Early Childhood Research Quarterly 22 (2007) 243–260 Building support for language and early literacy in presc classrooms through in-service professional development: of the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEE 夽 David K. Dickinson a,∗ , Linda Caswell b a Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Peabody #330, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, United Sta b Abt Associates, 55 Wheeler St., Cambridge, MA 02138, United States Received 23 February 2006; received in revised form 6 March 2007; accepted 12 March 2007 Abstract There is a substantial and persistent gap in achievement between children from different backgrounds [Natio cation Statistics. (2002). Children’s reading and mathematics achievement in kindergarten and first grade. Was Government Printing Office] that can be traced to the preschool years [Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. ( ing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Research Council, National Academy Press importance of ensuring that preschools that serve low-income populations provide strong support for children’s literacy development. The current project sought to improve program quality in Head Start classrooms through with the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEEP), an in-service intervention that was delivered in th bearing course. The impact of LEEP was studied using a wait-list comparison group strategy to determine whet group teachers (n = 30) showed more fall–spring growth in measures of classroom support for literacy than did teachers (n = 40). Multiple hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for background measures and fall s measures revealed moderate to large positive effects on all measures of classrooms support for language and e exception of writing, for which only a small effect was found. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Literacy; Intervention; Quality; Classroom; Professional development; Preschool; Language The past decade has been a time during which it has become increasingly evident that there is a p to improve the support preschool programs provide for the language and literacy development of chi income families. Researchers have found persistent patterns of under-achievement for children from (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002), as well as evidence of the long-term stability of the children’s language and literacy development between the early primary grades and later schooling Stanovich, 1997; Hanson & Farrell, 1995; Sameroff, Seifer, Baldwin, & Baldwin, 1993; Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carlson, & Foorman, 2004).Children’s primary grade levels of language skill, phonemic awareness and 夽 The data for this project were collected while the investigators were at Education Development Center; analyses and writin while the lead author was at Boston College and Vanderbilt University and the second author was at Lesley University and Ab ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 6153434792; fax: +1 6153222946. E-mail address: David.Dickinson@Vanderbilt.Edu (D.K. Dickinson). 0885-2006/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.03.001