Early Literacy Matters
Improving early literacy practices
Tennessee Department of Education   August 2018

 Early Literacy Matters
Background
The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) and Department of Human Services (DHS) recruited
programs serving children ages six weeks to four years old to participate in an “Early Literacy Matters”
pilot designed to increase staff knowledge of early literacy concepts and improve early literacy
practices. The 134 programs that completed the one-year pilot received class sets of books from the
Governor’s Books From Birth Foundation, and program staff earned their early literacy professional
development hours by completing six training modules and submitting assignments. Eighty
classrooms at 41 program sites also received 1:1 job-embedded coaching. This memo summarizes the
overall findings from the pilot.

Staff Perceptions
Program directors, teachers, and assistants responded to surveys regarding their participation in the
pilot. In addition to overwhelmingly high satisfaction with the coach support, module content, books,
and other resources, nine out of ten survey respondents reported that the pilot led to meaningful
shifts in literacy practice or sharpened literacy practices. Directors also described a variety of ways they
incorporated learnings from the training materials by gathering new instructional resources and
engaging parents in reading to students. Respondents also commented that some of the module
content and assignments were more challenging than they had expected.

50%

Which of the following best represents your overall experience with
the Early Literacy Matters pilot?
46%
43%

Nine out of ten
survey respondents
reported that the

40%

pilot led to

30%

meaningful shifts

20%
10%
0%

7%

4%

The pilot did not The pilot conflicted
The pilot
The pilot led to
meaningful shifts in reinforced and/or address my needs with (or did not
literacy practices sharpened literacy regarding literacy build upon) literacy
practices that were
practices
practices that were
already in place
already in place

in their literacy
practices or
sharpened literacy
practices that were
already in place.

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 Instructional Practices
Pre and post classroom observations revealed substantial increases in the prevalence of child
accessible books and intentionally designed learning centers in the classrooms. Accessibility and
quality of pre-writing materials (such as blocks, clay, sand tables, etc.) also improved, particularly
among classrooms that were randomly selected for one-on-one coaching.

Estimated number of books per classroom

Percent of classrooms with at least one learning
center
80%

Pre

67%

27
60%
44%
40%

Post

58
20%
0

20

40

60

80

Number of child-accessible books

0%

Pre

Post

Student Learning
An age-appropriate, individually administered assessment was administered to a sample of randomly
selected children from programs receiving coaching through the pilot and from two control programs
that did not participate in the pilot. Children from the pilot sites were more likely to move up one or
more levels on the assessment by the end of the pilot, particularly in the comprehension domain.

Percent of children at pre-pilot Levels 1 or 2 who moved up one or more
levels post-pilot
80%
60%
40%

71%

69%

66%
46%

45%

30%
15%

20%
0%

66%

Alphabetic Principle

Phonological
Awareness
Control

Concepts About
Print

Comprehension

Pilot

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 Overview of Findings





Almost all participants believe the pilot led to meaningful changes or improvements to their
literacy practices.
Participation at any level was associated with important changes to the classroom literacy
environment, and coaching in particular was associated with important changes in literacy
practices.
Children in coached classes experienced greater growth in age-appropriate literacy skills.

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