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Closing the Word Gap with Big Word Club: Evaluating the Impact of a Tech-Based Early Childhood Vocabulary Program

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy; Susan Mayer, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy; Philip Oreopoulos, University of Toronto

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
BWC Codebook.pdf application/pdf 381.9 KB 01/21/2020 10:51:AM
bwc_data.dta application/x-stata 67.9 KB 01/21/2020 10:50:AM

Project Citation: 

Kalil, Ariel, Mayer, Susan, and Oreopoulos, Philip. Closing the Word Gap with Big Word Club: Evaluating the Impact of a Tech-Based Early Childhood Vocabulary Program. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-01-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/E117330V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Vocabulary is critical to literacy development in early childhood, yet large disparities in vocabulary knowledge persist between children from high-income and low-income backgrounds. In a randomized evaluation, researchers evaluated the Big Word Club, a classroom-based digital learning program designed to increase the vocabulary of young children, to assess the program’s impact on children’s receptive vocabulary. Researchers found that the Big Word Club increased students’ knowledge and retention of words included in the program.

To see more information and to find a link to the research paper: 
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/closing-word-gap-big-word-club-evaluating-impact-tech-based-early-childhood-vocabulary
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Education; Kindergarten; Preschool; Vocabulary
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2017 – 2018


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Published Versions

V2 [2023-08-13]

V1 [2020-01-21]

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