Learning Enrichment Activities Program

In 1990, the Texas Instruments Foundation in collaboration with Head Start of Greater Dallas, established a model Head Start Center in the Frazier Courts area of Dallas. This center was named the Margaret Cone Center.

After two years of enhanced supplemental services (health, nutrition, extended hours, and social services), the data indicated that the children continued to exhibit significant academic deficits. They consistently scored in the 20th - 30%ile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) at the end of kindergarten at Frazier Elementary, the neighborhood public school.

In the spring of 1993, the Texas Instruments Foundation requested that Nell Carvell, Southern Methodist University, create a language enrichment program for the four-year-old children of the Margaret Cone Head Start Center.The SMU Learning Therapy Program designed a teacher-training program focusing on strengthening the teachers’ language skills in 1995. The purpose was to help the Cone Center teachers strengthen their own language skills thereby better enhancing the children’s skills.

After a full year of LEAP at the Cone Center and kindergarten at Frazier Elementary, the children’s median scores on the ITBS improved approximately 30 - 40 %ile points. Cone children who attend the Frazier Elementary School through 3^rd grade, today, score well above the national norm on state and national standardized tests.

In 1999, as a result of a research study at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, a handbook for pre-kindergarten educators was published. This handbook, Improving Early Literacy of Preschool Children, cites the Cone Center and LEAP as models. Following this publication, the Texas State Legislature appropriated $17.5 million in grants to be used to enhance preschool programs in Texas focusing on helping children be "ready-to-read". The Cone Center and LEAP were used a models for these grants.

To date, 2001, the LEAP model has been used to train over 750 teachers and has impacted the preschool experiences of more than 14,000 children. The New York Times, the United States Department of Education, and other key publications have featured the Cone Center and LEAP in action. Articles may be accessed at LEAP in the News.

In an expansion model, Texas A&M University is conducting a study of the effectiveness of a Spanish adaptation of LEAP with Spanish-speaking and Limited English Proficient (LEP) children. These children will also be tracked through the Dallas Independent School District. First round data from this new study will be available in June 2002.