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Policymakers have underscored the importance of professional development (PD) opportunities for supporting the early childhood education workforce. Yet little is known about how the scope and delivery of PD opportunities impact the extent to which the content provided informs classroom practice. In the present study, we explored how teacher fidelity of implementation differs by the PD scope and delivery, and the role it plays in overall classroom quality. Lead teachers in under-resourced preschool centers were randomly assigned to one of three PD conditions: (1) a broad-based program focused on incorporating children's cultural funds of knowledge throughout the day, delivered via an in-person coach, (2) a culturally grounded classroom storytelling program that is narrow in scope and delivered via in-person coaching, (3) a culturally grounded classroom storytelling program that is narrow in scope and delivered via an animated webinar series. Findings showed that teachers' fidelity of implementation was higher when trained in a classroom program that is narrow in scope, fidelity did not vary by mode of delivery (i.e., in-person coaching vs. webinars), and that higher fidelity of implementation was predictive of more supportive classroom practices. Results are discussed in relation to implications for best practices surrounding in-service professional development opportunities.

Teachers' sharing of picture books is a quintessential activity in early childhood classrooms, and has been found to be predictive of children's language and literacy skill development. Although most research, to date, has focused on the manner in which preschool teachers share text-based books with their students, recent work has recommended that teachers include wordless books as part of their classroom book sharing routines. Yet, little is known about how the absence of text might influence teachers' discourse styles. The present study, thus, explored the discourse styles used by preschool teachers of Latino dual-language learners when sharing both text-based and wordless picture books with their class. Results showed that, while there were common features across both book types, when sharing wordless books teachers tended to adopt a more co-constructive style, by asking questions and supporting children's participation in the sharing of the story. At the same time, they were more likely to elicit predictions and analyses from the children. The findings highlight the importance of including wordless books in preschool classroom book sharing interactions, especially in classrooms serving dual-language learners.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to describe how the language diversity (i.e., the within-group variability in dual-language skills) of Latino dual-language learner (DLL) preschoolers was related to their science readiness skills and (b) to describe the importance of language of science instruction for Spanish-dominant children. Method: Latino DLL children's (N = 161; ages 3-5 years) language skills were assessed in various domains of both Spanish and English, and then their science readiness skills were assessed in their dominant language. Using a latent profile analysis, profiles were generated to describe the diversity of DLLs' bilingual skills. These profiles were used as independent variables in a series of hierarchical regressions to predict children's science readiness skills. With the Spanish-dominant subsample, an interaction term was created between profile membership and language of science instruction to determine how language of instruction contributes to the relation between language and science readiness skills. Results: English-dominant children and children with high and balanced dual-language skills had the highest science readiness skills, and instruction in two languages was related to higher science readiness skills of certain Spanish-dominant children. Results underscore the linguistic heterogeneity of Latino DLL children and its importance for school success and bilingual instruction initiatives. Conclusion: Findings provide evidence for the within-group variability in the dual-language skills of Latino DLL preschool children relating to differences in their science readiness skills, as well as for how bilingual instruction is related to science readiness skill.

Given the changing demographics of young children served by U.S. schools, educational equity practices must include ways of sustaining cultural heritage practices of children from ethno-linguistic, minoritized, and under-resourced communities. In the present study, we partnered with a bilingual Head Start serving mostly children of immigrant families from Latin American backgrounds to explore the effectiveness of a classroom-based oral storytelling program grounded in the cultural heritage practices of Spanish-speaking communities. We trained lead teachers (n = 12) in either an oral storytelling program or a storybook reading program. Research Findings: Analyses were conducted at the child level (n = 185) and provided initial evidence for the benefits of integrating oral storytelling in preschool classrooms to enhance the quality of teacher language input and support the development of children's narrative skills. Practice or Policy: Findings contribute to our knowledge base on the differential effects of story sharing modality and have implications for the education of young Latine children.

In this article, parental role construction is framed from a sociocultural perspective. Applying this perspective foregrounds the need for researchers and practitioners to gain an insider's understanding of how families themselves construct their roles in supporting children's education. By doing so, the field can reimagine family-school partnerships that are inclusive of normative family practices across ethnoculturally diverse families and develop interventions that build on cultural heritage, community strengths, and families' funds of knowledge. In this article, a "home-to-school," strengths-based conceptualization of family engagement that challenges deficit-based and school-centric orientations toward families is described. Evidence from three innovative research projects will be discussed that shows by being curious about how parents construct their roles and support their children at home (both directly and indirectly), researchers and practitioners can gain useful information to co-create more culturally inclusive and welcoming school environments, as well as more meaningful home-school connections.

The present study examined the concurrent relations between culture-specific dimensions of family engagement for low-income, Pan-Latine families and children's narrative ability, a critical predictor of reading success. One hundred seventy-five children and their caregivers were recruited from seven Head Start centers in a large city in the northeastern region of the US. Family engagement was assessed through a culturally grounded instrument (McWayne et al. 2013; McWayne and Melzi 2014) that measures parental behavior along one school-based and three home-based engagement dimensions. Children's spontaneous narrative productions were elicited through two tasks: a picture-elicited and a conversational narrative task. Findings showed that family engagement dimensions were differentially related to important aspects of children's narrative production, even after accounting for child and parent demographic characteristics. Specifically, families' efforts to provide stimulating experiences for their children beyond "the basics" (i.e., "Supplemental Education") were significantly related to children's ability to tell longer narratives during the picture-elicited narrative task. In addition, parents' active school-based engagement (i.e., "School Participation") was significantly associated with children's ability to narrate independently in the conversational narrative task.

Purpose: This study describes the language diversity (the within-group variability in dual-language skills) of a sample of Latino dual-language learners (preschoolers, 3-5 years of age) and how language diversity is related to home and classroom factors. Method: A sample of 161 caregivers and their preschoolers participated in this study. Caregivers and a sample of 19 teachers reported on demographic factors and home and classroom language environments. Children were assessed in various domains of both Spanish and English to evaluate their language proficiency skills in each language. Latent profile analysis was used to generate profiles of the diversity of bilingual skills of young dual-language learners. Results: Four profiles of dual-language skills emerged, characterized by balanced versus uneven skills and phonology and morphosyntax domains. The domains within each language served as markers to distinguish the profiles from one another, specifically morphosyntax and phonology. The results underscore the linguistic heterogeneity of preschool Latino dual-language learners. Conclusions: Findings reflect the importance of highlighting the strengths of language diversity of preschool Latino dual-language learners instead of employing a monolithic, "one-size-fits-all" approach when considering how to best support them. Furthermore, the home environment plays an important role in supporting Spanish language skills, especially if such support is not necessarily provided at school.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers, specifically by examining its incidence, types, functions, and grammaticality. Previous work has investigated code-switching in younger children and in older children and adults, but relatively little work has investigated code-switching during the preschool years, an important time for dual-language development. This study tracked the code-switching of 39 Latino DLL preschoolers over three time points: the end of each of their two preschool years, and the beginning of their kindergarten year. At each time point, children shared a wordless picture book narrative. Code-switching in their narratives was coded for incidence, type, function, and grammaticality. Results showed that the number of children who code-switched was relatively small and stable over time, and that most code-switches occurred from Spanish to English. One-word switches, mostly nouns, were the predominant type of code-switching across years. Children used code-switching to serve a variety of functions, and almost all switches adhered to grammatical rules. Results suggest that the preschool age is an important developmental period for code-switching, in which children's code-switches are simultaneously reflective of those of younger children and associated with more complexity in function and grammaticality.

This study examined literacy practices in the homes of 127 low-income Latino preschoolers enrolled in bilingual preschool classrooms. Specifically, we investigated the print-related practices that Latino primary caregivers engaged in with their preschool-aged children at the start of the school year and explored the relation between these practices and children's language, literacy, and social-emotional school-readiness outcomes at the end of the preschool year. The results demonstrate the importance of print--including books and non-book-related environmental print--for Latino preschool children's development of early literacy and self-regulation skills. In addition, the results highlight that when sharing picture books with their children, low-income Latino caregivers provided the majority of the information to their children, and ask few questions of them, thereby adopting a sole-narrator participatory role. Interestingly, the manner in which caregivers shared the books with their children was not related to child outcomes. The results are discussed in relation to the importance of enhancing Latino caregivers' culturally preferred print-related practices as a means of fostering their preschoolers' language, literacy, and social-emotional development.

Research has shown that the school-based engagement of Latino families is lower compared with other racial and ethnic groups. One possible barrier to school-based engagement of this heterogeneous group of families might be the lack of cultural match between families and schools. Addressing this under-researched area, the current study examined ethnic match between Latino caregivers and teachers at seven Head Start centers in a large urban area in the Northeast. Participants were 294 Latino caregivers with children enrolled in Head Start programs and 37 Head Start teachers. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), findings indicated that ethnic match (defined by whether a caregiver and the Head Start teacher both identified as Latino) was significantly associated with teacher-rated family engagement. Having a Latino teacher explained a significant amount of the variance in school-based family engagement, beyond that accounted for by caregiver and teacher education. Implications for Head Start's recruitment and training of teachers are discussed.

This study investigated the narrative scaffolding styles of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking mothers as they engaged their preschool-aged children in family reminiscing and book sharing interactions. Specifically, the study examined the dimensions of narrative elaboration and participation in mothers' scaffolding styles across the 2 narrative tasks. Cluster analyses identified 2 styles of maternal scaffolding for each context, differing in the degree to which mothers elaborated, the manner in which they did so, and the extent to which they encouraged child participation. Findings highlight the importance of both narrative elaboration and narrative participation as defining dimensions of maternal scaffolding styles. Results are discussed in relation to variations in socialization practices and the role these practices might play in children's development.