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Overview1
Literacy Express is a comprehensive preschool curriculum designed for three- to five-year-old children. The program is structured around thematic units on oral language, emergent literacy, basic math, science, general knowledge, and socio-emotional development. It can be used in half- or full-day programs with typically developing children and children with special needs. The program provides professional development opportunities for staff, teaching materials, suggested activities, and recommendations for room arrangement, daily schedules, and classroom management.
Research
Two studies of Literacy Express met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards.2 The studies included more than 900 three- to five-year-old children attending preschools in Florida and California.3 The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Literacy Express to be medium to large for oral language, print knowledge, and phonological processing, and small for cognition and math. No studies that met the WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed early reading/writing.
Effectiveness
Literacy Express was found to have positive effects on print knowledge and phonological processing, potentially positive effects on oral language and math, and no discernible effects on cognition.
| Oral language | Print knowledge | Phonological processing | Early reading/ writing | Cognition | Math | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Potentially positive effects | Positive effects | Positive effects | na | No discernible effects | Positive effects |
| Improvement index4 | Average: +14 percentile points Range: +12 to +18 percentile points |
Average: +16 percentile points Range: +13 to +30 percentile points |
Average: +17 percentile points Range: +6 to +29 percentile points |
na | Average: +1 percentile points Range: -5 to +5 percentile points |
Average: +18 percentile points Range: +14 to +23 percentile points |
| na = not applicable | ||||||
Absence of conflict of interest
Literacy Express was developed in part by Dr. Lonigan, one of the two Principal Investigators for the WWC ECE review, and he has received income from sales of this curriculum. Dr. Lonigan was the primary author on both studies reviewed for this WWC intervention report. He also developed the P-CTOPPP, one of the outcome measures used in this report. Dr. Lonigan was not involved in the coding, reconciliation, or discussion of the included studies. Additionally, he was not involved in writing or reviewing the WWC intervention report. Dr. Kisker, the second Principal Investigator for the review, led all study review and report writing activities for Literacy Express.
2 To be eligible for the WWC's review, the Early Childhood Education (ECE) intervention had to be implemented in English in center-based settings with children aged three to five or in preschool.
3 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available. Literacy Express is being studied under the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) Grants administered through the U. S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The final PCER reports were not released in time to be reviewed for this report.
4 These numbers show the average and range of student-level improvement indices for all findings across the studies.
