Improving the ability of underserved children to read and comprehend text is a high priority in education policy. Low levels of reading achievement have been related to low academic performance, and one critical factor in reading achievement is adequate vocabulary knowledge. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack general and academic vocabulary to enable them to acquire knowledge and comprehend text when they learn to read.

The Mississippi State Department of Education has focused specifically on interventions that might enhance the vocabulary knowledge of students in or near the Delta, a primarily rural area of the state with a high level of poverty and historically low performance on reading achievement. To address these concerns, researchers studied the impact of a kindergarten vocabulary instruction program on students’ expressive vocabulary across a range of districts and schools in the Mississippi Delta. Study participants included 35 districts, 65 schools, 130 kindergarten teachers, and approximately 1,300 kindergarten students. Two kindergarten classrooms in each school were randomly selected to be in the study.

After receiving training on intervention, kindergarten teachers in treatment schools implemented it as a 24-week supplement to the core language arts program. Results from this research led to the development of a curriculum to increase children’s vocabulary and speaking skills by (1) introducing new vocabulary in a comprehensive way; (2) involving children in interactive reading; and (3) engaging students in frequent, meaningful, and rich conversations with their teachers. Students who received the intervention were one month ahead in vocabulary development at the end of kindergarten compared with students in the control group.

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