Teaching Together: Pilot Study of a Tiered Language and Literacy Intervention with

Head Start Teachers and FamiliesTricia A. Zucker, Sonia Q. Cabell, Yaacov Petscher,

Heather Mui, Susan H. Landry, Jamie TockSRCD Biannual Meeting, Baltimore, March 2019

AcknowledgementsResearch reported in this publication was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) under award number R305A150319 to UTHealth and Florida State University.Special thanks to Maria Carlo, Hilary Kalin, Erin Jacobs, Azahara de la Vega, Susie Morales, Laura Fox, Stephanie Copp, Carrie Gomez, Nancy VanderLinden, HyeJin Hwang Cheryl McCallum, Gisela Trevino, and Emily Roden for their thoughtful work on this project.

How can we narrow the reading achievement gap for at-risk students?Theoretical Frameworks: Early intervention for students experiencing poverty

Community Supports

Teacher(s)

Family Caregivers

Pre-K child experiencing

poverty or other risks

Tier 3

Tier 2 Supports: Additional classroom instruction & reduce barriers to informal

learning at home

Tier 1 Supports: Evidence-based classroom instruction &

supports for informal learning at home/community

Strengthenthe Learning Ecosystem

Tailor Resources with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

Instructional Targets & Timing

@ Home: Pre-k period is a key juncture to increase parent involvement such that parents view themselves as their child’s first and most important teacher@ School: Pre-k instruction should provide the foundation for later reading comprehension require improving academic language and early literacy skills

Kleeck, A. V. (2008). Providing preschool foundations for later reading comprehension: The importance of and ideas for targeting inferencing in storybook‐sharing interventions. Psychology in the Schools, 45(7), 627-643.

Research Questions – Pilot Study

1. Can the new program be implemented with adequate fidelity?2. What are the effects of the increasingly tailored tiers of school plus home interventions contrasted with the business-as-usual (BAU) program on:

(a) children’s language skills (b) children’s literacy skills

3. For which children were the interventions more or less beneficial, depending on children’s:

(a) dual language learner (DLL) status(b) initial skill levels(c) end of year skill level, examining varying points of the conditional distribution of the outcome

Intervention Components

MTSS Framework• Classroom: Supplemental Curriculum

• 4 days per week – 2 lessons per day• Tier 1 – whole-group shared reading• Tier 2 – small-group with 4 students

• Family: Education & Information Supports• Tier 1 – 6 museum co-developed workshops• Tier 2 Basic – provide books and materials to

reduce barriers to informal learning at home• Tier 2 Enhanced – provide 4 coaching sessions

Tier 1 Classroom: Interactive Shared Book Reading(90 lessons, 15-20 minute each)

Lesson 2 Vocabulary cards (front > back)

Teacher Professional Development:• 3 training days• ~5 coaching sessions• Modeling videos (some via mobile app)

Tier 2 Classroom: Small-Group Activities(76 lessons, 10 minutes each)

Classroom Kits:• $1,100 for all materials

Tier 1 Family: Afterschool Workshops(6 workshops, 60 minutes each) Workshop Kits:

• $1,500 per facilitator• 4 facilitators

Tier 1 Family: Afterschool Workshops(Entire Tx classroom invited, not just focal family subsample)

Facilitator script Parent handout Activity Instructions MuseumPass

Tier 2 Family Basic: Add Materials(Research staff phone call explaining, then delivered via “backpack mail”)

4 books – sticker in cover with talking points

Family Kits:• $40 per family• Bilingual

English/Spanish

Tier 2 Family Enhanced: Add Coaching(4 sessions in 3-5 weeks)

Coaching Sessions:• $200 per family,

per session

Family: Weekly Text Messages

Tier 1 Mon. Tier 1 Wed. Tier 2 Tues./Thurs.

Text Messaging Service:

• $100 per school

Methods

Highlights• 33 classrooms from three Head Start

agencies (n=17 Tx, n=16 BAU)• Screened 426 children – all scored below

language and/or literacy benchmarks• 170 children/families selected and

randomized to:• Tier 1 Only (n=38)• Tier 2 Basic (n=29) • Tier 2 Enhanced (n=31)• BAU (n=72)

Child Demographics:

• Age M = 4 years, 5 months

• mostly Hispanic, African American

• 66% DLL (mostly Spanish, but 13% other)

Results

Highlights – Fidelity showed variability Highlights – Child Outcomes• The most intensive intervention positively

impacted proximal word learning • The least intensive intervention showed

promise on distal word learning • There were unexpected negative findings on

literacy outcomes (g = -.22 to -.30).• One moderation for Tier 2 Basic DLL – perform lower

on letter naming• No moderation identified for initial skill level

Child Outcomes

• The least intensive Tier 1 intervention showed evidence of promise on distal word learning

(t =1.95, p = .058, g = .39)

• Broad vocabulary: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (PPVT)

g = .39

The most intensive Tier 2 Enhanced intervention positively impacted proximal word learning

Sample Item: Teaching Together Taught Vocabulary

Computer audio: “The word is___. Point to the best picture for ____.”

g = .46*

Child Outcomes: Quantile Regression Who?g = .46*

• LQMM results clarified the primary impact findings of Tier 2 Enhanced significant proximal word learning effect on TT Taught Vocabulary:

• Larger effect sizes at the highest quantiles

.10 .20 .30 .40 .50 .60 .70 .80 .90

t g t g t g t g t g t g t g t g t g

Tier 1 .45 .12 -.40 -.11 .64 .19 .08 .03 .97 .30 1.02 .30 1.34 .36 2.39 .57 2.61 .57

Tier2 Basic

.00 .00 .92 .19 .62 .14 -.03 -.01 .32 .08 .65 .15 .73 .18 .23 .07 .42 .14

Tier2 Enhanced

1.21 .30 1.70 .41 2.08 .48 1.73 .43 1.87 .49 2.23 .52 2.38 .65 1.96 .59 2.37 .79

Teacher Fidelity of Implementation

Dosage Implemented:79% of the 91 Tier 1/whole-group lessons

66% of the 76 small-group lessons

BUT lowest lesson types: PA, writing, and retell

Adherence to Lesson Steps:77% of the Tier 1/whole-group lesson steps

83% of the small-group lesson steps

BUT implement 83% of script, but only 66% of less scripted verbal scaffolding

Teacher Satisfaction:High for curriculum materials (>3.5 of 4-points)

BUT lowest for mobile app designed to track and support implementation (e.g., app crashes)

Tier 1 Workshops: Will you come?

High satisfaction,

butdecreasing attendance

Tier 2 Basic Materials: Did you open the kit?

Tier 2 Basic Families:Used books/prompts M = 2.50 (SD = 1.32)Used activities/games M = 2.75 (SD = 1.26)

Tier 2 Enhanced Families:Used books/prompts M = 2.89 (SD = 0.78)Used activities/games M = 3.13 (SD = 0.78)

Tier 2 “Lite” Coaching: Is it true that less is more?

70%

13%

17%

Coaching Completion

All 4 CoachingSessions Completed1-3 CoachingSessions CompletedDeclined Coaching -No Sessions

Parent Feedback on TT Coaching: “It helps both parents and kids become more active with each other and it teaches the kids

the importance of reading!!!”

“Ayuda a generar confianza con tus hijos y que a ellos les interese mas cosas en la escuela.”

“The program really helps me to converse with my daughter.”

“I would recommend this program to other parents because as foreign person helps to be

involved in new culture.”

Conclusions

Tier 3

Tier 2 Supports: Additional classroom instruction & reduce barriers to informal

learning at home

Tier 1 Supports: Evidence-based classroom instruction &

supports for informal learning at home/community

• To strengthen the academic vocabulary learning ecosystem of at-risk students, the most intensive Tier 2 supports at school and home were beneficial.

• But to improve broad vocabulary, less intensive Tier 1 classroom and family workshop were promising.

• Future work should prepare for classrooms with “superdiverse” DLLs and family supports

• These literacy supports were likely not of sufficient intensity in this Head Start sample

Tailor Resources with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)