Results
Case Study
The AppleTree Approach to School Readiness: A Case Study Using a
Longitudinal Population-Referenced Evaluation
Framework
Prepared by AppleTree's external evaluators: Craig T. Ramey & Nancy
Crowell, Georgetown University Center on Health and Education.
This brief provides a synopsis of findings related to the AppleTree approach to School Readiness for children from low-income families. Using a Longitudinal Population-Referenced Evaluation Framework with independent and unbiased assessors and observers, participating children (N=200) showed substantial benefits in the key school readiness predictors of language, math- ematics, and literacy skills. Children who had two years of AppleTree showed approximately twice the amount of benefit as children who had only one year of the program. Children who had two years of AppleTree scored substantially above national average on critical measures of school readiness after entering with scores between the 16th and 27th percentile.
Our Approach
AppleTree uses the highest quality instructional assessments available today to measure student progress in order to ensure we are meeting the needs of all of our students. Assessment of student progress informs our implementation of a Response to Intervention (“RTI”) instructional program and allows us to to meet the needs of children who do not make expected progress towards achieving key indicators of readiness despite receiving coherent, intentional instruction. Our understanding and utilization of assessment data to inform our RTI program has led to impressive results:
Data demonstrate that children in AppleTree’s program gain an average of 18 standard score points in two years on nationally normed measures of vocabulary (a gain of 4 points is considered significant) and leave having mastered key foundational early literacy content that is predictive of later reading achievement. Additionally, AppleTree helps children develop school-ready behaviors such as attending, cooperation and self-regulation. More than 95% of all children leave AppleTree scoring within the normal range on a normed measure of student function.
