Davenport Community Schools, IA
The Davenport Community Schools have a very strong preschool program. Based on the students' PLS-4 scores, the language skills of both groups of students improved relative to those of their peers nationwide. The improvement of the skills of the Fast ForWord participants was greater than that of the comparison group by a statistically significant amount (p < 0.05). After using the Fast ForWord products from early February through the post-test, the experimental group made a statistically significant improvement with scores increasing an average of 23 percentage points, moving from the 36th percentile in November up to the 59th percentile in May (see graph).Improved Language Achievement
Methodology
The student's early literacy skills were evaluated before and after Fast ForWord product use with the Preschool Language Scales - 4th Edition (PLS-4).
Measures
The PLS-4 is an age-corrected norm-referenced test designed to evaluate the language skills of children from birth up through age 6. The items, which focus on r receptive and expressive language, evaluate a range of language skills ranging from gestural and vocal behaviors up through early literacy and phonological awareness.
Implementation
The faculty of the Davenport Community Schools were interested in evaluating the effectiveness of using Fast ForWord products for improving their curriculum and instruction for students.
The implementation process began with educators receiving preliminary training in a number of areas, including:
- methods for assessing candidates for participation;
- selection of appropriate standardized language measures for testing and evaluation;
- effective implementation techniques;
- proper administration of the products and effective methods for monitoring student progress.
Source
To cite this report: Scientific Learning Corporation. (2009). Preschoolers in Davenport improve language skills from the 36th to the 59th percentile.
Data provided by the Davenport Community Schools, Davenport, Iowa; school personnel were responsible for administering all tests.
For More Information
At Scientific Learning we welcome the opportunity to share our results. For more information about this research study, please refer to the PDF format Educator's Briefing.