Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Anne Joslin
Committee Member
Barbara Gerard
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
american guidance service cognitive language profile, at-risk kindergarten students, curriculum specialists, Early Prevention of School Failure, elementary schools, kindergarten readiness, kindergarten students, Kinder Camp, parent involvement, parents and guardians, reading readiness programs, rural schools, school failure prevention, school orientation programs, school readiness, teacher assistants, teacher education, tutoring programs, young children education, Operation Good Start
Abstract
This applied dissertation focused on school readiness initiatives for incoming, at-risk kindergarten students in a rural elementary school of about 650 students. During the previous 4 years (1997-2001), approximately 47.45% of the incoming kindergarten students scored at moderate to high risk of school failure on the Early Prevention of School Failure (EPSF) pretest.
The writer planned, developed, and implemented solution strategies to increase the school readiness of incoming, at-risk kindergarten students. The intervention included 3 components: (a) a reading-to-students initiative by parents and guardians at home on a regular basis for 4 months prior to the beginning of school, (b) a 4-week school orientation session on the school campus during the month of July, and (c) a one-to-one tutoring program 2 days a week for 30 minutes a day during the school day for 7 months of the kindergarten year. These intervention strategies involved students, parents and guardians, teachers, teacher assistants, a curriculum specialist, and school and central office administrators. The process began 4 months prior to the beginning of the school year and continued through March of the kindergarten year.
An analysis of the data revealed that many of the students who were at risk prior to participating in Operation Good Start were no longer at risk when they completed their kindergarten year. At the end of 5 months of the at-home reading component and 1 month of the Kinder Camp component, target group students gained by a 4.05-percentile-point average on the American Guidance Service cognitive language profile. After a year of Operation Good Start, the target group averaged a 31.36-percentile-point increase on the American Guidance Service cognitive language profile as compared with a 3.18-percentile-point increase for the comparison group. Additionally, according to the EPSF test results, only 43.89% of the target group students were at risk when they completed kindergarten as compared to 47.63% of the comparison group.