Early Learning Matters: Research-Based Curriculum for School Readiness
The Early Learning Matters (ELM) Curriculum stands as a testament to collaborative efforts aimed at enhancing early childhood education. Born from the dedication of teachers, curriculum directors, administrators, parents, and community members within the Polson School District, ELM gained significant momentum through the involvement of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation as its primary sponsor. This curriculum, freely accessible to all early care and education programs, holds the potential to increase equity in access to high-quality early learning opportunities for many children who may not have this kind of access otherwise.
Origins and Development of ELM
The ELM program's roots trace back to Polson, Montana, where the first workshops were held in 2008 and 2009, proving to be highly successful. These workshops are intentionally designed for parents of children from birth through age four, with a specific focus on reaching low-income parents, teen parents, parents who have not graduated from high school, unemployed parents, pregnant teens, parents in the court system, parents with limited extended family support, or parents in unhealthy living arrangements. The ELM project launched its pilot program in the spring of 2009 and commenced the full program in early fall of the same year.
The Early Learning Matters (ELM) Curriculum was developed by Purdue University for the Department of War Child Development Program as part of the DoW-USDA Partnership for Military Families. This curriculum was designed to be used by any early-care and education program. A Purdue-led team of early childhood experts initiated the program by meticulously reviewing all available scientific evidence on lasting outcomes and effective practices in early education programs. This evidence was combined with nationally-respected standards of developmentally appropriate practice to determine the content and methods of the ELM Curriculum.
Moreover, the curriculum benefitted from the insights of numerous respected stakeholders in the field of early education and care, who generously shared their perspectives on needed directions in early childhood programs and their assessments of preliminary ELM Curriculum materials. The curriculum also underwent an extensive period of pilot testing in a diverse set of 36 typical early childhood classrooms serving infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children. The Department of War Child Development Program and its partners are sharing with early childhood programs the yield of their significant investment in the development of a new comprehensive curriculum.
Core Components and Objectives
ELM workshops provide parents with hands-on interactive experiences, demonstrating age-appropriate activities and effective techniques for parent-child interaction, coupled with valuable information about child development. Certified teachers lead these workshops, providing each parent with age-appropriate children’s books, educational toys, and ideas for activities to do with their children. During the school year, at least four different workshops are held.
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The curriculum targets eight foundational skills that research links with school and life success: language and literacy, mathematics, self-regulation, social-emotional competence, social studies, creative expression, science, and physical health. The curriculum is based on the most cutting-edge research on skill development and best practices for promoting school readiness. It also aligns with the accreditation standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. It was designed to be user-friendly and accommodate the realities of the early care and education workforce that includes staff with a range of educational and professional backgrounds.
Multistate Efficacy Trial
A new multistate partnership led by a University of Oregon researcher will test a popular early learning program to see if it is as effective as anecdotal evidence has indicated. While the Early Learning Matters Curriculum has a good track record for setting children on a path for academic success, it lacks evidence-based analysis. Now researchers will test the Early Learning Matters Curriculum’s efficacy in a multistate, five-year project led by Sara Schmitt. She is working with research partners from Texas A&M, Purdue, Georgia State, Colorado State, Michigan State and Vanderbilt universities.
The work is supported by a nearly $4 million award from the Institute of Education Sciences. The institute is funding 92 percent of the total costs of the project, or $3,997,929, and the Early Learning Matters Academy at Purdue is funding 8 percent, or $350,000, through an in-kind donation of curriculum kits. The academy also is providing training and implementation support across the three study sites: Oregon, Texas and Georgia.
The efficacy trial of the early learning program will include more than 600 children ages 3 to 5 in 132 preschool classrooms. The curriculum will be used in 72 of those classrooms, while 60 classrooms will serve as a “business-as-usual” control group. The classrooms will include those in Head Start, public pre-K, community preschool programs, and laboratory school settings. Children in all classrooms will be pretested at the beginning of the school year and then post-tested after at least 36 weeks of instruction to measure gains in the foundational skills.
Research Design and Methodology
The researchers will use a two-cohort cluster randomized trial (CRT) design to test the initial efficacy of the ELM curriculum on preschool children's school readiness skills. The researchers aim to recruit a total of 660 children ages 3 to 5 in 132 preschool classrooms from counties in Oregon, Georgia, and Texas. Approximately 20 percent of children will be Spanish-speaking dual language learners. The researchers will use a two-cohort cluster randomized trial design will be used with random assignment of preschool centers by (1) site (Oregon, Georgia, Texas), (2) type of center (Head Start [HS] or non-HS), and (3) center size (number of classrooms) to either the ELM (n=72 classrooms) or a business-as-usual control group (n=60 classrooms). The sample (n=660) will include an average of 5 children per class in 132 classrooms.
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To ensure objectivity, the researchers include an implementation team and an evaluation team. In phase 1, the implementation team will prepare for implementation of ELM by confirming sites and recruiting classrooms and teachers. They will also prepare and refine fidelity and cost analysis materials and train personnel. In phase 2, the implementation team will conduct a process study with ELM teachers. In phase 3, the implementation team will provide implementation support for ELM teachers and will collect child data. The evaluation team will randomize centers and manage and analyze data across all years. The team will pre-test children in the fall and will be post-tested after at least 36 weeks of exposure to ELM. Teachers will implement ELM throughout the year. In phase 4, the evaluation team will analyze data, prepare data for public access, and conduct cost analyses.
The key measures include children's English proficiency (preLAS), language (PPVT and IGDE Picture Naming), literacy (Get Ready to Read and Letter Name Knowledge), writing (name writing, letter writing, contextual-picture writing), math (Preschool Early Numeracy Skills, CMA-A), self-regulation (Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders), social-emotional competence (Affect Knowledge Test), and science (Lens on science). The researchers will use three-level multilevel regression models with children nested within classrooms/teachers, which are nested within centers (i.e., level of treatment), controlling for a host of child, family, and teacher characteristics.
Cost Analysis and Dissemination
The researchers will conduct the cost analysis from a societal perspective using the ingredients method to capture the quality and quantity of costs incurred across all stakeholders. A range of metrics will be calculated to meet the standards for economic evaluation, including per student costs, per classroom costs, per center costs, and marginal costs. They will use a cost inventory survey to gain information about all costs incurred to society, including human and time resources, facilities, equipment, materials, and other opportunity costs associated with curriculum participation. The researchers will calculate sensitivity analyses to examine the extent to which results are robust to assumptions or across implementation contexts.
The products will include evidence of the extent to which ELM is effective in promoting a range of school readiness skills. ELM is already available for broad dissemination, but the research team will also include information on the cost effectiveness of the curriculum. Everything that we create for the ELM project will be freely available for other school and organizations to use.
Key Personnel
Sara Schmitt leads the ELM Curriculum’s training and implementation support efforts. She also is the curriculum’s content expert for self-regulation and social-emotional development, and principal investigator of the federally-funded study of the ELM Curriculum’s effects on children’s school readiness skills. She is the Brickner-Squires Faculty Chair in Early Intervention and an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. Previously she was an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Early Learning at Purdue University.
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Elizabeth Schlesinger-Devlin supports teaching staff in implementing the ELM Curriculum at the Ben and Maxine Miller Child Development Laboratory School at Purdue University. She has served as Director of the Lab School since 2011. She conducts training sessions on the ELM Curriculum, including approaches to professional development and curriculum adaptations, and contributes to the content of forthcoming videos on ELM Curriculum practices. With ELM Curriculum colleagues, she offers presentations on aspects of the curriculum at state and national meetings of early childhood professional organizations. She is a member of the Faculty Leadership Council of Purdue’s Center for Early Learning.
Megan Purcell is content expert for the social studies and creative expression learning activities for preschool-age children in the ELM Curriculum. She contributed to the development of the curriculum’s resources on strategies for individualizing children’s learning experiences. She leads ELM Curriculum training sessions on curriculum adaptations, including responsiveness to children with disabilities and developmental delays, and has held leadership positions in state and national organizations focused on early childhood education and early childhood special education / early intervention. She is a Clinical Professor and Coordinator of the Early Childhood Education and Exceptional Needs licensure program at Purdue.
Shawna Harbin leads ELM Curriculum training sessions on professional development and coaching. Her background includes the development of training and coaching resources for early childhood education and early childhood special education / early intervention professionals who promote social-emotional and language skills for young. She teaches courses and supervises students in the Early Childhood Education and Exceptional Needs licensure program as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Purdue.
Impact and Significance
“In the field of early childhood education, there is a lot of variation,” Schmitt said. “Many teachers in these preschool classrooms don’t have a degree in early education or they don’t have a lot of experience in the classroom. We’ve heard from teachers new to the field that ELM has helped them understand child development and feel like a professional.”
Schmitt’s Institute of Education Sciences award seeks to evaluate whether the early learning curriculum helps young children develop the skills they will need not only to succeed in school, but also later in life. Preschool children who develop strong executive function, or the mental processes that help a person set and achieve goals, are more likely to go to college. Further, developing early mathematics skills makes it more likely a person will engage in a STEM career field later. The STEM fields are science, technology, engineering and math.
“There is a strong focus in ELM on self-regulation because children’s ability to begin to regulate their own behavior and reactions during the preschool period is a predictor not only of academic outcomes but also future socioeconomic outcomes like income,” Schmitt said. “The neuroscience literature tells us that our brains are incredibly malleable from ages 3 to 5.
The ELM Curriculum’s affordability helps address a pattern of insufficient funding for many early childhood programs. Each Guide includes suggestions for individualizing children’s learning. Suggestions for families to support and extend ELM learning activities at home.
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