The research goal of this project is to evaluate whether an early childhood science education program, Head Start on Science, implemented in low-income preschool settings (Head Start) produces measurable impacts for children, teachers, and parents. The study is being conducted in eight Head Start programs in Michigan, involving 72 classrooms, 144 teachers, and 576 students and their parents. Partners include Michigan State University, Grand Valley State University, and the 8 Head Start programs. Southwest Counseling Solutions is the external evaluator.

The study is determining the efficacy of the Head Start on Science curriculum in two models, one in which 72 teachers participate in professional development activities (the intervention), and another in which 72 teachers receive the curriculum and teachers' guide but no professional development (the control). The teacher study is a multi-site cluster randomized trial (MSCRT) with the classroom being the unit of randomization. Four time points over two years permit analysis through multilevel latent growth curve models. For teachers, measurement instruments include Attitudes Toward Science (ATS survey), the Head Start on Science Observation Protocol, the Preschool Classroom Science Materials/Equipment Checklist, the Preschool Science Classroom Activities Checklist, and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). For students, measures include the "mouse house problem," Knowledge of Biological Properties, the physics of falling objects, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition, the Expressive Vocabulary Test-2, the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-3, Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Measures for parents include the Attitudes Toward Science survey, and the Community and Home Activities Related to Science and Technology for Preschool Children (CHARTS/PS). There are Spanish versions of many of these instruments which can be used as needed. The external evaluation is monitoring the project progress toward its objectives and the processes of the research study.

This project meets a critical need for early childhood science education. Research has shown that very young children can achieve significant learning in science. The curriculum Head Start on Science has been carefully designed for 3-5 year old children and is one of only a few science programs for this audience with a national reach. This study intends to provide a sound basis for early childhood science education by demonstrating the efficacy of this important curriculum in the context of a professional development model for teachers.

In this full research and development project, a team of learning scientists and media researchers at Education Development Center and SRI International will collaborate with educational media producers at WGBH to develop, test, and refine a curriculum supplement (a hands-on technology) that (1) promotes childrens' understanding of number (counting, comparing, and ordering) and fair sharing (equipartitioning); (2) uses interactive media on an emerging handheld platform (touch screen tablets), integrating new multi-touch activities with existing hands-on activities; (3) enhances opportunities for learning with interactive media through shared use with adult guides and peers; and (4) provides professional and technical support materials for preschool educators. The project investigates if and how engagement with activities in a media-rich curriculum supplement improves low-income young childrens' early learning of number and equipartitioning.

The project builds on sound research about learning trajectories to develop materials for fostering young childrens' learning. In addition, this project will generate new research findings about how engagement with activities in a media-rich curriculum supplement can improve low-income childrens' learning. The project uses use mixed methods (ethnographic observations and interviews and HLM analyses) to answer the research questions.

This project addresses a critical need to develop quality early childhood mathematics curriculum, particularly that aimed at low-income students. This project involves two important content areas. Both the content and the mode of delivery make major contributions to curriculum development and research. This project can provide much needed insights about how to effectively use technology for improving student learning.

The Mathematics, Science, and Literacy (MSL) curriculum project is using empirically-tested mathematics and science programs and research-based approaches to develop a six module interdisciplinary curriculum for pre-K students. Mathematics and science content is included with literacy/language and social-emotional development. The curriculum is being designed to counter the frequent situation of devoting most pre-school instructional time to literacy by having activities that join literacy with mathematics and science. The project is housed at the University of Buffalo, but also has sites at Rutgers University New Brunswick and Michigan State University. A detailed process, a curriculum development framework that has been used to develop prior curriculum materials is being used for developing the MSL curriculum. The design of the materials is giving strong attention to being viable for at-risk students.

The MSL materials are research-based and incorporate learning trajectories developed from prior work. The materials are being developed in the first two years of the project and piloted by a four teachers at each of the three sites. In the third year of the four year project, the materials will be piloted by four different teachers at each of the three sites. Formative evaluation data are being used to revise the materials. Pretests and posttests in each of the three content areas are being used to measure improved learning. An external evaluator is verifying the analyses of data and that valid conclusions are being made. The development effort includes attending to the professional development needs of teachers who will be using the six module pre-K curriculum and teachers who will have students who have completed the curriculum.

The main deliverable will be the research-based six module curriculum for pre-K mathematics, science, and literacy. In addition, a detailed formative evaluation of the curriculum's creation and implementation is being produced along with a detailed description and evaluation of the curriculum model used. A publisher has indicated interest in publishing the materials and is interacting with the developers throughout the process. There is a potential that the interdisciplinary curriculum will be widely used. The curriculum is being designed using the most current learning trajectories with the expectations that these will particularly helpful for at risk students.

This research and development project will modify the teacher preparation program for preK-8 teachers at six universities located in different regions of the U.S. The new program is designed to help pre-service teachers learn mathematics well, learn to access students' cultural funds of knowledge in ways that will help them teach mathematics, and learn to encourage students' mathematical thinking. By integrating these important bodies of knowledge, pre-service teachers should be better prepared to teach mathematics to the variety of students in their classes. The developers are designing (a) modules that can be used in teacher preparation courses, (b) a mentoring program for new teachers, and (c) on-line networks to facilitate collaboration among participating teachers and institutions.

The project includes a study of how pre-service teachers learn to apply the knowledge they have gained in the program. The research team has planned a longitudinal collection of data that will track the pre-service teachers into their careers. Their goal is to document teachers' understandings of children's mathematical thinking and children's cultural funds of knowledge and to understand the relationship between teachers' understandings and the learning and disposition of preK-8 students. The study will be implemented at all six universities with staggered start dates allowing for analysis and revisions between cohorts.

These research and development efforts have the potential to impact preK-8 teacher preparation through (1) the development of modules that integrate several relevant proficiencies in mathematics teaching, and (2) the research that studies the impact of such a program on the mathematical learning and disposition of preK-8 students.

A new assessment for children ages 3-7 is being developed to provide teachers with diagnostic information on a child's development of mathematics facility on ten domains such as counting, sequencing, adding/subtracting, and measurement. The Comprehensive Research-based Mathematics Assessment (CREMA) is being developed using innovative psychometric models to reveal information about children on specific attributes for each of the 10 domains. The CREMA will produce information based on carefully developed learning trajectories in a relative short period of time by using computer adaptive testing. The project is guided by two goals: 1) to produce a cognitively diagnostic adaptive assessment that will yield more useful and detailed information about students' knowledge of mathematics than previously possible, and 2) subject the developmental progressions to close cognitive diagnosis using cutting-edge psychometric approaches. An item pool of about 350 items is being developed that can be used to identify the level of understanding children ages 3-7 have on the 10 domains that have been identified as foundational to further learning in mathematics. A research team headed by Dr. Douglas Clements at the University of Buffalo is conducting the development work while being assisted by Dr. Curtis Tatsuoka, a statistician at Case Western Reserve University.

The CREMA is being developed using leading-edge psychometric models based on Q-Matrix theory, rule-state models, and posets. The initial item pool includes items from the REMA, a previously developed instrument based on unidemensional IRT models. New items are being piloted with at least 200 students from a group of a total of 800 students evenly distributed among pre-K to grade 2. The successful items then are used to create the new CREMA. The new assessment is being field tested with 300 children, pre-K to grade 2. A random sample of 50 students (at least 10 from each grade) is being video taped as they work the items. Specific criteria of convergence are being used for feedback on how specific items are performing to meet the required specifications. An external evaluator is auditing the process and is doing spot checks of item codings and other analyses performed.

The main product will be the CREMA that will be made widely available. This instrument using computer adaptive testing will provide teachers with ready information on young children's understanding of critical mathematical ideas. The new psychometric models that will be used and developed to process multiple attributes from individual items will make large strives to move forward the field of mathematics assessment of young children. A publisher has expressed interest to make the assessment widely available that increases the likelihood the assessment will have large impact on early childhood mathematics learning.

This project is a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University, Perth Amboy Public Schools, Elizabeth Public Schools, Long Branch Public Schools, and Open Minds, LLC with the overarching goal of improving the readiness of dual language learners (DLL) for kindergarten. Based on research indicating that very young learners can accomplish more than we have expected of them and that inquiry-based science programs and literacy programs are mutually supportive, especially for English language learners, the project is designing, implementing, and studying the effects of workshops for 48 teachers of 3 and 4 year-olds in three urban school districts.

The project will monitor the extent to which teachers adopt and implement recommended instructional approaches and the impacts of the professional development experience on their attitudes and knowledge. The data will provide preliminary answers to three questions about the professional development model: 1) Does the PD experience enhance teacher knowledge and classroom interactions around mathematics and science? 2) Does it enhance classroom supports for dual language learners? and 3) Does the PD experience produce results confirming that math and science experiences can contribute to, rather than detract from, language development and literacy learning for all students?

The key outcomes of the project will be insights into the effects of integrated mathematics, science, and literacy instruction for very young children and, potentially a model for teacher professional development that encourages such content integration.

Developers and researchers at the University of Wisconsin are creating and studying a professional development model that connects research in counting and early number (CGI), early childhood, and funds of knowledge. The proposed model is targeted at teachers of children in four-year-old kindergarten, and focuses on culturally relevant teaching and learning. The model stresses a specific, circumscribed content domain - counting and basic number operations - with the intention of exploring the domain in depth particularly as it connects to children's experiences in their homes and communities and how it is learned and taught through play.

The project designs, develops, and tests innovative resources and models for teachers to support ongoing professional learning communities. These learning communities are designed to identify and build on the rich mathematical understandings of all pre-K children. The project's specific goals are to instantiate a reciprocal "funds of knowledge" framework for (a) accessing children's out-of-school experiences in order to provide instruction that is equitable and culturally relevant and (b) developing culturally effective ways to support families in understanding how to mathematize their children's out-of-school activities. Teachers are observed weekly during the development and evaluation process and student assessments are used to measure students' progress toward meeting project benchmarks and the program's effectiveness in reducing or eliminating the achievement gap.

The outcome is a complete professional development model that includes written and digital materials. The product includes case studies, classroom video, examples of student work, and strategies for responding to students' understandings.

NSF DR K-12: PreK Early Algebra through Quantitative Reasoning (PreKEA)

This is an exploratory project that endeavors to initiate an innovative approach to preK students’ development of quantitative reasoning through measurement. This quantitative approach builds on measurement concepts and algebraic design of the pre-numeric stage of instruction found in the successful Elkonin-Davydov (E-D) elementary mathematics curriculum from Russia. The PreKEA project will adapt and refocus the conceptual framework of the E-D pre-numeric stage with respect to early algebra in the context of teaching experiments with preK and kindergarten students. A primary goal of the project is to obtain a proof-of-concept and lay down a conceptual and empirical foundation for a subsequent full research and development DR K-12 proposal.

The importance of early algebra (EA) in mathematics education has been acknowledged by the publication of a separate chapter solely devoted to early algebra and algebraic reasoning in the second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (Lester, 2007). Given that “much prior research highlights the difficulties that middle and high school students have with algebra,” the proponents of EA argue that “the weaving of algebra throughout the K-12 curriculum could lend coherence, depth, and power to school mathematics, and replace late, abrupt, isolated, and superficial high school algebra courses” (Carraher & Schliemann, 2007, pp. 670-671). At the same time, “quantitative thinking is unavoidable in EA” as it “does not seem realistic to first introduce youngsters to the algebra of number and then proceed to problems steeped in quantities as ‘applications’ of algebra” (ibid., p. 671). While the E-D curriculum with its proven track record focuses on the development of quantitative and measurement reasoning among elementary-aged children in grades 1–6, it is feasible that much younger children, even four-year-olds, can access the pre-numeric ideas. This is supported by research by Baillargeon (2001) and Wynn (1997) who showed that infants as young as two-months old demonstrate the development of number and measurement concepts. The PreKEA project will identify key concepts of the E-D pre-numeric stage relevant to four-year-olds and develop and explore lesson units which can be integrated into US preK settings. The project team combines the international expertise of PI Berkaliev who served as project coordinator and international liaison for an NSF-funded international project US-Russian Working Forum on Elementary Mathematics: Is the Elkonin-Davydov Curriculum a Model for the US? and who also brings the perspective of a mathematician, with the theoretical, methodological, and empirical expertise of co-PI Dougherty who has been one of the leading figures in working with, adapting, and studying the implementations of the E-D curriculum in the US, as well as a group of five leading Russian experts who developed, implemented, and studied the original E-D curriculum. The project resources include the E-D curriculum materials and articles only available in Russian.

The PreKEA project has the potential to make contributions beyond the preK early algebra curriculum that it will develop and implement. The PreKEA project can benefit disadvantaged students by using an innovative approach to EA instruction that has the potential to broaden access and at an early stage change the situation when disproportionately many disadvantaged students are not prepared adequately for learning quantitative reasoning and algebra. With research in preK narrowly focused on particular topics, the results of this project have the potential to inform a broader field including mathematics education and early childhood education with evidence that young children can access and interact with more complex mathematics, extending beyond counting.

Developers and researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Iowa State University are initiating an innovative approach to pre-K students' development of quantitative reasoning through measurement. This quantitative approach builds on measurement concepts and algebraic design of the pre-numeric stage of instruction found in the Elkonin-Davydov (E-D) elementary mathematics curriculum from Russia. The project team is adapting and refocusing the conceptual framework and learning tasks of the E-D pre-numeric stage for use with four-year-olds. The adaptation is being done in collaboration with experts in Russia who were involved in the original E-D development. A primary goal of the project is to obtain a proof-of-concept and lay down a conceptual and empirical foundation for a subsequent research and development.

The research progresses using teaching experiments involving six students. Each student is engaged in 15 minute one-on-one sessions twice each week. Sessions are videotaped and transcribed for further analysis. The analysis of the data is conducted by the project team in collaboration with Russian consultants.

The research findings and methodology will provide grounds for supporting more complex and sophisticated mathematical ideas that will inform curriculum development for pre-K students and teachers. Results will be published and reported widely.