Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative single-case study is to find strategies to reduce academic fadeout when students migrate from preschool to kindergarten in the areas of reading and math content. Documented in many studies are the favorable cognitive outcomes on the effectiveness of ECEP (Gromley et al., 2012; Heckman, 2008; Temple, Reynolds, & Ou 2010). …show more content…
The ecological systems theory offers insight into how a child’s social environment affects development and the interrelatedness of contextual influences on development (Goldblatt, Yahav, & Ricon, 2014; Weigel & Martin, 2006). The ecological approach ascertains various environmental influences contribute to a child’s development. Bronfenbrenner describes these environments as the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem. The microsystem consists of those closest to the child and the most influential, such as family members, caregivers, and school (Oswald, 2015). The mesosystem depicts how each member of the microsystem works in concert for the child’s growth and development. The third level, the ecosystem, comprises places and people outside of the microsystem that can affect the child, such as the neighborhood, the parents’ workplace, and extended family. Lastly, the macrosystem, which includes the largest and most distant group of people and things but still has tremendous influence on a child’s life (Oswalt, 2015). The macrosystem includes Federal laws, government policies, wars, culture, and values, events that may have positive or negative influence on children (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Oswalt, 2015). Neuroscientists acknowledges ages 0 to 3 as a critical period in brain activity and rapid growth which stimulates motor skills, language acquisition, and other crucial aspects of development (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox, 2009; Frost, 2010). The advances in neuroscience support educators in understanding the influence of the brain on a child’s overall development and the concept that academic content is a fundamental component of student learning (Frost,