Head Start REDI (Research-based, Developmentally Informed)

描述(由申请者提供)：这份竞争性的延续建议描述了2003年启动的一项名为Head Start REDI(以研究为基础，了解发展情况)项目中的“下一步”。REDI项目旨在通过促进教师将以经验为基础的教学战略与其正在进行的方案编制相结合的能力，加强Head Start对儿童入学准备的影响。入学准备的两个领域为目标：1)语言发展/新出现的识字技能，以及2)社交-情感能力。最初的随机试验(涉及44个Head Start课堂的356名儿童)根据观察者对语言使用、教学支持和情感指导的评分，证明REDI课堂的教学质量有所改善。此外，接受REDI的儿童在学前年结束时表现出更多的词汇量、新出现的识字技能、社交能力和学习参与度，并减少了攻击性，相对于参加“惯常练习”的学前班的儿童。这一继续的提议有两个主要目标。第一个目标是对参与初步试验的儿童进行后续评估，以评估REDI方案对小学后期(3年级和5年级)儿童学校适应的长期影响。在这一目标的背景下，我们还计划检查儿童语言/识字技能和社会情感能力的技能获得轨迹之间的交互影响，并探索作为小学早期环境(即教学质量、课堂环境和师生关系质量)的持续项目效果的潜在调节。这项提案的第二个主要目的是使用随机对照设计评估以家长为重点的REDI计划的扩展带来的额外好处，新样本为200名儿童，这些儿童在原来的县参加Head Start课堂。在学前班家长参与的传统基础上，这一以家长为中心的REDI扩展的目标是在学前年改善对儿童语言和社交情感技能发展的交叉背景支持，并为儿童从学前班进入幼儿园提供过渡支持。这个新样本的纵向评估将持续三年(4岁前测试；幼儿园结束后测试，一年级结束时的后续评估)。本研究将采用多方法、多被调查者的测量方法，评估以家长为中心的REDI扩展对儿童S口语技能、新出现的识字能力、学习投入、社会情绪能力和行为问题的影响。我们还将评估项目对有针对性的育儿实践的影响，并确定它们在多大程度上调节孩子的结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This competing continuation proposal describes the "next steps" in a program of research initiated in 2003, entitled the Head Start REDI (Research based, Developmentally Informed) project. The REDI project was designed to enhance the impact of Head Start on child school readiness by promoting teachers' capacities to integrate empirically-based instructional strategies with their ongoing programming. Two domains of school readiness were targeted: 1) language development/emergent literacy skills, and 2) social-emotional competencies. The initial randomized trial (involving 356 children from 44 Head Start classrooms) demonstrated improvements in teaching quality in REDI classrooms, based upon observer ratings of language use, instructional support, and emotion coaching. In addition, children who received REDI showed enhanced vocabulary, emergent literacy skills, social competence, and learning engagement, and reduced aggression at the end of the Head Start year, relative to children attending "usual practice" Head Start classrooms. This proposal for continuation has two major aims. The first aim is to conduct follow-up assessments with children who participated in the initial trial to evaluate the long-term effects of the REDI program on child school adjustment in the later elementary years (grades 3 and 5.) In the context of this aim, we also plan to examine transactional influences over time between trajectories of skill gains in child language/literacy skills and social-emotional competencies, and to explore potential moderation of sustained program effects as a function of early elementary school context (i.e., instructional quality, classroom context, and teacher-student relationship quality). The second major aim of this proposal is to evaluate the added benefit of a parent-focused extension of the REDI program using a randomized controlled design with a new sample of 200 children attending Head Start classrooms in the original counties. Building upon the Head Start tradition of parent involvement, the goal of this parent-focused extension of REDI is to improve cross-setting support for child language and social-emotional skill development during the Head Start year and provide transition support for children as they move from Head Start into kindergarten. Longitudinal assessments of this new sample will extend over a three-year period (pre-test at age 4; post-test at the end of kindergarten, and follow-up assessment at the end of first-grade). Multi-method, multi-informant measures will be used to assess the impact of the parent-focused extension of REDI on children s oral language skills, emergent literacy skills, learning engagement, social-emotional competencies and behavior problems. We also will evaluate program impact on the targeted parenting practices and determine the degree to which they mediate child outcomes.