The study examined whether preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich literacy curriculum had better early reading skills than preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich science curriculum. The study randomly assigned 80 preschool classes to incorporate either a media-rich literacy curriculum or a media-rich science curriculum. The final study sample included 398 students from 47 early childhood centers serving children ages 4 and 5 from low-income households in New York City and San Francisco. Five tests measured the students' early reading skills: the letter name, letter sounds, and common initial sounds subtests of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS); an assessment of print awareness; and a researcher-developed test of how well the student recognized letters in his/her own name. Students in the media-rich literacy classrooms outperformed students in the media-rich science classrooms by a statistically significant margin on all but the PALS Beginning Sound Awareness subtest. Across the four statistically significant impacts, the authors reported an average effect size of one-third of a standard deviation, equivalent to moving a student from the 50th percentile to the 63rd percentile. [The following study is reviewed herein: Penuel, W. R., Pasnik, S., Bates, L., Townsend, E., Gallagher, L. P., Llorente, C., & Hupert, N. (2009). "Summative evaluation of the Ready to Learn" initiative. Newton, MA: Educational Development Center, Inc. and Menlo Park, CA: SRI International Technical Report. This report may be found at ED506950.]