Described here is a study on the efficacy of a media-rich curriculum based on the idea that children can learn best from "media synergy," that is, when children have opportunities to learn a focused set of skills by engaging in repeated practice with them in many different formats and media. Participants in this study were low-income children ages 4 to 5 attending early childhood education centers and the teachers in these children's classrooms. The study is part of the "Ready to Learn Initiative," a program to develop educational television programming and outreach activities that increase school readiness for 2- to 8-year-old children living in low-income households. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Education awarded one of two "Ready to Learn Initiative" programming cooperative agreements to the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Because the cooperative agreements emphasized scientifically based reading research, CPB commissioned the Education Development Center, Inc. and SRI International to collaborate as its external summative evaluation partner. The results show that digital media, including public television programming and web-based games, can support early literacy skills when thoughtfully integrated with teacher-led interactive activities. Although children in each group improved their literacy scores, children in the early literacy condition showed significantly more improvement than those in the comparison condition. In the study, educators with limited experience in implementing early literacy curricula of this level of intensity helped achieve these results with a diverse sample of low-income children. Key features of the curriculum were a strong focus on the early literacy skills critical for later reading success, opportunities for practice and reinforcement through multiple tasks (including hands-on, teacher-led, child-initiated, and technology-based activities), and integration with teacher-led activities that focus on the same skills. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)