Minnesota Early Literacy Project

Community-Based Research to Develop New Approaches to Intervention

The power to persuade depends on a willingness to be persuaded.
~ Peter Beinart ~

Child reading

The purpose of this project was to investigate the emerging statewide system of professional development and program involvement in the field of early childhood by:

working with partners of CEED as well as making new partnerships with local, regional, and statewide organizations with the goal of examining how to promote professional development activities and program improvements within child care and related early care and education systems,
expanding the evaluation and related research and development efforts with community partners and other faculty at the University of Minnesota and other institutions identifying both applied and basic research questions to advance our understanding of the ways children develop and what programmatic variables support that development, and
providing leadership in developing and evaluating needed innovations.

Associated Publications

Evaluation Report

The Social Validity of Early Literacy Professional Development in Child Care Settings
By Barb Nicol, APR, Barbara Nicol Public Relations

Supporting child care providers (home and center) in their efforts to boost children's early literacy is more likely to be successful when the support comes in a form that "works" for the provider and fits with what that provider needs and wants. Based on conversations with a wide range of child care providers and others in the child care system, the following themes offer guidance for any such support:

Home settings are unique.
Practical realities matter.
Behavior trumps literacy.
Provide a roadmap.
Culture is critical.
Connections count.
Make it real and make it fun.
Value and variability.

Download full report (9 pages)
Article summarizing Evaluation Report: Improving Children's Early Literacy in Child Care Settings in Ways that Work for Providers, download article (3 pages)

Presentation

An Evaluation of Factors that Promote and Impede Implementation of Best Practices in Early Literacy in Various Early Childhood Settings
2006 CRIEI Conference, San Diego, CA
Lesley Craig-Unkefer, Scott McConnell, Tracy Bradfield, and Adrienne Schwabe

Download presentation handout (20 pages)

Poster

Promoting Literacy Skills of Children in Family, Friend, and Neighbor Settings
2006 Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Conference, Little Rock, AR, October 19-22, 2006
Lesley Craig-Unkefer, Scott McConnell, Tracy Bradfield, and Adrienne Schwabe