The Evidence Base for SEEDS of Learning

2017 – 2021 NORC Study of Kidango Preschools

Researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a statistically significant study with a diverse range of 1,200 students in Kidango preschools, the largest spread across the East San Francisco Bay area. The evaluation assessed the impact of the SEEDS of Learning™ professional learning framework on early educators’ knowledge and practice over time, and their 4- and 5-year-old students’ oral language and early reading outcomes. 

SEEDS was validated in a rigorous randomized control trial (RCT) study, the gold standard for determining the causal impact of a program on desired outcomes, on a large scale across 26 Kidango preschools.

A single year of SEEDS training for teachers was shown to produce statistically significant, positive changes in both teacher knowledge and children’s early reading skills.

A single year of SEEDS training was shown to produce statistically significant, positive improvement in student early reading skills. Given that typical early childhood students learn about 1.5 standard deviations a year in reading (Hill et al., 2008), the SEEDS’ effect sizes represent impacts of a magnitude similar to between 2 and 8 months of learning.

The research found that:

• A single year of SEEDS training for teachers was shown to produce statistically significant, positive changes in teacher knowledge and student early reading skills.
• When the SEEDS schools were compared to similar, randomly assigned control schools, the SEEDS schools had significantly higher early literacy student scores.
• When SEEDS was introduced to the comparison schools in the second year of the study, they saw significantly increased early literacy student scores (about three-quarters standard deviation impact).

GOAL
The goal of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the SEEDS of Learning™ (SEEDS) model on early educators’ knowledge and practice over time, and their 4 and 5 year old students’ oral language and early reading outcomes. The study took place at Kidango preschool centers, a large early childhood care and education provider in the East San Francisco Bay.

BACKGROUND
SEEDS of Learning is an evidence-based professional learning framework that empowers early childhood educators to prepare all children for kindergarten through development of children’s oral language, emergent-literacy, and social-emotional skills.

NORC at the University of Chicago partnered with Kidango and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation to directly assess the impact of SEEDS on their four- and five-year-old students’ oral language and emergent-literacy outcomes.

DESIGN
This study presents results from a single arm of a multi-year within-teacher randomized controlled trial study of the impact of SEEDS of Learning™ on students’ oral language and emergent literacy outcomes. These results reflect outcomes from a delayed-treatment, within-subjects design of the 13 randomly assigned control centers.

During the 2017-2018 school year, teachers and their students were assessed in fall 2017 (pretest) and spring 2018 (post-test), in the prior to receiving SEEDS training.

Teachers in these centers received SEEDS training the following school year (2018-2019). SEEDS’ impact was assessed yearly by collecting teacher and student outcome data in fall 2018 (pretest) and spring 2019 (posttest).

Student outcome measures included scales from two assessments: the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI), which assesses fluency in vocabulary and phonological awareness (rhyming and alliteration), and the FastBridge assessment, which evaluated fluency in letter name identification and letter sound correspondence. Estimates of SEEDS’ impact were computed using hierarchical linear models of the IGDI and FastBridge skill scores, and marginal predictions thereof.

Read the Kidango SEEDS Research Brief

Read the NORC Brief

Read the Press Release from The Kenneth Rainin-NORC-Kidango Study

2017-2021 Overview

WHAT WAS THE EFFECT OF COVID ON STUDENT’S EARLY READING SKILLS?

NORC conducted an exploratory analysis to test whether beginning of the academic year (fall) 2020
student early reading scores were affected by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in winter 2020.

For both new and returning students, there was no evidence of decline in beginning of the academic year (fall) 2020 early reading scores.

Read the NORC COVID Study Brief

Kidango’s experience with SEEDS demonstrates how it is possible, through a relentless commitment to improving child outcomes, to accomplish meaningful change in a large early learning system, and deliver high-quality opportunities for all children.

– Dr. Pepijn van Houwelingen, Kidango

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2015 – 2017 Dual-Language Learners Data Snapshot

First 5 Santa Clara County

Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers developed language foundations at the same rate as English speaking children.

The SEEDS of Learning professional learning framework was first piloted in 2012. SEEDS trained childcare providers were assessed by their coaches in Fall and Spring to determine gains in the quality of the learning environment and students were assessed to measure gains in early literacy. The majority of the children in FY 16-17 were Latinx and about a third used Spanish as their primary language.

The report provides a snapshot of findings for children whose primary language was Spanish, as compared to English speakers. Spanish-speaking children in Family Childcare Home settings as well as in their homes experienced positive changes related to early literacy, including:

• Increased ability to express themselves – Spanish speaking children were slightly more likely than English speaking children to be above target
• Increased vocabulary was twice as large for Spanish-speaking children
• Parents who attended the SEEDS workshops agreed and strongly agreed they had the tools to support home literacy

First 5 Santa Clara County Data Snapshot

Taken together, these findings suggest that FIRST 5 Santa Clara County’s SEEDS of Learning professional learning is developing the early literacy skills of Spanish speaking children from infancy, and that these gains persist through the prekindergarten years.

– First 5 Santa Clara County Data Snapshot

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2015 National and Community Service Outcome Evaluation and 2013 Progress Report

2012-2015 Minnesota Reading Corp PreK Program

SEEDS of Learning™ professional learning has been an integral part of the Minnesota Reading Corps (now part of ServeMinnesota), since 2012, serving as the pedagogical framework within which members and teachers create a literacy-rich classroom environment. The Minnesota Reading Corps PreK Program serves preschool (PreK) students and at-risk Kindergarten through third grade (K-3) elementary school students.

To evaluate SEEDS, researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago and TIES in Minnesota conducted a quasi-experimental study of more than 1,500 students in 23 urban, suburban and rural Minnesota schools during the 2012-2013 school year. The study validated the SEEDS model’s positive effect on young readers, showing that 3-year old students enrolled in Minnesota Reading Corps PreK classrooms make meaningful growth in key emergent literacy outcomes associated with later reading comprehension.

Overall Findings for 4- and 5-year Old Students

The use of the SEEDS of Learning™ professional learning framework in the Minnesota Reading Corps PreK program had statistically significant and large effects across all five IGDI outcome measures of emergent literacy skills for 4- and 5-year old students. Average growth for the school year, which is provided in Table IV.1, is calculated by taking the difference between the Spring and Fall scores for program and comparison site students, while controlling for the Fall (baseline) score.

Overall Findings for 3-year Old Students

SEEDS of Learning™ in the Minnesota Reading Corps PreK program had a statistically significant and positive effect on 3-year old students’ emergent literacy skills on two of the four IGDI measures developmentally appropriate for 3-year old students. Similar assessments were administered to the 3-year old PreK students as for 4- and 5-year old students, with the exception of letter sound fluency, which is not considered developmentally appropriate for 3-year old children. Also, the letter name assessment for 3-year old students was untimed.

This analysis was conducted by age, due to developmental differences between 3-year old PreK students and 4- and 5-year old PreK students. However, it is important to note the substantially smaller sample size for the analysis of 3-year old students’ emergent literacy outcomes compared to that for 4- and 5-year old students. Smaller sample sizes substantially reduce the power to detect statistically significant differences, and the study was not designed to conduct these analyses with sufficient power. The lower sample size for 3-year old students is due to the fact that most Minnesota Reading Corps sites had classrooms that either only enrolled 4- and 5-year old students or a mix of 3-, 4-, and 5-year old students. Thus, these smaller sample sizes are one possible explanation for the lack of significance found on two of the four IGDI measures.

Table IV.2 presents a summary of the data. As for the 4- and 5-year old findings, several figures are provided, which show the average scores on the Fall, Winter, and Spring benchmarks for PreK students in Minnesota Reading Corps program and comparison classrooms.

Read the Outcome Evaluation

Overall, the results of this study show that the Minnesota Reading Corps PreK program is an effective model for improving preschool students’ emergent literacy skills. PreK members receive training on the SEEDS of Emergent Literacy approach, which serves as the pedagogical framework within which members and teachers create a literacy rich classroom environment.

– 2015 National and Community Service Outcome Evaluation and 2013 Progress Report

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2003-2004 University of Minnesota

Minnesota Early Literacy Training Project, Center for Early Education and Development

The Center for Early Education and Development at the University of Minnesota conducts research and program quality evaluations and observations. An evaluation of SEEDS of Learning professional learning for 3-5 year-olds was conducted through their Minnesota Early Literacy Project in 2003-2004.

Results showed:

• Significant improvements in the Early Literacy and Language Observation (ELLCO) scores resulted from coaching compared to centers that only received training. Coaching centers experienced a 38% increase in Literacy Activities Rating Scale scores (compared to 16% increase for training-only centers) and a 57% increase in Literacy Environment Checklist scores (compared to 6% for training-only centers).
• Children from the study entered Minneapolis schools ready for Kindergarten at a rate 1½ times higher than the typical Minneapolis child in 2003 (based on Alliteration and Rhyming beginning Kindergarten performance) and more than 2 times higher in 2004 (based on spring 2004 performance of study children and typical district fall 2004 performance).

Read the Report

Results indicate that there has been great improvement in both classroom environment and literacy teacher behaviors in preschool centers that have been receiving ongoing early literacy coaching.

– From the Report