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Research in Progress: The Impact of Reach Out and Read on Early Literacy and School Performance

Kathleen Hopkins Heidi Sabers Lutheran Family Health Centers. Purnima Valdez Emily Forrest Alan Mendelsohn NYU School of Medicine –Bellevue Hospital Center. Research in Progress: The Impact of Reach Out and Read on Early Literacy and School Performance. Introduction.

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Research in Progress: The Impact of Reach Out and Read on Early Literacy and School Performance

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  1. Kathleen Hopkins Heidi Sabers Lutheran Family Health Centers Purnima Valdez Emily Forrest Alan Mendelsohn NYU School of Medicine –Bellevue Hospital Center Research in Progress:The Impact of Reach Out and Read on Early Literacy and School Performance

  2. Introduction • ROR has a large impact on preschool children: • Parent-child reading aloud • Language development • School age children • Difficult to study • Many factors contribute to literacy outcomes • Difficult to quantify exposure

  3. An Opportunity in Brooklyn • At two elementary schools in Sunset Park, about ½ of the children received their health care at Lutheran Family Health Centers • Lutheran Family Health Centers have a longstanding model ROR program

  4. Help from the New York City Department of Education! • All children attending NYC public schools receive early literacy assessments in grades K-3: • ECLAS-2: Early Childhood Language Assessment System • EL-SOL: El Sistema de Obervacion de la Lecto-Escritura • Skills tested: phonemic awareness, vocabulary, listening and writing

  5. Even more help… • Lutheran Family Health Centers run the School Based Health Centers at these 2 schools • The health records of each child, maintained at these Centers contain information about where the child received preschool pediatric care

  6. An Idea • Link the literacy records with the clinic records • Use the school health information to determine whether the child attended a clinic with ROR • Determine relationship between ROR exposure (clinic attended) and early literacy (ECLAS / EL-SOL) • Sounds easy…

  7. But the Methodology is Very Complicated • Can we really measure exposure to ROR? • For those who attended Lutheran, we can assess well child care visits from the medical record • More difficult for others • What about the other factors that influence early literacy? • The educational records have information about SES (free lunch status), ethnicity, language spoken, Special Education placement • The health records have information about health issues (prematurity, anemia, hearing, other medical problems)

  8. And nothing is ever simple at the DOE… • We began in 2004 • We met with school representatives • We tried to get approval to collect data without consent, since it would be anonymous • The DOE told us that we had to get consent – turning a simple study into a logistical impossibility • Districts became regions, calls went unanswered, we all grew older…

  9. Just when all seemed lost… • Efforts of Purnima Valdez led to DOE approval of the study (although we still did not know how we would get consent) • Efforts of Heidi Sabers and Kathleen Hopkins (and an amazing principal) led to access to one of the schools

  10. Access to a School • A principal at one of the schools decided that this project was of value and helped us overcome barriers: • He let us set up tables on open school day (and 2 other days) to obtain consent from families • He helped us to mail letters to families to let them know about the project

  11. What we have done so far • After open school sessions, letters sent and other days at attending the school: • 185 (of approx 250) mothers provided consent • 2/3 Latina • 1/4 East Asian • 1/10 Other

  12. Next steps • Collect information from educational records (literacy, sociodemographics) • Collect information from school health record (clinic attended, health issues) • Analyze the data!

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