Efficacy of the BrightStart! Program for Promoting Emergent Literacy Skills of PreKindergarten Children at Risk for Reading Difficulties, Ohio, 2016-2020 (ICPSR 38663)
Version Date: Sep 10, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Shayne B. Piasta, The Ohio State University;
Jessica A.R. Logan, The Ohio State University;
Cynthia Zettler-Greeley, Nemours Children's Health System;
Laura Bailet, Kaplan Early Learning Company;
Kandia Lewis, Nemours Children's Health System
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38663.v2
Version V2 (see more versions)
Summary View help for Summary
The Nemours BrightStart! (NBS!) study was a randomized controlled trial of the Nemours BrightStart! (NBS!) program. It was implemented as a small-group intervention to promote the emergent literacy skills of prekindergarten (PreK) children at risk for reading difficulties.
In this project, the researchers studied short- and long- term impacts of NBS!, including whether it reduced the reading achievement gap. Study participants included three sequential cohorts of teachers and children, and consisted of classrooms from state and local prekindergarten programs.
Classrooms were randomly assigned to one of the three study conditions:
- NBS! teacher implemented (in which the classroom teacher provided treatment)
- NBS! community aide implemented (in which treatment was provided by a community aide)
- business-as-usual control.
The study involved 290 children with full battery of assessments (plus 281 children with a partial battery) enrolled in 98 prekindergarten classrooms. Data were collected from 2016-2020.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the data files in this collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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The data in this study has been carefully de-identified by the depositor and all copyright protected information has been removed.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of this project is to test the efficacy of the Nemours BrightStart! program for pre-kindergarten children who need additional support in order to enter kindergarten with emergent literacy skills similar to their peers.
Study Design View help for Study Design
This project uses a multi-site cluster randomized trial. Three cohorts of pre-kindergarten classrooms/teachers and their students were recruited for the study.
Classrooms/teachers were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions:
- BrightStart! implemented by classroom teachers
- BrightStart! implemented by community aides
- business-as-usual control
Students in each classroom were screened for reading difficulties and those who showed evidence of difficulaties were categorized as target children and participated in the three conditions above.
Those children who did not show reading difficulties were assessed but did not receive BrightStart! intervention.
Sample View help for Sample
98 classrooms were enrolled to participate in this study.
In each classroom, four children were identified for the target and peer group. Those children in the target group scored 11 or lower for children ages 3.5 years old and 13 or lower for children 4.5 years old. All eligible children were selected for the study in cases were there were fewer than four children who were eligible for either target or peer samples.
This selection process had 281 children in the target group and 291 children in the peer group.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Preschool classrooms and children enrolled in those classrooms, in a moderate-sized city in the midwestern United States.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Community Aide Merged File: This dataset contains variables on curriculum the classroom aide has experience with, curriculum being used currently in the classroom, training received, aides thoughts on new teaching methods, and what skills were prioritized for teaching the students in school.
Class Merged File: This dataset contains variables on BrightStart! session dates each classroom participated in, the makeup of the classroom by gender and race, and group size of each participating classroom.
Child Merged File Public-Use and Child Merged File Restricted-Use: These datasets contain variables regarding participating child's race, age in months, language(s) the child spoke, child's household makeup, and literacy screening questions.
Teacher Merged File Public-Use and Teacher Merged File Restricted-Use: These datasets include variables regarding teachers teaching experience, languages the teacher spoke, level of education, hours teacher gives to certain subjects, curriculum used in the classroom, and techniques used to help children learn in the classroom.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
A detailed consort diagram is included in the study documentation.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
Detailed information about all scales, including item specific information and details of how demographic information was collected, is included in the attached files.
Children:
- Get Ready to Read
- TOPEL Print Awareness
- TOPEL Phonological Awareness
- Narrative Assessment Protocol
- Woodcock Johnson Oral Comprehension
- Gerde Writing Measure, Letter Name Short Form
- Letter Sound Short Form
- IGDI Alliteration, IGDI Rhyming
- IGDI Picture Naming
- Woodcock Johnson Letter-Word Identification
- Woodcock Johnson Word Attack
- Woodcock Johnson Spelling.
- Teacher Background Questionnaire (TBQ)
- Child Background Questionnaire (CBQ)
- Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)
- Classroom Literacy Observation Profile (CLOP)
- Teacher End-of-Year Questionnaire (EOYQ)
- NBS! Session log
- Nemours Fidelity Implementation Record (NFIR)
- Quality of Intervention Delivery and Receipt (QIDR).
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2023-04-17
Version History View help for Version History
2025-09-10 Added full statistical package and documentation, and created SDA for online analysis.
2023-04-17 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.