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Policy and Research Context for the Study
In April 2002, President Bush introduced the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative, which includes a Federal-State partnership to create linkages between the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the vehicle through which child care subsidy funds are allocated to states, and state and private efforts to promote early learning. The initiative reflected the understanding that, while many children from low-income families participate in Head Start or a state-funded prekindergarten program intended to enhance their readiness for school, this goal may not have received similar attention in child care programs that support the work-related needs of low-income parents.
In Miami-Dade County, the School Readiness Coalition (SRC)3 acts as the county’s fiscal agent for CCDF subsidy and quality improvement funds. In response to the President’s initiative and the anticipated advent of statewide voluntary prekindergarten, the SRC embarked on an effort to improve the school readiness of low-income children. In the first phase of this effort (Spring 2003), the SRC commissioned developmental assessments of all four-year-old children who were receiving subsidies4. In a subsequent phase, the coalition’s intent was to put in place system-wide curriculum interventions that focused on the developmental gaps identified by the assessments.
The first round of assessments of four-year-olds, using a broad-based diagnostic tool, the Learning Accomplishment Profile-Diagnostic Assessment (LAP-D), indicated a serious lag in children’s language development. For that reason, the SRC’s stakeholder advisory committee recommended that program interventions focus on language development and early literacy. Working closely with staff at the SRC, the central agencies that administered child care subsidies and Florida International University, staff from Abt Associates and MDRC developed a plan for an experimental test of three language and literacy curricula in child care centers serving low-income children in Miami-Dade County. The coalition agreed to commit CCDF quality improvement funds to pay for the curricula and the associated training. In addition, quality funds were allocated to hire literacy mentors who would provide ongoing support for teachers who were implementing the curricula. In return, the coalition hoped that the study would provide strong evidence about the effectiveness of the interventions that would guide the system-wide implementation of one or more curricula.
Miami-Dade County is Florida’s largest and most populous county, and is the eighth largest county in the United States, with a population of almost 2.4 million. It has experienced continuous and rapid population growth since the early part of the last century. Two-thirds of population growth is attributable to migration, most of it from Cuba and other Caribbean and Central American countries. In 2001, over half the county’s residents were born outside the United States. The county is ethnically and linguistically diverse: Hispanics constitute a majority (57%), non-Hispanic Whites are 24% and non-Hispanic Blacks are about 19% of Miami’s population. Many segments of the population are highly mobile, although much of the movement is within the county.
The child care system in the county poses challenges to the implementation of high-quality early childhood education. Florida’s licensing requirements are not stringent, turnover of teachers and staff is high, in large part because of low wages, and many classroom staff have low levels of educational achievement. The high levels of mobility among low-income families make stable child care arrangements difficult. However, these challenges, while they may differ in degree, are those found in many large US cities. A successful intervention in Miami-Dade County could provide guidance for many communities beyond its borders.
Research Context
This experiment focuses specifically on the development of language and emergent literacy skills. In part, this reflects the SRC’s identification of serious delays in language development among low-income four-year-olds in the county. It was also influenced by the increasing emphasis in the last decade on the importance of early language and literacy development for later reading success, which itself is seen as the foundation for learning. Research on child development and emergent literacy has identified four key domains that are strong predictors of subsequent literacy development: oral language development, phonological sensitivity (sensitivity to the sounds of language, including phonemes), print knowledge (including concepts of print and alphabet knowledge), and print motivation (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; Lonigan, Burgess, and Anthony, 2000; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998; 2001).
Also over the last decade, there has been growing recognition of the important role early childhood care and education programs can play in promoting these skills in children, especially at-risk children. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has reversed its earlier position on direct literacy instruction in response to three decades of research that provides evidence about the importance of early support for children’s language growth, engagement with print materials, and literacy-related activities (National Research Council, 1999; Neuman, Copple, & Bredekamp, 2000; Neuman & Roskos, 1998).
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