To gauge the effectiveness of the Ready to Learn Initiative (a Corporation for Public Broadcasting program to produce and distribute educational video programming and curricula for young children), CCT teamed with SRI International to conduct a multi-year series of evaluations to identify strengths, best practices, and areas for improvement. For example, in Year 4 we conducted a large-scale, randomized, controlled trial with 398 low-income preschoolers from 80 classrooms. Teachers were randomly assigned to implement 10-week technology-supported curricula in either literacy or science. Researchers provided initial training and ongoing coaching for teachers in both curricula, and tested the children in both sets of classrooms before and after implementation. The children who participated in the literacy curriculum outscored children in the comparison science curriculum on all five measures of early literacy used in the study; four of the five measures were statistically significant. These results demonstrate that a media-rich curriculum with integrated professional development for teachers can prepare low-income children for success in school.
For more information, see the Ready to Learn Initiative web page.