Renaissance tools, including Accelerated Reader, eduCLIMBER, myIGDIs, myON, Nearpod, and Star Assessments, are supported by peer-reviewed research. This document provides a list of the peer-reviewed research available for reading and math practice products as well as assessment products. This document is only available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R35595>.

From the abstract: "For young Spanish-English dual language learners (SE-DLLs), early literacy skills, including phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in Spanish as well as English, are crucial to their reading success. However, there is a lack of research about how SE-DLLs develop early literacy skills, and how their rates of performance can inform evidence-based intervention. This article examined to what degree SE-DLLs with disabilities or at risk for later reading difficulties on early literacy skills demonstrated growth on English and Spanish measures of early literacy when compared with their typically developing peers. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze growth for 325 SE-DLLs on four Individual Growth and Development Indicators that assessed phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in English and Spanish. Results indicated that at-risk and typically developing children showed significant slopes for all measures and that at-risk children grew faster than typically developing children on Spanish alphabet knowledge measures." Citation: Wackerle-Hollman, A. K., Duran, L. K., & Miranda, A. (2020). Early literacy skill growth in Spanish-speaking children with and at risk for disabilities in early childhood. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 40(1), 24-38.The Full Report is available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1257815.pdf>.

This technical manual is a compendium of all relevant information about content and item development, reliability and validity, norming, and score definitions for myIGDIs Early Literacy by Renaissance.Email research@renaissance.com to request a copy of the technical manual from the Renaissance Research Department.

From the abstract: "Evidence of longitudinal relations between language and early literacy skills in early childhood and later reading (and other) achievement is growing, along with an expanding array of early education programs designed to improve later academic outcomes and prevent, reduce, or close later academic achievement gaps across groups. Assessment systems to support this intervention have been developed, but to date we have little evidence of these systems' outcomes when used at a broad scale in community-based preschool programs. For this broad purpose, two research questions were addressed: (a) How much progress do children make on language and early literacy skills over the course of one school year? And (b) What is the relationship between child characteristics, baseline performance, and growth on language and early literacy skills? Results indicated growth over time for all measures and relations between child age, gender, and free-or-reduced-price status and students' performance at the beginning of the school year, but (with one exception) no relation between these covariates and growth over time. Discussion centers on current status of language and early literacy assessment in early childhood education as well as needs and issues to be addressed in future research and program development."Citation: Kincaid, A., McConnell, S. R., & Wackerle-Hollman, A. K. (2020). Assessing early literacy growth in preschoolers using Individual Growth and Development Indicators. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 45(3), 173-183. The research study is available online: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327754529_Assessing_Early_Literacy_Growth_in_Preschoolers_Using_Individual_Growth_and_Development_Indicators>.

This manual is a compendium of all relevant information about content and item development, reliability and validity, norming, and score definitions for myIGDIs Early Numeracy by Renaissance.Email research@renaissance.com to request a copy of the technical manual from the Renaissance Research Department.

From the abstract: "Studies have shown that item difficulty can vary significantly based on the context of an item within a test form. In particular, item position may be associated with practice and fatigue effects that influence item parameter estimation. The purpose of this research was to examine the relevance of item position specifically for assessments used in early education, an area of testing that has received relatively limited psychometric attention. In an initial study, multilevel item response models fit to data from an early literacy measure revealed statistically significant increases in difficulty for items appearing later in a 20-item form. The estimated linear change in logits for an increase of 1 in position was .024, resulting in a predicted change of .46 logits for a shift from the beginning to the end of the form. A subsequent simulation study examined impacts of item position effects on person ability estimation within computerized adaptive testing. Implications and recommendations for practice are discussed."Citation: Albano, A. D., Cai, L., Lease, E. M., & McConnell, S. R. (2019). Computerized adaptive testing in early education: Exploring the impact of item position effects on ability estimation. Journal of Educational Measurement, 56(2), 437-451.

From the abstract: "The population of Spanish-speaking preschoolers in the United States continues to increase and there is a significant need to develop psychometrically sound early language and literacy screening measures to accurately capture children's ability in Spanish. In this paper, we describe the innovative design and calibration process of the new Individual Growth and Development Indicators-Español (IGDIs-E). We developed and tested two Spanish oral language measures: Identificación de los Dibujos/Picture Naming and Verbos (Expresivo)/Expressive Verbs with 976 Spanish-speaking preschoolers (4-5-years old; 50% female) across five states. Children were tested in Spanish in fall, winter, and spring across two academic years. Results provide evidence that the new IGDIs-E are psychometrically sound with no significant bias between genders and dialects of Spanish spoken in the United States. Cumulative results, the utility of the final measures, and the implications for data-based decision making with Spanish-speaking preschoolers is discussed." Citation: Durán, L. K., Wackerle-Hollman, A. K., Kohlmeier, T. L., Brunner, S. K., Palma, J., & Callard, C. H. (2019). Individual Growth and Development Indicators-Español: Innovation in the development of Spanish oral language general outcome measures. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 48, 155-172The research study is available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED596096.pdf>.

From the abstract: "Spanish speakers in the United States are a steadily increasing population, up by 233% since 1980. Given the growing population of dual language learners (DLLs) and the large numbers of Spanish-speaking children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, addressing the educational needs of preschool-aged DLLs has become a national imperative. Specifically, the intersection of this growing population and the dearth of appropriate assessment tools to evaluate DLLs early language and literacy skills creates a need for assessments that accurately measure preschool performance. This manuscript reports on the iterative design process of a measure of Spanish phonological awareness for preschool-aged DLLs: Spanish Individual Growth and Development Indicators (S-IGDI) Primeros Sonidos. We employed measure design framework to develop the measure and tested item function within a study of 970, 4-5 year old DLLs. Results, including item level analyses and evidence regarding construct and criterion validity are reported."Citation: Wackerle-Hollman, A., Durán, L., Brunner, S., Palma, J., Kohlmeier, T., & Rodriguez, M. C. (2019). Developing a measure of Spanish phonological awareness for preschool age children: Spanish Individual Growth and Development Indicators. Educational Assessment, 24(1), 33-56. The research study is available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED595878.pdf>.

This manual is a compendium of all relevant information about myIGDIs Profile of Preschool Learning and Development Readiness (ProLADR).Email research@renaissance.com to request a copy of the technical manual from the Renaissance Research Department.

From the abstract: "While response to intervention (RTI) is in widespread use in K-12 programs, it is still an emerging practice in programs serving preschool-aged children. In 2008, the Institute of Education Sciences funded the Center on Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC): (1) to conduct a focused program of research to develop and rigorously evaluate and replicate intensive interventions for preschool language and early literacy skills and (2) to develop and validate an assessment system linked to these interventions. This chapter briefly describes some of the differences between preschool and K-12 educational settings and examines some of the challenges to implementing RTI in light of these contextual differences. Lessons learned and implications derived from a multisite study of the quality of early literacy in tier 1 across preschool programs are outlined along with programmatic research carried out to develop tier 2 and tier 3 language and literacy interventions, and measures for identifying and monitoring the progress of children needing additional tiers of support in these interventions. Also described are a specific investigation of children who are dual language learners and annual surveys of states showing a growing trend in the implementation of RTI programs and policies for preschool-aged children." Citation: Carta, J. J., Greenwood, C. R., Goldstein, H., McConnell, S. R., Kaminski, R., Bradfield, T. A., … Atwater, J. (2016). Advances in multi-tiered systems of support for prekindergarten children: Lessons learned from 5 years of research and development from the Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Handbook of Response to Intervention: The Science and Practice of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (2nd ed.) (pp. 587-606). Springer, Boston, MA.

From the abstract: "This study evaluated the extent to which existing measures met standards for a continuous suite of general outcome measures (GOMs) assessing children's early literacy from preschool through early elementary school. The study assessed 316 children from age 3 years (2 years prekindergarten) through Grade 2, with 8 to 10 measures of language, alphabetic principle, phonological awareness, and beginning reading. We evaluated measures at each grade group against six standards for GOMs extracted from earlier work. We found that one measure of oral language met five or six standards at all grade levels, and several measures of phonological awareness and alphabetic principle showed promise across all five grade levels. Results are discussed in relation to ongoing research and development of a flexible and seamless system to assess children's academic progress across time for effective prevention and remediation, as well as theoretical and empirical analyses in early literacy, early reading, and GOMs."Citation: McConnell, S., & Wackerle-Hollman, A. (2016). Can we measure the transition to reading? General outcome measures and early literacy development from preschool to early elementary grades. AERA Open, 2(3), 233285841665375. The research study is available online: <https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858416653756>.

From the abstract: "Learning to read is one of the most important indicators of academic achievement. The development of early literacy skills during the preschool years is associated with improved reading outcomes in later grades. One of these skill areas, phonological awareness, shows particular importance because of its strong link to later reading success. Presented here are two studies that describe the development and revision of four measures of phonological awareness skills: Individual Growth and Development Indicators Sound Blending, Syllable Sameness, Rhyming, and Alliteration 2.0. The authors discuss the measure development process, revision, and utility within an early childhood Response to Intervention framework."Citation: Wackerle-Hollman, A. K., Schmitt, B. A., Bradfield, T. A., Rodriguez, M. C., & McConnell, S. R. (2015). Redefining individual growth and development indicators: Phonological awareness. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(5), 495-510.The research study is available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED605881.pdf>.

From the abstract: "The prevalence of struggling readers by third grade nationwide is estimated at one in three. Reports trace the roots of this problem to early childhood and the opportunity to learn language and early literacy skills at home and in preschool. Reports also indicate that one-size-fits-all preschool language and literacy instruction is beneficial for only some children. The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) was funded by the National Center for Special Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to conceptualize and develop evidence-based assessment and curricular tools that early education programs could include in their plans for teaching language and literacy skills using a multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) or response to intervention (RTI) approach. CRTIEC also was directed to provide leadership in disseminating information about progress in applying MTSS approaches to instruction in early childhood. The articles in this issue summarize the work of the Center through descriptions of the process of developing and validating tools needed for an MTSS approach and summaries of the research completed by the Center."Citation: Greenwood, C. R., Carta, J. J., Goldstein, H., Kaminski, R. A., McConnell, S. R., & Atwater, J. (2015). The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood: Developing evidence-based tools for a multi-tier approach to preschool language and early literacy instruction. Journal of Early Intervention, 36(4), 246-262.The article in available online: <https://search.proquest.com/docview/1690433103>.