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Early Childhood Education
Research
One study reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of Headsprout® Early Reading. This study (Huffstetter, 2005) is a randomized controlled trial that meets WWC evidence standards. Eleven studies do not meet either WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens. One study uses a single subject design for which the WWC is currently developing standards and, therefore, could not be reviewed at this time.
Huffstetter (2005) conducted a randomized controlled trial with 62 children in two Head Start centers in Florida. Thirty-one children were randomly assigned to an experimental group, and the other 31 were assigned to the comparison group. The experimental group received instruction through the Headsprout Reading Basics™ program5, whereas the comparison group received instruction through Millie’s Math House®, which teaches mathematic principles. The majority of children in the study (nearly 84%) were African-American.
Extent of evidence
The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Appendix G). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations.6 The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Headsprout® Early Reading to be small for oral language and print knowledge. No studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations examined the effectiveness of Headsprout® Early Reading in the domains of phonological processing, early reading and writing, cognition, and math.
5 Previously, the first 40 episodes of Headsprout® Early Reading were called Headsprout Reading Basics™.
6 The extent of evidence categorization was developed to tell readers how much evidence was used to determine the intervention rating, focusing on the number and size of studies. Additional factors associated with a related concept—external validity, such as the students’ demographics and the types of settings in which studies took place—are not taken into account for the categorization. Information about how the extent of evidence rating was determined for Headsprout® Early Reading is in Appendix A5.