Early Childhood Research Quarterly 40 (2017) 38–51 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Early Childhood Research Quarterly Improving school readiness of high-risk preschoolers: Combining high quality instructional strategies with responsive training for teachers and parents Susan H. Landry a,∗ , Tricia A. Zucker a , Jeffrey M. Williams a , Emily C. Merz b , Cathy L. Guttentag a , Heather B. Taylor a a The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Children’s Learning Institute, 7000 Fannin Street, Suite 2300, Houston, TX 77030, USA b Columbia University, Department of Epidemiology, 722 West 168th Street, 720F, New York, NY 10032, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 7 August 2015 Received in revised form 30 November 2016 Accepted 13 December 2016 Keywords: School readiness Head Start Parenting Responsiveness Professional development Home visiting a b s t r a c t This study evaluated whether the combination of two proven interventions, one in Head Start classrooms (The Early Education Model, TEEM) and one in the home (Play and Learning Strategies, PALS) resulted in enhanced effects on at-risk 3- to 5-year-old children’s school readiness skills when compared to either of these interventions alone. Teachers and parents were trained to use a responsive style and strategies that supported children’s school readiness skills with the goal of providing children consistency in responsive practices across the school and home environments. The study was conducted in 77 classrooms with teachers randomized to either the TEEM (n = 39) or No TEEM (i.e., control or business as usual, n = 38) conditions. Six to eight children in each classroom were randomly assigned to either have their parents receive PALS (n = 314; 210 after attrition) or to a No PALS condition (n = 309; 221 after attrition) resulting in four conditions: TEEM/PALS, TEEM/No PALS, No TEEM/PALS, and No TEEM/No PALS. Results showed greater gains in the TEEM teachers’ language and literacy instructional practices and sensitivity compared to control teachers, but there were few significant findings for child cognitive outcomes. Parents receiving PALS, as compared to those without PALS, showed greater increases across play and book reading contexts in numerous responsive behaviors linked to the attachment and socio-cultural theories. Children whose parents received PALS versus those whose parents did not showed greater gains in direct measures of print knowledge and self-regulation and in social and language skills observed during interactions with their parent. Interactive effects of TEEM plus PALS were seen for increased engagement in shared book reading but not for other cognitive or social outcomes. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is growing consensus that providing young children, par- ticularly those from low socioeconomic status (SES) homes, with high-quality classroom experiences prior to entering kindergarten is a key to closing a well-documented achievement gap (e.g., National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2009). High quality prekindergarten (pre-k) experiences increase the likelihood that children will enter school with the skills necessary for academic success (e.g., Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, & Yavitz, 2010). However, many existing pre-k programs are not of high enough quality to assure that children from higher risk backgrounds will ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Susan.Landry@uth.tmc.edu (S.H. Landry). get the learning experiences they need to be school ready (e.g., Burchinal, Kainz, & Cai, 2011). For example, in the most recent impact study of Head Start, a federally funded preschool program for children from very low-SES homes, only a few small positive effects in cognitive and social skills occurred across pre-k, and these did not persist through first grade (USDHHS & ACF, 2010). Also, interventions implemented to enhance the effectiveness of pre-k programs, like Head Start, have yielded mixed results, and when there are improvements they are often small (Burchinal et al., 2011). One potential solution to this problem of small impacts for many pre-k programs serving low-SES students is to increase par- ent responsiveness and support for school readiness in children’s home environments. Many pre-k programs, particularly Head Start, acknowledge the importance of having a parent component (Zigler & Muenchow, 1992), but parent involvement varies greatly across http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.12.001 0885-2006/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.