Home visiting has been shown to be an effective support for families with young children. However, intensive in-home models often face persistent challenges with engagement and retention, which may limit their effectiveness for some families. A light-touch home visiting model—offering fewer visits over a shorter duration—delivered in a virtual setting presents an alternative opportunity for families to participate in home visiting and receive needed support with lower expectations for engagement. This paper explores the benefits of a light-touch home visiting program offered virtually to families with newborns through 9 months of age. Using administrative data from the Welcome Baby program, the study found increased enrollment and completion rates after the program’s transition to virtual implementation. The study also surveyed 910 families with new babies in Los Angeles County when their babies were 10 months and 18 months old. Those who had received Welcome Baby virtual visits demonstrated greater parenting confidence and parent-child interactions and had babies with stronger social and emotional development than families who did not receive Welcome Baby virtual visits. Differences were not observed for other measures of parenting behaviors. Families in Welcome Baby also were more likely to have consistent access to medical care, though this did not translate into greater use of well-care services. Findings suggest that virtual visits may make home visiting more accessible and offer important benefits for families.

Mathematics knowledge and skills are critical for success in school and beyond. Professional interest in the role parents play in young children's math development has been increasing, but there is still relatively little rigorous research on this topic, especially for children younger than 4 years old and as compared with research on parents' role in literacy development. This study provided parents of 2- and 3year-old children with a 12-week series of simple, fun math activities to do with their children and used a randomized controlled design to examine whether the program had effects on parents' ideas and beliefs about math for young children, their math interactions with their children, and the children's learning outcomes. The sample consisted of 358 families who were randomly assigned to receive the early math activity program, which was delivered via text messaging, or not. Findings indicated that the program strengthened parents' beliefs that math was important for young children, increased their engagement in math activities with their child (particularly while they were receiving the program), and enhanced children's skill in subitizing, a foundational early math concept. The program did not significantly affect children's skill levels in other math domains, parents' own math self-efficacy, or parent and child outcomes not related to math.

The impact of California's transitional kindergarten program on Spanish-speaking dual language learners was examined through two studies. Participants in the two studies included: (1) the statewide population of students who met study inclusion criteria (n=45,010) and took the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), and (2) a sample of students (n=1868) in 20 school districts. Findings indicate that TK had moderate to large effects on English proficiency; smaller but statistically significant effects on language, literacy, and math skills; and no effects on social-emotional skills or executive function. The transitional kindergarten program provides participating Spanish-speaking dual language learners with an academic advantage at kindergarten entry, as compared to Spanish-speaking dual language learners who do not attend. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Noting the lack of research on how early childhood education (ECE) programmes within family literacy programmes influence Latino children's early language and literacy development, this study examined key features of ECE programmes, specifically teacher–child interactions and child engagement in language and literacy activities and how these features relate to Latino children's early language and literacy development. Participants were 181 Latino children (3–5 years old) from low-income families enrolled in 22 ECE programmes within family literacy programmes. Teacher–child interactions were of medium quality on socioemotional support and low quality on instructional quality. Latino children spent about 20% of their day engaged in language and literacy activities. Multilevel regression analysis results showed that the length of Latino children's engagement in language and literacy activities in ECE programmes was more strongly related to their English oral language skills and alphabet knowledge than the quality of teacher–child interactions.

When transitional kindergarten (TK) began in the 2012–13 school year, there were many questions about this new grade—available typically to only those children born during the month of November.1 Parents wondered: What is TK? Who is eligible? Does my district offer TK? Is TK right for my child? With the delayed final approval of TK at the state level, stakeholders across the state wondered how districts would recruit families and roll out a new program in such a short time frame. Who would show up on the first day of school? And what would they find when they arrived?

This half-term report presents findings which focus on the Validity and Reliability Study of California's RTT-ELC quality and improvement system (QRIS).

As with many districtwide reform efforts, the San Diego reform sought to improve classroom instruction by focusing on building the capacity of teachers. This article examines practices of teacher professional development in the district and their impact on literacy instruction. Through examination of the literature on effective professional development, school staff's conceptions of what makes professional development effective, and detailed data on professional development experiences from 100 elementary teachers, we explore the extent to which characteristics of effective professional learning align with what is actually taking place in schools. We also examine relationships between professional development characteristics and teachers' use of instructional practices that have been shown to predict student growth in reading comprehension. We find that professional development characterized by an emphasis on content and curriculum and that incorporates coaching is related to a higher frequency of this type of instruction.

This article provides an overview of the approach, methodology, and key findings from a theory-based evaluation of the district-led instructional reform effort in San Diego City Schools, under the leadership of Alan Bersin and Anthony Alvarado, that began in 1998. Beginning with an analysis of the achievement trends in San Diego relative to other California urban districts during this period, we then examine the theory of action that guided the San Diego effort, including the focus on instructional change as the primary means to improve student achievement and on the role of site-based instructional leadership and teacher professional development as central strategies for moving instructional practice. The article outlines the study design and introduces the set of papers in this special issue of JESPAR. Reviewing key findings and themes across the article, we conclude that although the reform demonstrated that instructional improvement at scale is possible, sustaining that reform may be more elusive.