Inch by Inch, Row by Row, Gonna Make This Garden Grow

Classroom Quality and Language Skills in the Abbott Preschool Program

Cynthia Esposito Lamy, EdD, Rutgers University
Ellen Frede, PhD, New Jersey Department of Education and The College of New Jersey
Holly Seplocha, EdD and Janis Strasser, EdD, William Patterson State University
Saigeetha Jambunathan, PhD and Jo Anne Juncker, EdD, New Jersey City University
Heidi Ferrar, EdD, Montclair State University
Lorraine Wiley, EdD, Rowan University
Ellen Wolock, EdD, New Jersey Department of Education

Summary

The New Jersey Department of Education and researchers from throughout the state prepared this report on the quality of preschool classrooms in New Jersey's Abbott districts and the language skills of those students upon kindergarten entry.

Despite rapid expansion of the program over the past four years, a comparison of classroom quality scores as measured by the ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 1998) between 1999 and 2002 indicates significant improvement in those areas of the classroom most likely to support children's cognitive development – Language and Reasoning, Activities, and Interactions.

Additionally, children are entering kindergarten with improved receptive language skills, though still below the national average; and there are promising indications of early literacy readiness abilities. Although the increases in program quality and children's language skills are modest, they indicate that things are improving for our youngest and poorest children. The results also reveal important areas for further improvement.

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