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Studies Currently Underway
Studies Currently Underway
The research goal of the Literacy Collaborative is to have more quantitative studies with control groups. Three studies with control groups are currently underway.
Literacy Collaborative is participating in a study being conducted by the Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP) at the University of Memphis. CREP will follow, over a five-year period, 1,000 kindergarteners in two very diverse school districts—one that has adopted LC into all of its schools, and a similar district that has not. This fall, teachers gave screening tests to the kindergarteners in the two districts, which will be used as baseline data to analyze how much students’ skills increase over time. The researchers will also observe in classrooms and survey teachers about school climate and satisfaction with their literacy curriculum. We will receive preliminary results from the CREP researchers this summer.
A study is being conducted by faculty and researchers at Stanford University (Tony Bryk) and the University of Chicago (David Kerbow). This study looks at the use of a web-based professional development tool that allows literacy coordinators to watch classroom videos, hear expert commentary, and communicate with other literacy coordinators. The achievement of children in LC schools that have access to to this web-based environment will be compared with the achievement of children in LC schools without that access to see if the tool enhances a literacy coordinators work and positively affects student achievement. Most importantly, This study will include a “value-added” component that will test whether students in LC schools show more growth in literacy skills than they would have without the program.
Literacy Collaborative is beginning a new study that examines whether the LC program has an effect on student scores on state-mandated tests. LC schools will be matched by demographic characteristics to similar schools in the same state, and their test scores over the past five to six years will be compared to see if there are differences in the scores themselves and in the rate of change over several years.
Results from these studies will be posted on this website as they become available.