First 5 Service Corps Project Evaluation: First 5 Santa Cruz County Reading Corps Members Make A Difference

The First 5 Service Corps (F5SC) deploys AmeriCorps members to help prepare children for kindergarten. The Reading Corps program focuses on helping children become developmentally ready to learn and better-prepared to succeed in school. Prevent Child Abuse California (PCA CA) administers F5SC.

Study Goals:

The goal of the evaluation was to study the impact of Reading Corps members in high-quality and literacy-rich preschool programs.

Research Questions:

The research question was:

• How does the delivery of targeted early literacy interventions by trained Reading Corps members impact reading readiness in high-quality preschool classrooms?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

• Targeted early literacy interventions by trained First 5 Reading Corps members contribute to gains in early literacy skills for children in high-quality preschools.
• The comparison between control and intervention groups strongly suggests that the inclusion of Reading Corps members improves overall early literacy scores of preschool children.

Together, the findings from two distinct program years builds a strong case that the Reading Corps program is an effective model for building specific early literacy skills in high quality preschools.

For more information, download the full report.