through instruction. One example of a comprehensive assessment system designed to assess these key foundational skills of early literacy for young learners is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). DIBELS measures, by design, are indicators of each of the Basic Early Literacy Skills. In this study, the aim is to collaborate with subject specialists (district level), school management teams (school level), and teachers (classroom level), in order to obtain an in depth understanding of assessment practices in general, and specifically progress monitoring assessment as well as the assessment support needs of teachers and learners. The collaborative aim is to establish a school-wide progress monitoring assessment system that will not only enhance the assessment practices of teachers, but also the system-wide decisions that need to take place so that effective instructional decisions can be made at all levels, and most importantly at the classroom level. In this study I chose to conduct a 16 month action research project in one primary school (i.e., the Happy Valley School) in one specific district (i.e., the Cloudy District) in the North West Province. From the data it is clear that ANA dominates conversations related to assessment, especially in foundation phase. Both at district and school level there is no clear indication that the information generated from assessments is key evidence to continuous improvement in teaching and learning. The data also indicates that the government documents play a crucial role in guiding the actions of the stakeholders. The data indicates that progress monitoring relates specifically to “showing” or “proving” improved learning in language/literacy as measured by ANA. In addition to ANA, and at classroom level, teachers monitor progress fairly “randomly”; they can decide what to ‘look’ for, usually by using their summative assessment marks, when deciding whether a learner is making progress or not. It is possible, therefore, that no two teachers will look at the same foundational literacy skill when deciding whether the learner is making progress in a particular skill. There is also no guideline for teachers in terms of what to aim for in order to ensure that learners make progress in core foundational literacy skills that evidence-based research has shown to have a major effect on reading achievement. In this study, I used a metaphor to illustrate the core components of a progress monitoring assessment and support rocket system. The aim of the rocket is to ensure that all learners achieve “lift off” and hit the identified targets, at all grade levels, on the way to reading success. In order to ensure that the rocket is launched effectively, all stakeholders have to fulfil essential tasks or roles. The assessment and support rocket system implemented in this study was developed to provide a prevention-oriented, assessment and support decision-making system to pre-empt early reading difficulty and ensure progress step-bystep toward outcomes that result in reading achievement for all children. / PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The low literacy levels achieved by deaf children are of ongoing concern to educators and researchers alike. The present research considered emergent literacy as one aspect to consider in the acquisition of literacy skills in deaf children. The aim of this research was to describe the home-based literacy experiences of severely to profoundly deaf pre-schoolers as provided by their hearing parents. Parents of twenty-nine pre-school deaf children from schools for the deaf were selected to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed based on the four identified literacy contexts: the physical and functional context, the language context, the affective context and the educational context. The results obtained indicate that the deaf children in this survey are exposed to literacy-rich home environments where they are able to observe literate adult role models. Limitations in the quantity and quality of text-based interaction between the deaf pre-schoolers, their hearing parents and older siblings were identified. The results also indicated that the parents who participated in this research regarded the development of language and communication as more important than the early acquisition of literacy skills. The parents assigned the greatest responsibility in teaching literacy skills to teachers. This study highlights the sensitive nature of early literacy and language learning in young deaf children. Suggestions for further research are presented. / Dissertation (M(Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

Accountability for student learning outcomes is of importance to parents and school and district administrators, especially since the passage of The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The requirement for high-stakes testing to measure progress has fostered interest in ways to monitor student preparedness during the school year. This study used 2014 and 2015 test data from of 154 students from one elementary school to measure the correlation between individually administered Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement Brief Reading and DIBELS Next reading assessments and outcomes on the high-stakes Utah SAGE test. This correlational study used Pearson correlation coefficients to determine redundancy across the tests, and used multiple regression to assess how well scores on the KTEA and DIBELS Next tests predict students' subsequent scores on the SAGE test. Results indicate that DIBELS Next was a strong predictor of SAGE outcomes while KTEA Brief results were moderate predictors.

This thesis examined the relationship between classroom quality, approaches-to-learning, and early academic skills among 384 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in Florida Head Start programs. The children were living in low-income homes where Spanish was the primary language spoken by at least one parent. The study analyzed the extent to which approaches-to-learning behaviors moderate early literacy and numeracy skills in Head Start classrooms of varying quality. During the spring of their prek-4 year, the children were administered the English and Spanish Letter-Word Identification and Applied Problems subtests of the WJ-III (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) and the Batería III (Muñoz-Sandoval, Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2005) Tests of Achievement. General features of classroom quality were measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Multilevel models indicated that there is a negative association between a classroom's level of emotional support and early English Literacy Skills, a positive association between Attention/Persistence Learning Behaviors and early English Literacy Skills, and a positive association between Competence Motivation Learning Behaviors and early English Numeracy Skills. Approaches-to-learning behaviors did not moderate the relationship between classroom quality and early academic skills. Results are consistent with previous research that has found that general measures of classroom quality may not capture the cultural and linguistic factors that influence a DLL's early academic skills. The current findings are consistent with previous literature on the positive influence of approaches-to-learning behaviors on early academic skills. Implications for practice include using culturally responsive teaching practices, creating a positive classroom environment, and supporting the development of Attention/Persistence and Competence Motivation Learning Behaviors. Implications for research include strengths-based research examining the promotive role of approaches-to-learning in DLL development and using culturally sensitive measures of classroom quality.

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No description available.

xiii, 137 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Research suggests that development of the alphabetic principle is a critical factor in learning to recognize words and becoming a successful reader. The alphabetic principle encompasses both the understanding that relationships exist between letters and sounds and the application of these relationships to reading words. This study investigated the degree to which different measures of the alphabetic principle were predictive of later reading development. These measures were examined in the context of Ehri's phase theory of sight word development to investigate how different behaviors associated with the alphabetic principle fit within a developmental framework. Two cohorts of students (109 kindergarteners, 212 first graders) participated in this study from spring of 2007 until late fall of 2008 (58 second graders, 121 third graders). The predictive powers of single and combined measures of the alphabetic principle were analyzed using sequential regression. Results indicated that each measure explained significant between-student variation in performance on measures of word reading fluency, oral reading fluency (ORF), vocabulary, and reading comprehension. A measure of letter-sounds embedded in nonsense words appeared to have more utility for the prediction of reading outcomes than a measure of letter-sounds presented in isolation. Additionally, including a measure of nonsense words with a measure of letter-sounds embedded in nonsense words increased the predictive power of the model over and above the predictive power of letter sounds alone. Growth on ORF served as an additional criterion for the purpose of investigating the methodology of measuring growth. Two conceptualizations of growth were explored: raw score change over time and individual rates of growth over time (slope). Correlations and sequential regression were used to evaluate the relationship between raw score change and measures of the alphabetic principle. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to model individual slopes on Lexile measures of ORF (LORF). In general, raw score change appeared largely unrelated to measures of the alphabetic principle. HLM analyses revealed that individual differences in slope on LORF were minimal and not very reliable, making the prediction of these differences difficult. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are discussed. / Committee in charge: Roland Good, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Kenneth Merrell, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Leanne Ketterlin Geller, Member, Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership; Jean Stockard, Outside Member, Planning Public Policy and Management