IES Predoctoral Program Seminar: Dr. Brooks Bowden

The University of Pennsylvania Predoctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Research Methods for Field-based Research in Education, sponsored by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), welcomes Dr. Brooks Bowden to our weekly seminar series.

 Leveraging Home Reading to Strengthen Literacy  Development in Kindergarten
Presented by Dr. Brooks Bowden, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Penn GSE

Students who end third grade behind on literacy development tend to stay behind their peers throughout the rest of their academic career (Hernandez, 2011). This is a critical policy issue, one that indicates the provision of additional resources in early grades to avoid gaps in later grades and resource constrained schools may have to leverage external resources, such as parent time, to support their students (Waldfogel, 2012). In this paper, we build on a multi-site RCT of a kindergarten literacy curriculum to explore the importance of home inputs in the production of early literacy development. Preliminary results suggest that leveraging additional time spent reading at home meaningfully increased literacy development. Two mechanisms that likely drive this finding are that the take home books were tailored to student learning goals and the books align with classroom instruction. Our results demonstrate the efficiency gained through engaging parents/caregivers in bridging literacy instruction from the classroom to a child’s home and the potential for this strategy to strengthen early literacy.  

More information
The IES Predoctoral Program’s weekly seminar series connects program fellows and affiliates to scholars and practitioners who engage in educational research and the development of research methods.

Seminars are likely of interest to doctoral students and faculty. If you are interested in attending virtually, please email Melanie Bahti for Zoom information.