Project STAR was three-year, federally funded

United States Department of Education

The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...

 research project which consisted of an intervention with preschoolers enrolled in the Head Start program in Lane County

Lane County, Oregon

-National protected areas:*Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge *Siuslaw National Forest *Umpqua National Forest *Willamette National Forest -Government:...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The project was conducted from 1999–2003 by the Early Childhood Research Unit of the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

 College of Education. The principal investigators were Dr. Ruth Kaminski, one of the co-authors of the DIBELS

DIBELS

The DIBELS is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of K-6 literacy skills...

 early literacy assessment, and Beth Stormshak. The goal of the program was to increase literacy skills of at-risk children by improving their learning environments by increasing the amount of planned and focused activities. The curriculum had two components: a classroom ecology component and family-focused intervention activities.

Classroom ecology

The classroom ecology component is designed to help teachers develop the classroom environment in ways that promote the development of important literacy skills in children. The teachers were trained to focus on the overall environment in the classroom focusing on the physical environment (e.g., space and materials), the planning and scheduling of teacher activities and the structuring of a daily schedule, and improving the social environment by teaching social roles and expectations, monitoring students social interactions, and interacting with students regularly. One of the most important parts of the classroom ecology component were the Circle Time Activities which were instructional periods led by the teacher that focused on either sharing or vocabulary that lasted about 10 minutes each. Teachers were instructed to review skills learned previously, integrate new and old knowledge, and practice specific skills.

Another important component of classroom ecology was the Activity-Based Intervention (ABI) that provided an opportunity for children to learn critical skills through play and routine activities that are developmentally-appropriate and interesting to preschoolers. ABI's used here were related to skills learned during Circle Time Activities.

Family-focused intervention

The family-focused intervention encouraged parents to instigate non-directive play with their preschoolers and responsive communication. They were also encouraged to attend to their child's emotions and actively discipline their children. Children were provided with the skills used in the classroom component each week and instructed to give their children opportunities at home to practice skills learned in the classroom. The intervention also included a STAR Home Visiting curriculum where the initial focus was on parent-child joint storybook reading and the development of language skills. As the child progressed through preschool the focus shifted to phonological awareness

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness refers to an individual's awareness of the phonological structure, or sound structure, of spoken words. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much research.- Overview :Phonological...

 skills and knowledge of the alphabet.

Results

• Kaminski, R., Stormshak, E. A., Good, R., & Goodman, M. R. (2003). "Prevention of substance abuse with rural Head Start children and families: Results of Project STAR." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors is a journal that publishes peer-reviewed original articles related to the psychological aspects of addictive behaviors.The journal includes articles on the following topics:*alcohol and alcoholism*drug use and abuse...
  
  , 16, S11–S26.

• Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Whitmore Schanzenbach, D., & Yagan, D. (2010). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project Star. NBER Working Paper, 16381.