Douglas Powell

The press for improved early literacy outcomes has increased exponentially for preschool education programs targeted to at-risk children in the United States. Recent federal and state policies aimed at eliminating student achievement gaps in elementary schools have bolstered the expectation that a primary purpose of pre-kindergarten education is to promote the acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to later reading success. The policies are supported by a growing research literature on t...

The goal of this program was to provide recent PhD recipients with intensive training in curriculum intervention and teacher quality research in early childhood classrooms.

In this study, the researchers proposed to compare two variants of a semester-long professional development (PD) for early childhood practitioners to help develop a refined model of PD. The PD variants they were comparing incorporated coaching, workshops, and case examples to improve teacher practices and child literacy outcomes. In the early 2000s, research was indicating that high- quality preschool interventions focused on early reading improved skills that predicted subsequent reading ab...

The purpose of this study is to determine if The Project Approach enhances young children's school readiness during preschool, and their subsequent school achievement in kindergarten and first grade. Complementary research focuses on the development of children's academic and metacognitive skills, as well as the experiences of teachers going through a professional development experience.