CLI's Effect on Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms in Baltimore
Summary of a Report by Ludo C. P. Scheffer, Ph.D., S 2 Dynamics
Children's Literacy Initiative's (CLI) professional development program, combined with children's books and materials, has made a measurable difference in helping raise achievement on assessments of reading readiness in Baltimore children perceived to be "at-risk."
A 1998 evaluation of teaching practices and environments in Heads Start centers found that their students' median score on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was 90, or in the low-middle range (the national norm is 100) (Nicholas Zill, et al, 1998). The PPVT is a nationally-normed vocabulary test with high reliability: it is consistent and results do not vary from one tester to another. The assessment has been compared to the IQ test because it is rare to find significant increases in scores in a short period of time.
During the same year, a study measured the effect of CLI's work with Baltimore pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. These low-income students across 61 classrooms averaged 101.89 on the PPVT. A control group of pre-kindergarten classrooms, located in the same neighborhood, scored 91.89 on the PPVT (Ludo C.P. Scheffer, 1999).
In 1999, a similar study of CLI's work was conducted in 120 pre-kindergarten classrooms in 99 Baltimore schools. Based on the 82 classrooms that submitted data:
- student averages on the PPVT rose from 87.54 to 97.87.
- student averages on the Concepts About Print assessment of print conventions rose from 2.6 to 10.7 (out of a possible 16 points, each based on a specific Concept About Print as identified by Marie M. Clay)
- students' knowledge of the alphabet scored an average of 37.39 (i.e., identifying 37.39 letters out of the 54 letters -- upper and lower case and two forms of "a" and "g"), up from 8.053 at the beginning of the study
The 1999 study also found that poverty rates did NOT affect students' scores. Of the 28 school that averaged over 100 on the PPVT, 16 had poverty rates over 75 percent. The same held true for the Concepts About Print assessment, in which 19 or the 26 schools that averaged over 12 point had over 75 percent poverty rates. On the alphabet identification assessment, 16 out of the 25 schools that scored over 42 points had poverty rates over 75 percent as well (Ludo C.P. Scheffer, 1999).
Zill, Nicholas, et al. Head Start Program Performance Measure: Second Progress Report, June 1998. Research, Demonstration, and Evaluation Branch and the Head Start Bureau. p. 15
Scheffer, Ludo C. P., Teacher Training and Quality Children's Literature: Classroom Impact. Final Report of a Year-Long Methods and Strategies Intervention by Children's Literacy Initiative in the Baltimore City Public School System. June 1999. Unpublished report. p. 11
Ibid. Appendix A.
