Strong new evidence suggests that LENA Grow increases children’s kindergarten readiness assessment scores, according to data from three school districts in South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

LENA Grow is a professional development program for early childhood educators. We’ve known for years that LENA Grow improves children’s language skills. We also know that language skills contribute to school readiness. We now have data showing that LENA Grow benefits children’s kindergarten readiness directly.

“This is the most exciting data I’ve seen about LENA Grow,” said Dr. Jill Gilkerson, Chief Research and Evaluation Officer at LENA. “Having consistent data from three different kindergarten readiness assessments across three different school districts gives weight to our causal claims about LENA Grow’s impact.”

Comparing the kindergarten readiness assessment scores of children who participated in LENA Grow to those of children from demographically matched control groups, researchers found that LENA Grow benefits school readiness. A few quick takeaways before we dive into the context and the data:

• In Cherokee County, S.C., children who participated in LENA Grow were 1.8x more likely to “demonstrate readiness” in language and literacy on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA).
• In Henderson County, Ky., children who participated in LENA Grow were 2.7x more likely to be at or above average in language development on the BRIGANCE® assessment.
• In Memphis, Tenn., preliminary results from Shelby County Schools and the nonprofit organization Porter-Leath show that children who participated in LENA Grow were 2.4x more likely to be at grade level in English-Language Arts on the i-Ready® assessment.

It’s important to remember that these findings represent real children who are now better prepared for academic success. It’s more than just numbers. But what’s driving these improvements, and how exactly does LENA Grow translate to kindergarten readiness?

Talk That Transforms: The Science of Positive Interactions in Early Childhood Education

Ever wondered why a simple chat with a toddler matters so much? Or why we should try as much as possible to respond to an infant’s babbles or a preschooler’s over-excited stories? It’s all about conversational turns, those back-and-forth exchanges that spark young brains to make important connections.

Neuroscience reveals that these turns, sometimes called serve-and-return interactions, physically shape developing minds.

“In the brain, white matter connections strengthen, language regions light up with activity, and cognitive potential skyrockets,” Gilkerson said. “From boosted reading skills to elevated IQ scores, conversational turns have a long-term impact on a child’s life.”

LENA Grow harnesses this power, transforming abstract science into tangible results. By quantifying turns, we’ve revolutionized how early childhood educators engage with children.

In just weeks, teachers report a profound shift. They’re talking more with children, connecting deeper, and setting the stage for lifelong learning.

As we explore our program partners’ experiences, you’ll see how these seemingly small exchanges are reshaping the landscape of kindergarten readiness.

Unpacking the Evidence: LENA Grow’s Impact on Kindergarten Readiness

A Leap in Kindergarten Readiness in Cherokee County, S.C.

For Cherokee County, S.C., a county with kindergarten readiness numbers that fall below the state average, the impact of LENA Grow speaks volumes. The Cherokee County School District has used LENA Grow in its preschool classrooms since early 2021.

In South Carolina, every new kindergartener is required to take the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). The KRA identifies children as fitting into one of three categories: demonstrating readiness, approaching readiness, or showing emerging readiness.

The results prove that participating in LENA Grow contributes to higher KRA scores. In total, assessment scores from 121 LENA Grow participants and 204 demographically matched controls were analyzed. The children who participated in LENA Grow did so one to two years before starting kindergarten. Samples were balanced with respect to gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and, when possible, special education status, English proficiency, type of preschool attended, and elementary school attended. A logistic regression model suggests that LENA Grow participants were:

• 1.6x more likely to demonstrate kindergarten readiness overall, across all domains of the assessment.
• 1.8x more likely to demonstrate readiness in language and literacy.

In addition, children who participated in multiple sequences of the LENA Grow program saw even greater increases on the KRA. This suggests additional benefits for children who participate in LENA Grow multiple times.

“It is exciting to be able to see the effects of intentionally and purposefully preparing our youngest students for kindergarten,” said Lisa Blanton, Coordinator of Early Childhood Education at Cherokee County School District. “Without the support of LENA, we could only hope we were being effective. Now we know we are making a difference.”

These gains from LENA Grow represent a significant step forward in the district’s kindergarten readiness goals. And kindergarten readiness forms the foundation of the district’s mission, to ensure that “students have the education necessary to succeed as responsible, productive citizens.”

Language Skills Soar in Henderson County, Ky. 

Henderson County Schools brought LENA Grow to their early childhood education classrooms in 2019. Since then, they’ve implemented LENA Grow at the early learning center the district manages directly, as well as in partnership with private centers and Henderson Community College’s Head Start program.

The Kentucky Department of Education uses BRIGANCE® as its statewide kindergarten readiness assessment. BRIGANCE® tests children’s language development, physical development, social-emotional development, and academic/cognitive development.

Scores from 127 LENA Grow participants and 127 children in a demographically matched control group were analyzed. As was the case in South Carolina, samples were balanced with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors. Also as was the case in South Carolina, the children participated in LENA Grow as preschoolers, one to two years before starting kindergarten. The data analysis revealed striking differences between LENA Grow participants and children in the control group:

• LENA Grow children were 2.7x more likely to be at or above average in language development at the start of kindergarten, according to a logistic regression model.
• 87 percent of children who participated in LENA Grow were at or above average, compared to 72 percent for children in the matched control group.

Notably, children with higher conversational turns at program’s end were more likely to be kindergarten ready. This suggests that conversational turns themselves may be the underlying mechanism at work in boosting kindergarten readiness.

Early Intervention, Lasting Impact in Memphis

Porter-Leath, Memphis’s first Early Head Start grantee, has a long history of serving children and families in early childhood education and beyond. Along with key partners such as the University of Memphis’s CEED program and Signal Centers, Porter-Leath has played a vital role in expanding LENA Grow’s reach and highlighting its positive outcomes since 2019.

At Porter-Leath, previous findings have shown LENA Grow’s impact in the areas of teacher retention and children’s social-emotional development. Analysis now shows that Porter-Leath’s LENA Grow program yields promising outcomes in school readiness, too.

According to preliminary assessment data from Shelby County Schools, LENA Grow participants at Porter-Leath were 2.4x more likely than children in a matched control group to be at kindergarten level in English-Language Arts. The average score for LENA Grow participants was 350.2, compared to 338.7 for the control group.

i-Ready® scores from 33 LENA Grow participants and 99 children in a demographically matched control group were analyzed. As with the other sites, the samples were matched with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors, such as which elementary school they attended. Likewise, children participated in LENA Grow as preschoolers, one to two years before starting kindergarten. While the 33 preschool-aged Grow participants represents just a fraction of the total sample from Porter-Leath, the results align with findings from the other sites in South Carolina and Kentucky, suggesting a consistent pattern of improvement.

Across these three communities, LENA Grow is moving the needle on kindergarten readiness. But how exactly do these improved scores translate to real-world preparation? Let’s make the connection!

Making the Connection from LENA Grow to Kindergarten Success

Kindergarten readiness goes beyond test scores. While assessments like the KRA, BRIGANCE®, and i-Ready® provide valuable metrics and serve as reliable indicators of school readiness, it’s important to remember the concrete skills at the heart of assessment scores. Social-emotional skills, language skills, early literacy skills, and cognitive development in general are all things that early childhood educators foster day in and day out. They’re also skills that LENA Grow has been proven to improve. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that LENA Grow has now been shown to improve kindergarten readiness assessment scores directly.

Plus, LENA Grow doesn’t just benefit the children. It has also been shown to increase teacher job satisfaction and retention. What’s more, LENA Grow has systemic impact as well: The children who enter the program experiencing the fewest conversational turns consistently experience the highest gains. That includes dual language learners, who, on average, experience less teacher interaction than their monolingual peers. It also includes children at centers who experience language isolation, even at centers with high QIS ratings.

The benefits of LENA Grow provide a lasting impact on each individual child, creating a ripple effect in classrooms and communities. As educators become more adept at fostering language-rich environments, entire classrooms benefit. By investing in early childhood educators today, we’re setting the stage for improved third grade reading proficiency, enhanced critical thinking skills, and narrowed achievement gaps. As we continue to track LENA Grow participants through their academic journeys, we expect to uncover even more compelling evidence of the program’s lasting impact.

Ready to learn more about how LENA Grow can boost kindergarten readiness in your organization? Join us for our upcoming webinar, “Rethinking School Readiness” on October 30, 2024, or sign up to receive the replay! You can be part of the conversation shaping the future of early childhood education.