Methodology and Evaluation Plans

The methodology will include; a program description, research design, human participants (sample), study validity and reliability, assumptions and limitations, proposed time line, non-personnel and personnel resources, and a management plan. The methodology plan is necessary to discuss how the grant money will be used, but also how the progress of the early literacy program will be documented. This information will be shared to address the positive progress and the continuation of the program.

Methodology

Program description. The Child Early Literacy Program is a program that will focus on the early literacy of young children ages 3-8. Children in the program will have access to a qualified teacher two to three times a week for an average of 10 to 30 minutes, depending on their level of literacy. The program will begin at the beginning of the year where parents will be notified, students will be evaluated on their current literacy, and then the program will run the rest of the year. Parents will be expected to be partners in the program in completing weekly literacy activities at home. At the end of the year all children participants will be evaluated to show improvement in literacy.

Research design. Before any evaluations take place it’s important to note that each family will be notified of the program, before its inception, and each family will be asked for permission for their child to participate. The informed consent will also include information on the partnership with the family to assist the child each week with literacy activities.

The program will utilize the correlational research design with three evaluations to report. All evaluations are quantifiable. The first evaluation will be a weekly reported generated by the teachers to show the frequency of how often a child participates each week and for how many minutes. The second evaluation is a self-report from parents to show the frequency that they worked with the child at home. The third evaluation will be pre and post-test scores on the areas of print knowledge, definitional vocabulary, and phonological awareness taken at the beginning of the year (as a baseline) and again at the end of the year (Lonigan, Wagner, & Torgesen, 2018). The third evaluation will use the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL) which is deemed for ages 3 – 11 years. The independent variables will be the frequency of minutes total each week with the teacher (a continuous variable) and the number of activities completed each week at home with the parents (a continuous variable). The dependent variable will be the comparison of pre and post test scores on all 3 areas of literacy (continuous variable). Correlations will be addressed utilizing a multiple regression, as the dependent variable is continuous and can be run separately for the three areas of literacy or on a combined score, and there are two independent variables (weekly frequency of teaching and frequency of at-home activities ( that are both measured continuously. The design will address if the CELP program and continued activities at home make a significant difference on the early literacy skills of the child. Furthermore, data will address the significance, the strength and direction of the correlation, and how controlling effects for the independent variables can change the data.

Human subjects. All children from ages 3 to 8 (or grades 3-years through second grade) will be eligible to participate in the program. The first 100 eligible children will be accepted into the program. Teachers will make recommendations based on student achievement and for those students that have English as a second language to benefit from the program. Parents will be notified of the program through a letter sent home. Parents/caregivers will be called or spoken to for any letters not returned or signed to ensure that all eligible students are given the opportunity to participate. New students will be accepted due to teacher recommendation throughout the year.

Study Validity and Reliability. The validity and reliability of the program is focused on the three objectives; weekly frequency of teaching, weekly frequency of at-home activities, and pre and post measurements of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL) (Lonigan et al., 2018). The frequency of teaching and home activities can be considered reliable as teachers and the parents are expected to offer the same amount of time and activities to the children. Meaning that the time and activities should be consistent each week per child. The frequency of teaching and home activities can be considered valid as the objective and evaluation for both of these have the same expectations and for each student. The TOPEL was developed and normed using a sample of 842 students in the United States (Goodrich, Lonigan, & Alfonso, 2019). Convergent validity is a form of construct validity, which measures the construct of literacy in comparison to other tests that also measure literacy (Creswell, 2014). The criterion measures of the convergent validity are high as each subtest ranged from .59 to .77 (Goodrich et al, 2019). These are considered to be strong positive correlations (Creswell, 2014). Internal consistency reliability was used on all three sub-areas of the assessment (Goodrich et al., 2019). Internal consistency reliability is how well the items that reflect the same construct of literacy yield similar results (Creswell, 2014). Reliability was measured through internal consistency on the three sub-tests; print knowledge, definitional vocabulary, and phonological awareness (Goodrich et al, 2019). Phonological awareness, a 27 item scale that measures a children’s ability to detect and manipulate sounds, was found to be strong (α = .90). Print knowledge, a 36 item scale that measures a child’s knowledge of print concepts, discrimination, and correspondence, was found to be strong (α = .96). Definitional vocabulary, a 35 item scale that measures a child’s naming and definitional component, was also found to be high (α – .96).

Assumptions and limitations. The assumptions for the program, and its evaluation include the assumption that the teacher and the parent will keep an accurate record of frequency of time and activities with the child each week. It is assumed that when the child takes the pre and post test that they will answer truthfully and to the best of their knowledge. It is assumed that the test scores will be measured continuously and that both the frequency of teacher and home activities will be measured continuously to fit a multiple regression (Creswell, 2014). It is also assumed that before running the test that there is an independence of observation, a linear relationship, the data will show multicollinearity, there will not be any significant outliers or high leverage points, and that the residuals are approximately normally distributed.

There are several limitations of the program and the assessment. Teachers may not always be aware of a child’s lack of achievement in literacy to make a referral for the program. Only 100 of the children can be accepted due to financial and personnel resources. Also, some children that have English as a second language are literacy proficient, and this will be deemed as so by the assessment. Next, some children may not get referred until later on in the year as literacy issues arise, some may be new to the school, and the program will only accept 100 participants per year. Some parents may not be literate in English and will need extra guidance with the at-home assessments. However, these are a way of helping the parents work with their children at home and can also be viewed as a benefit with the extra support given. Also, a limitation of measuring all of the information quantifiably is that the qualitative aspect of the assessment is missing. Qualitative information can be used to ask about the experience of the program from the child, the teacher, and the parents. This can, in turn, help make adjustments to the program.

Time line. The expected time line for the program is that it will run from the first day of school until the end of the year, roughly to the last 2 weeks of the school. This is to make time for testing and comparison of the pre and post test scores.. Parents will be sent home letters starting the first week of school so that testing can start within the first month. Qualified professionals and parents will work each week with the child during this time line.

Non-personnel resources. Non-personnel resources are those that are resources used in the program. A separate building or room is not needed as a budgeted resource as assistance will be given at the school before after school. 10 Test-kits, each containing a manuals, and a picture book, will be needed to perform simultaneous testing (Lonigan et al., 2018). However, a 100 record booklets are needed for each child and more can be ordered. Literacy packet that contains activities for print knowledge, definitional vocabulary, and phonological awareness and pens and pencils will be needed. A file cabinet will need to be purchased as well as files to keep track of the child’s progress. Copies of sheets that contain information about the frequency of teacher and parental activities can be copied at the school and the program will pay for this each month. Literary packets/activities are also needed to be sent home to the parents each week.

Personnel resources. Teachers and parents are the main resources here. 10 teachers will be paid to work before or after school with the children. It is preferable that it is either the child’s teacher or a teacher in the same grade. Parents are an expected/assumed non-paid personnel resource. There will be a director for the program, Dr. Nicole Hamilton, that will work to ensure that each child is being tested and will assist in the testing as well as that the teachers are meeting guidelines for each child and making proper documentation.

Management plan. The timeline for management will be addressed in quarters. The first quarter will be a testing period and a start to the program. In the following years the post-test at the end of the year will be considered the baseline for the next year to help the program have a strong start each year. The second and third quarters will include the teachers working with the children and the home activities with the parents. The fourth quarter will be a completion of the program and post-assessment of the TOPEL (Lonigan et al., 2018).. The director will manage the program by taking all referrals from the teachers and sending home permission letters to parents (in English and Spanish). The director will call or meet any parents that did not either return or sign the letters. The director will match up children to receive testing for each child and will participate in giving the assessments as well. Each child that qualifies for the program will then be matched up with the teachers enrolled in the program. The teachers are responsible for meeting with the assigned students each week and for using literacy materials, as per the curriculum the school, to work with the child and to send home for parental support. The director will also check each week that each child’s folder has been marked with the days, times, and minutes of work with the child and the parental activity completions.

The Evaluation Plan

Before the program can begin an institutional review board (IRB) approval will be needed. WKKF (n.d.) does not have any specific requirements for an IRB approval. However, the school district will want internal IRB approval and, as per the ethical codes of the American Psychological Association [APA], the director will obtain approval to ensure that testing procedures are ethically sound. Then parents must be notified of the program by a letter sent home to sign and return, before testing can begin. The letter will include an informed consent, as per approval of the IRB.

The first evaluation is a completion of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL) (Lonigan et al., 2018). This evaluation was chosen because it has a high reliability and validity in accurately measuring literacy for individuals in the early childhood age range. A teacher in the program, that the child will work if the child qualifies for the program, will administer the assessment. The children will be evaluated as per each subtest; phonological awareness (27 items), print knowledge (36 items), and definitional vocabulary (35 items) (Goodrich et al., 2019). If the child does not respond in English then the child is prompted to respond in English, if the child does not respond then the item is scored as incorrect. This is due to the need to be English proficient in literacy as well as proficient in their home language. Each of the sub-tests will give a quantitative score, however the three subtest scores are combined to determine a composite score as well as standard scores and percentile ranks to determine emergent literacy skills (Lonigan et al., 2018). The TOPEL test takes a total of 25-30 minutes.

The second evaluation will be the weekly log of days and minutes that a teacher works with each child. The amount of time is determined by the results of the TOPEL scores of the individual child. The third evaluation is also a weekly log of activities and the amount of time activities are worked on at home. These activities and the time needed will also depend on the TOPEL scores of the individual child.

The TOPEL will be administered again at the end of the program by the teacher that has worked with the child during the program. Each child will again be evaluated on each subtest; phonological awareness (27 items), print knowledge (36 items), and definitional vocabulary (35 items) to determine a composite score (Goodrich et al., 2019; Lonigan et al., 2018). The score will be compared to the pre-test score at the beginning of the program to show progress. Also, an evaluation of time spent per week and the composite score at the beginning and at the end of the program will allow for the director to show that the work with the teachers and partnering at home results in positive progress in literacy.

The results of the TOPEL and the log activities of both the teacher and the parents will be summarized in an overall report for WKKF (n.d.). The results will show the summative individual scores of the pre and compared post-tests and an average of weekly time with the teacher and parent for each child. A report will be written to show the statistical significance of the literacy program and how continued effort in this area is promising to the child, but also to the families and the community.

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