This mixed methods study evaluated the effectiveness of the Child Early Reading Development and Education Program (CERDEP) on kindergarten reading readiness using Stufflebeam's (2003) context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model. The program was implemented in a rural school district in 2014 and the program's goal is to provide high-quality…

Reading acquisition is a major focus in schools. For students to be literate in the later grades, it is crucial that foundational skills instruction takes place in the primary grades (K-2). In part, foundational skills needed to become a successful reader include phonological and phonemic awareness (PPA). PPA skills are crucial, and researchers…

The problem addressed in this study was that many urban minority students in a Midwestern state begin school without the requisite emergent literacy skills. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the instructional approaches used by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in an urban community in a selected Midwestern…

The problem addressed in this study pertained to two elementary schools whose kindergarten teachers encountered challenges in meeting phonological awareness and phonics standards. This basic qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of kindergarten teachers regarding effective strategies for enhancing children's phonological awareness and…

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to investigate kindergarten teachers' beliefs about literacy and the relevance of assessments at the kindergarten level, the literacy skills kindergarteners should possess, how these skills are acquired, to what extent their beliefs about literacy influenced their instructional…

The acquisition of reading skills is a critical component of early education in the United States, beginning with the introduction of pre-literacy skills to children as young as pre-school age. Students are tasked with developing the ability to decode and comprehend text across various subject areas. However, national reading data indicates that a…

With the increasing academic gap in public schools, it is important that students are exposed to education at an early age if possible. This causal-comparative research study sought to explore the impact of Pre-K attendance and foundational literacy on academic achievement at the end of the third-grade year. Student achievement was measured using…

This qualitative study was conducted to explore emergent literacy and phonological awareness abilities of primary students who experienced an interruption of classroom literacy instruction due to a catastrophic event. Participants included four primary students and their parents. The students participated in home-shared reading regularly and…

The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the relationship between the quality of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs for students who attended a Prekindergarten (PK) program, and for students who did not attend a Pre-kindergarten program from a rural school district located in South Carolina. The population of students…

The problem addressed in this study was kindergarteners in public, rural schools struggle with phonemic awareness, causing their reading development to be delayed. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study was to explore through the stories of kindergarten teachers whether students from a public, rural setting struggled with a lack…

Knowledge supports all aspects of reading including decoding, fluency, and comprehension (Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015; Cervetti & Wright, 2020; Duke & Cartwright, 2021; Kintsch, 1988, 1988; McNamara & Kintsch, 1996; Priebe et al., 2012). Early knowledge predicts reading growth, and science knowledge and reading have a mutually…

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges that teachers faced when it came to the implementation of interventions and recommendations in the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). Through the MTSS, educators provided concentrated teaching, detected early signs of issues related to academic, behavioral, and speech deficiencies, and…

This study was designed to investigate whether teacher literacy content knowledge affects student achievement in Texas schools. Teacher participants from Texas public schools completed a three-part survey. In Parts 1 and 2, teachers completed a demographic section and teacher knowledge of foundational reading skills. The survey consisted of…

This action research study describes the influence of culturally relevant literacy instruction on an urban preschool classroom and its effect on an educator-researcher. This research study was grounded in a theoretical framework that involved culturally responsive teaching pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), reality pedagogy (Emdin, 2012), and early…

Young children's emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual…