Early Childhood Research Quarterly 25 (2010) 194–206 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Early Childhood Research Quarterly Effects of a professional development program on classroom practices and outcomes for Latino dual language learners Virginia Buysse ∗,1 , Dina C. Castro 1 , Ellen Peisner-Feinberg 1 FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #8180, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 December 2008 Received in revised form 21 September 2009 Accepted 1 October 2009 Keywords: Professional development Language and literacy skills Latino dual language learners a b s t r a c t A randomized, controlled study was conducted to assess the effects of the Nuestros Ni ˜ nos professional development program on classroom practices and child outcomes related to language development and early literacy skills in both English and Spanish. Fifty-five teach- ers and 193 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in the North Carolina More at Four Pre-Kindergarten Program participated in the study.The content of the profes- sional development program consisted of research-based instructional practices designed to complement the core curriculum and scaffold learning for DLLs, and the format included professional development institutes, individualized consultation, and community of prac- tice meetings. The results showed that the intervention led to measurable improvements in both the overall quality of teachers’ language and literacy practices as well as those specific to working with Latino DLLs, and greater gains in children’s phonological awareness skills in their primary language. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. A large and rapidly growing number of children in the U.S. come from homes in which English is not the primary lan- guage.Latinos are now the largest minority group in the country,estimated to be 14.4% of the population, with an even larger percentage of Latinos among children below the age of five (Hernandez et al., 2007; U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). The rapid growth among Latinos over the past decade has raised questions about whether the existing education system can adequately address the needs and priorities of this population. On a variety of indicators such as end-of-grade assessments and high school graduation rates, Latino dual language learners (DLLs) are not faring as well as other students in U.S. schools. For example,one study involving 41 states found that only 18.7% of Latino students in a given school year scored above state-established norms in English reading comprehension ( Kindler, 2002). Not surprisingly, English proficiency has been linked to school performance among Latino students.In a report published by the National Literacy Panel on Language- Minority Children and Youth, August and Shanahan (2006) concluded that the lower the level of English proficiency among Latino students, the lower their probability was of completing high school. In recent years, the expansion of early education programs to reach a wide range of young learners has emerged as a promising approach for promoting school readiness and ensuring future academic success for all children. Nationally, Latinos are less likely than children from any other racial or ethnic group to be enrolled in an early education program (U.S. Department of Education, 2000). Compared with 73% of White and 76% of African-American first graders, only 57% of Latino first-graders had participated in center-based early childhood programs prior to kindergarten. One explanation for these lower participation rates comes from a national survey of state administrators of early childhood programs which ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 919 966 7171. E-mail address: Virginia Buysse@unc.edu (V. Buysse). 1 Authors contributed equally to the development of this manuscript and are listed in alphabetical order. 0885-2006/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.10.001