Running Head: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and CURRICULUM 1

Running head: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CURRICULUM 1

The Impact of Professional Development and Curriculum on Instructional Practices and Emergent Literacy Outcomes for African American Head Start Children

Kevin McGowan

George Mason University

May 10, 2010
Abstract

This study will examine the impact of the Sustaining Teachers’ Effective Pedagogy (STEP) professional development model and the Houghton-Mifflin Prekindergarten curriculum on Head Start teachers’ instructional practices and emergent literacy outcomes for African American Head Start children. Instructional practices will be assessed using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Emergent literacy outcomes will be assessed using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) PreK and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). This study will use an embedded mixed methods research design via a quantitative quasi-experiment and qualitative focus groups. Expected results will be more focused emergent literacy instruction and higher emergent literacy outcomes.

Introduction

Early childhood educators continue to struggle over developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) in terms of emergent literacy (Mohler, Yun, Carter, & Kasak, 2009; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) defines DAP as establishing an environment which includes providing guidance and support for advancing emergent literacy skills in the classroom and offering content, materials, activities, and methodologies that are coordinated with a child’s development and for which the child is ready (Mohler et al., 2009).

Many children begin kindergarten without the emergent literacy skills necessary to complete a successful kindergarten year (Armstrong, Cusumano, Todd, & Cohen, 2008; Conner & Craig; 2006; Dickinson & Caswell, 2007; Jackson, Larzelere, St. Clair, Corr, Fichter, & Egertson, 2006; Moher et al., 2009; Snow et al., 1998; Washington, 2001; Wasik, Bond, & Hindman, 2006). A significant number of African American Children are included in the data in terms of not entering kindergarten with the necessary emergent literacy skills to complete a successful kindergarten year (Connor, & Craig, 2006; Washington, 2001). Emergent literacy is defined as reading and writing related activities and behaviors that change over time culminating in conventional literacy during middle childhood (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999). Conventional literacy skills are associated with decoding, oral reading, fluency, reading comprehension, writing, and spelling (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2008).

Children entering kindergarten are not expected to be reading; however, they should have some knowledge of books and understand the purpose of reading (Burns et al., 1999; Mohler et al., 2009). According to the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (2003), preschool children should demonstrate progress in learning how to handle and care for books, know to view one page at a time in sequence from front to back, and understand that a book has a title, author, and illustrator. Moreover, preschool children should have some emergent literacy skills which include some letter recognition, especially the letters in their names and they should be able to engage in some form of emergent writing (Mohler et al, 2009).

Children who lack these emergent literacy skills when they enter kindergarten tend to come from low socioeconomic and minority backgrounds (Hart & Risley, 2003; Jackson et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009). Hart and Risley (2003) estimated that when low-income 4-year-old children reached kindergarten, they had an accumulated experience with 13 million words, middle-class children had an accumulated experience with 26 million words, and upper-class children had an accumulated experience with 45 million words. This gap in early language experiences have significant consequences and can predict how children will perform in later grades (Hart & Risley, 2003). For example, Hart & Risley (2003) demonstrated a high correlation between 3-year-old children’s accumulated word experience and their third grade vocabulary and reading comprehension assessments.

Purpose of Study

Center-based preschool experiences which include a literacy-based curriculum and staff trained on how to effectively facilitate emergent language and literacy activities can assist children in terms of their emergent literacy skills (Jackson et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009). The emergent language and literacy outcomes examined for this study will include oral language, phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, print awareness, and writing. This study will examine the impact of the Sustaining Teachers’ Effective Pedagogy (STEP) professional development model and the Houghton-Mifflin Prekindergarten (HMPK) curriculum on teacher instructional practices and emergent literacy and language development outcomes for African American Head Start children.

STEP is a Head Start/George Mason University Partnership Research Grant that develops and evaluates a professional development model to increase Head Start teacher overarching effectiveness and promote positive child outcomes across all domains of learning including emergent literacy. The STEP model includes designated professional development days for teachers, community of learning and practice groups, mentor coaches, and professional development modules. The modules include: Intentional Teaching; Culturally Responsive Teaching; Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Including All Children; and Promoting Children’s Planning and Reflections.

Head Start is a federally funded program for low-income preschoolers. Head Start uses a comprehensive services model which is concerned with multiple aspects of the preschool child including education, health, nutrition, and family circumstances. A family support specialist is assigned to each Head Start family for the purpose of addressing family issues and concerns.

In order to examine the impact ofthe STEP professional development model and the HMPK curriculum on instructional practices and emergent language and literacy outcomes, the following research questions will be considered:

(1) What is the impact of the HMPK curriculum on the instructional practices and emergent language and literacy outcomes of African American Head Start children?

(2)What is the impact of the HMPK curriculum and the STEP professional development model on the instructional practices and emergent language and literacy outcomes of African American Head Start children?

Research-Based Emergent Language and Literacy Curriculum

This section of the literature review examines the impact of the Houghton-Mifflin Pre-Kindergarten (HMPK) Curriculum on instructional practices and emergent literacy outcomes for low-income preschool children. Research has demonstrated that emergent literacy based curricula that provide guidance to instructors for daily lessons and ongoing assessment of preschool children’s emergent literacy skills has a significant impact on the children’s later literacy abilities when they enter elementary school (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2008). The HMPK curriculum meets the aforementioned criteria established by Lonigan and Shanahan.

The HMPK curriculum uses design, scope, and sequence to incorporate oral language, phonological awareness, and alphabet recognition into ten curriculum themes (Bredekamp, Morrow, & Pikulski, 2006; Mohler, et al., 2009). The ten themes are Welcome to School, My Family and Community, My Five Senses, Seasons All Around, Animals Everywhere, Construction Zone, In the City and Country, Let’s Move, Growing and Changing, and Ready for Kindergarten. Big books, oral language cards, and other teacher supports accompany each theme (Bredekamp et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009).

The HMPK curriculum uses the Early Growth Indicators Benchmark Assessment which is administered to children in the fall, winter, and spring of the program year (Bredekamp et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009). Children are individually assessed in four areas which include beginning sounds, letter recognition, listening comprehension, and word knowledge. The beginning sounds and letter recognition components of the assessment were administered in one minute for each section, the listening comprehension component was administered in ninety seconds, and the word knowledge component was not timed (Bredekamp et al., 2006; Mohler, et al., 2009). The beginning sounds subtest assesses the child’s ability to give the first sound of pictures shown by the assessment administrator. The letter recognition subtest asks the child to name upper-case and lower-case letters presented randomly (Bredekamp et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009). The listening comprehension subtest assesses the child’s ability to demonstrate understanding of concepts and works by pointing to the correct picture. Word knowledge assesses children’s ability to use oral language to say everything they can about pictures of common objects (Bredekamp et al., 2006; Mohler, et al., 2009).

The research conducted by Mohler et al. (2009) demonstrated significant differences in children’s ability regarding letter recognition, listening comprehension, and word knowledge between classroom instructors who used the HMPK and those who did not focus on using the HMPK curriculum. There were no statistically significant outcomes for beginning sounds scores. The beginning sounds outcome may be attributed to instructors’ lack of practice at presenting intentional phonological tasks (Mohler, et al., 2009). Mohler et al. (2009) used a posttest-only control group design.

Emergent Language and Literacy Professional Development Models

This section of the literature review examines the role of emergent language and literacy professional development models on instructional practices and emergent literacy outcomes for low-income preschool children. Since the STEP professional development model is in the developmental stages, it has not been researched; however, there are bodies of research that address the STEP components as outlined in the following paragraphs under this section.

Preschool teachers must be prepared to meet the individualized needs of their students in terms of emergent literacy. Pre-service preparation varies for preschool teachers with some preschool teachers holding masters’ degrees and many others having no formal education past high school (Armstrong et al., 2008; McNerney, Nielsen, & Clay, 2006). Given the varying rates of early childhood teacher preparation, it is important for early childhood educators to receive differentiated in-service staff development training to meet their needs and consequently meet the needs of their students (Armstrong et al., 2008; Jackson et al, 2006; McNerney et al., 2006). A developing body of research suggests that prepared teachers have significant impacts on the emergent language and literacy skills of their students (Armstrong et al., 2008; Crim, Hawkins, Thornton, Rosof, Copley, & Thomas, 2008; Jackson et al., 2006; McNerney et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009; Onchwari & Keengwe, 2008).

Professional development should be a multifaceted process; however, whole-group presentations to teachers continue to be a typical part of professional development models (McNerney et al., 2006). An early childhood manager or other administrator often decides the focus for these sessions (McNerney et al., 2006). Research indicates that most early childhood education professional development workshops are based on assumptions of early childhood administrators, and these assumptions are not always based on data or relevant feedback from teachers (McNerney et al., 2006). Teachers’ responses to some of these workshops indicate whether the session is appropriate or inappropriate. The content may not be challenging or the content may be too difficult. The teachers’ prior knowledge has an impact on what professional development workshop topics should be planned (McNerney et al., 2006).

In the Mohler et al. (2009) study, professional development was provided through monthly in-service training sessions during year 1 of the 3-year project. Two multiday summer in-service training sessions and six full-day in-service training sessions were held during the second and third years of the project (Mohler et al., 2009). The in-service training sessions focused on phonological awareness, curriculum implementation, oral language development, dialogic assessments to guide instruction, and English-language learner workshops (Mohler et al., 2009).

The Early Childhood C3 Coaching: Quality Professional Development Grant – Collegial, Cognitive, and Collaborative was designed to improve the educational experiences of prekindergarten children in low-income, high-need communities by providing meaningful, researched based professional development opportunities for their teachers (Crim et al., 2008). Collegial refers to training teams of early childhood educators with varying roles and levels of expertise (Crim et al., 2008). Cognitive refers to providing research on children’s learning and effective instructional strategies (Crim et al., 2008). Collaborative refers to implementing research-based programs that incorporate perspectives within a variety of experience levels (Crim et al., 2008). The model provided research on how young children learn and on instructional strategies. Moreover, this model promoted opportunities for teachers to work with and learn from other educators through collaboration and literacy mentor coaching (Crim et al., 2008).

In conjunction with professional development workshops, literacy mentor coaches have been shown to increase the effectiveness of professional development. Literacy mentor coaches work with individual teachers to model techniques introduced in group sessions, adapt lessons to meet the individual needs of teachers and their students, and provide feedback to teachers in a non-threatening way (McNerney et al., 2006).

The literacy mentor coach teaches, encourages, and counsels a less experienced early childhood educator as part of ongoing professional development (Jackson et al., 2006; Onchwari & Keengwe, 2008). Successful mentoring programs are those in which the mentor was perceived to have a high level of expertise. In addition, successful mentors were able to establish positive relationships through the development of regular communication, openness, trust, and ongoing support (Jackson et al, 2006; Mohler et al, 2009; Onchwari & Keengwe, 2008).

In the Mohler et al. (2009) study, literacy coaches were in each classroom one day a week assisting the teachers and working with children to provide intentional literacy instruction in the prekindergarten classroom. Literacy coaches met weekly with the project director for continued professional development regarding coaching and early literacy instruction and to provide feedback and suggestions for project implementation (Mohler et al., 2009). In addition, all literacy coaches submitted weekly reports to the project director regarding their coaching activities (Mohler, et al., 2009)

In the Armstrong et al. (2008) study, literacy coach sessions consisted of one hour long, one-to-one interaction with teachers. All literacy coaches had at least five years of experience working in early childhood education settings. All were trained in the Early Literacy and Learning Model (ELLM) of coaching which employs observation, feedback, and modeling activities (Armstrong et al., 2008).

In the Jackson et al. (2006) study, the literacy coach met with each early childhood educator for four to six times consisting of two through four hour sessions over a two-month period. Literacy coaches who participated in this study had masters’ degrees and a minimum of ten years of experience early childhood teachers and/or trainers. The literacy coaches participated in a one-day training session on effective mentoring practices and were given guidelines to support their work (Jackson et al., 2006).

The Jackson et al. (2006) study concluded that the additional support of mentoring extended the positive impact in writing practices; however, the additional mentoring did not have a significant impact on other areas of emergent literacy (Jackson et al., 2006). Several factors may have accounted for the lack of significant findings regarding mentoring: (1) the sample size of eight early childhood educators may have limited the statistical power to detect differential gains relative to controls, (2) mentoring was self selected, introducing unknown confounds which may have influenced the results, (3) mentoring was provided towards the end of the project, and (4) there were only four to six mentoring sessions over a two-month period (Jackson et al., 2006). The changes that were implemented by the early childhood educators may not have had enough time to impact child outcomes (Jackson et al., 2006). These findings suggest that mentoring was not provided with enough intensity and structure to make a difference in child outcomes (Jackson et al., 2006). In addition, the study found that early childhood educators were often reluctant to use the mentoring component of staff development (Jackson et al., 2006). In settings where at least one teacher agreed to be mentored, it was found that once the mentor began work in their setting, others would agree to participate when they saw it was a supportive relationship (Armstrong et al., 2008). This pattern suggests that it is important to create a culture that promotes a trusting relationship prior to the recruitment of teachers into mentoring relationships (Jackson et al., 2006; Mohler et al., 2009; Onchwari & Keengwe, 2008).

Results from the Armstrong et al. (2008) study showed that the participants who received mentor coaching demonstrated a slight, but statistically insignificant advantage in skill implementation as compared to those without coaching. The lack of significant findings regarding the mentoring component could have resulted because the mentors did not spend enough time with the teachers or the teachers did not have electronic access to mentors (Armstrong, et al., 2008).

Method

Participants

The sample will consist of 30 Head Start teachers and 540 African American Head Start children from a large urban East Coast Head Start program. Some of the classrooms in this program will use the HMPK curriculum and some will use an early childhood curriculum that does not have an emergent literacy research focus.

Measures

Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO). The ELLCO will be used to measure the teachers’ language and literacy practices. It was chosen because it focuses on the language and literacy practices of early childhood classrooms. Moreover, it was field tested on over 600 early childhood classrooms representing various regions of the UnitedStates inclusive of children from diverse backgrounds (Smith, Brady, & Anastasopoulous, 2008). Results from the field tests indicated high rates of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability (Smith et al., 2008).

The ELLCO includes five sections (1) classroom structure, (2) curriculum, (3) the language environment, (4) books and book reading, and (5) print and early writing. Each section of the ELLCO is scored using a 5-point scale with 5 indicating exemplary, 4 indicating strong, 3 indicating basic, 2 indicating inadequate, and 1 indicating deficient (Smith et al., 2008).

Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). The CLASS is an observation instrument designed to evaluate classroom quality in preschool through third grade. The CLASS was chosen because it examines the interactions between teachers and students based on three domains which are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. The emotional support domain includes three dimensions: classroom climate, teacher sensitivity, and regard for student perspectives. The classroom organization domain includes three dimensions: behavior management, productivity, and instructional learning formats. The instructional support domain includes three dimensions: concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008).