Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

William, Frankie

Committee Member

Armstrong, Christopher

Committee Member

McMullan, Leigh Ann

Committee Member

King, Stephanie

Date of Degree

5-3-2019

Original embargo terms

Worldwide

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Education Administration

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership

Abstract

The Mississippi State Department of Education (MDE) adopted a state assessment in 2014 to measure early literacy skills for incoming kindergarten students (Mississippi Joint Legislature Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review [PEER], 2015). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of early childhood education (ECE) programs in a selected school district in the state. A quantitative research design was used to conduct the study. Specifically, this study sought to determine if there were differences in the mean scores on the Star Early Literacy baseline assessment for students who attended an ECE program and those who did not. In addition, this study sought to determine if there were differences in the mean scores on the Star Early Literacy baseline assessment for four literacy classifications (early emergent reader, late emergent reader, transitional reader, and probable reader), as well as differences for gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES) among students who attended an ECE program and those who did not. Lastly, the study determined if there were significant differences in the mean scores on the Star Reading and Star Math end-of-year (EOY) assessments as well as differences by gender, race, and SES for students who attended an ECE program and those who did not. Existing data included Star Early Literacy baseline scores, Star Early Literacy four literacy classifications, Star Reading EOY scores and Star Math EOY scores, gender, race, and SES. The results of the study showed that students who participated in an ECE program scored statistically higher on all student academic outcomes when compared to students who did not participate in an ECE program. The results showed there were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores based on gender, race, or SES for student academic outcomes when comparing students who did and did not participate in an ECE program.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/21248

Comments

Early childhood education||Socioeconomic status||Gender differences||Academic outcomes

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