Book Description

"Curiosity Corner" is a comprehensive early childhood curriculum designed to help children at risk of school failure because of poverty. The program offers children experiences that develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary for later school success with a special emphasis on children's language and literacy skills. "Curiosity Corner" comprises two sets of 38 weekly thematic units, one for three-year-olds and one for four-year-olds. Each day the program staff present children with learning experiences through sequential daily activities. The program provides training, support, and teaching materials for teaching staff and administrators. Parents are encouraged to participate in children's learning through activities both inside and outside the classroom. One study of "Curiosity Corner" met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards with reservations. The study included 316 three- and four-year-old children from four urban, high poverty school districts in New Jersey. This report focuses on immediate posttest findings to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The WWC considers the extent of evidence for "Curiosity Corner" to be small for oral language and for cognition. No studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed print knowledge, phonological processing, early reading/writing, or math. "Curiosity Corner" was found to have no discernible effects on oral language and cognition. [This publication was produced by the What Works Clearinghouse. The following study is reviewed in this intervention report: Chambers, B., Chamberlain, A., Hurley, E. A., & Slavin, R. E. (2001, April). "Curiosity Corner: Enhancing preschoolers' language abilities through comprehensive reform." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.].