Nemours BrightStart! Update and Future Plans Laura L. Bailet, Ph.D. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nemours BrightStart! Update and Future Plans

Laura L. Bailet, Ph.D. Executive Director February 2010

Where We Started, Where We Are Going

• 2005 -- An innovative concept, grounded in

science, but unproven: identifying children at risk for dyslexia/reading failure in pre-K, and treating them to prepare for reading success

• 2005-2009 – Worked “in the trenches” with

thousands of children in Duval County, provided great service and collected compelling outcomes data

• 2009-Present – Providing direct service in 80 Duval

County sites; providing curriculum, training, and fidelity monitoring for 3 external projects

Results-Based Accountability: Performance Measures

How much service did we deliver? How well did we deliver it? How much change/effect did we produce? What quality of change/effect did we produce?

Effort Effect Quantity Quality

How Much Service Did We Deliver?

How Well Did We Deliver Our Service?

• Implementation fidelity evaluation for 2008-2009: 142

structured observations yielded 97% completion rate for core lesson activities

• % of intervention children completing > 14 lessons:

2005-2006 74% 2006-2007 85% 2007-2008 86% 2008-2009 86%

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Fall Spring

Early Literacy Screening Scores

Normal At-Risk

Pre- and Post-Intervention Scores on Get Ready to Read (GRTR), Sept. 2005 through May 2009

• Two-thirds of “at-risk”

children reach the normal range on GRTR following about 10 hours

• f Nemours BrightStart!

educational instruction

• Replicated for four years

How Much Change/Effect Did We Produce? Average Point Gain on GRTR Each Year

• Nemours BrightStart!

intervention children

• Non-intervention

children (“normal”) 2005-2006 6.97 2006-2007 7.38 2007-2008 7.68 2008-2009 7.86 2005-2006 2.47 2006-2007 3.06 2007-2008 2.91 2008-2009 2.95

What Quality of Change/Effect Did We Produce? Average Percent Gain on GRTR Scores

• Nemours BrightStart!

intervention children:

• Non-intervention

(“normal” children): 2005-2006 111% 2006-2007 126% 2007-2008 134% 2008-2009 134% Total 128% 2005-2006 20% 2006-2007 26% 2007-2008 24% 2008-2009 25% Total 25%

Impact of Nemours BrightStart!: Is Anyone Better Off?

• For every 100 young

children, 20 may struggle with reading without extra help

• With Nemours BrightStart!

intervention, these numbers are dramatically reduced:

Other Significant Work Efforts

• First peer-reviewed publication of reading outcomes

published in July/August 2009 (Journal of Learning Disabilities)

• Increase in professional development trainings
• Police Athletic League (PAL) project
• Parents As Child’s First Teacher grant
• Physician’s Ready Readers Toolkit Distribution
• Many appearances with mobile units at community

events

The Next Phase

• Transformed pre-K curriculum

into a format others can use

• Have trained 3 groups to use this

curriculum themselves:

• Osceola County Public Schools and

selected ELC sites

• Duval County selected Catholic

Schools

• Duval County Public Schools Title 1

Pre-K classes

The Next Phase

• All 3 projects are going

well

– Strong interim outcomes – Strong implementation fidelity – Favorable teacher response – Most miraculous: change in teachers’ belief systems, about their students and their jobs, and themselves

Some Examples of Transformed Children

• “After completing one series of the Nemours

BrightStart! lessons, the children have shown impressive academic gains. But just as important are the positive changes in their level of confidence and attitude towards learning. . . . The small group is a safe, secure atmosphere to learn, and the strategies are designed for the children to experience success. It was heartwarming to hear the children say encouraging words to each other, such as, “Kiss your brain!”, “Slam dunk!”, and “You did it!”

Some Examples of Transformed Children

• “One student in particular had difficulty attending

to the activities during the earlier lessons. But

• nce he started experiencing success, he became

more attentive and cooperative. In fact, he became such a proficient syllable clapper in his group, that he would offer his help to other students by holding their hand to clap and saying, “You’re doing it!”

Some Examples of Transformed Children

• One VPK teacher recalled a student who was so

shy and withdrawn in the classroom, that he would stiffen his body when approached or spoken to. He refused to participate or interact with anyone. One day after returning to class from a Nemours BrightStart! lesson, the teacher reported that he gave her a big unexpected hug, pointed to his letter bracelet, and said, “I know what this letter is! It’s C and it says /k/!” It was a turning point for this child, who has been an active learner since that day.

The Next Phase

• Negotiated a publishing contract with Kaplan Early

Learning, Inc., to produce, market and distribute selected products starting in 2010: Reading readiness milestones poster; Parent booklet; Pre- K curriculum

• Makes it possible for us to disseminate our

approach nationally in a cost-effective way

The Central Features for Our Future

• Core screening and educational intervention

program is now scalable to other communities, financially and logistically

• We have the research outcomes, at the highest

level of statistical credibility, to back up our work

• Every community in America struggles with poor

readers and a persistent achievement gap

• We have the processes in place to keep

developing new programs and studying outcomes

The Next Phase

• Increased professional development offerings
• Increased research outcomes dissemination
• Increased efforts to help others learn to do this

with their own students

• Continued growth beyond Duval County
• New products related to reading readiness