Carol Mcdonald Connor
Biographic Data
| ID | 1583901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carol Mcdonald Connor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carol Mcdonald |
| FAMILY NAME | Connor |
| SIGNATURE | CONNOR C M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Irvine |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5803-456X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 389 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Classroom experiences of multilingual learners and English-only students in preschool through third grade
This study examined differences in literacy skills and classroom learning opportunities among multilingual learners (MLs) and English-only (EO) students from Preschool through third grade. While prior research highlights reading skill gaps between these groups, fewer studies have simultaneously explored the reading skills and classroom literacy learning opportunities of ML and EO students. Participants included 1009 students (411 MLs, 598 EOs) fr…
Choose Your Own Adventure: Interactive E‐Books to Improve Word Knowledge and Comprehension Skills
Impact of supplemental multicomponent early childhood language instruction
Mathematics in U.S. Preschool and Kindergarten Classrooms
Bringing Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology to scale: Exploring the process from development to implementation
Bringing effective, research-based literacy interventions into the classroom is challenging, especially given the cultural and linguistic diversity of today's classrooms. We examined the promise of Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology redesigned to be used at scale to support teachers' implementation of the individualized student instruction (ISI) intervention from kindergarten through third grade. In seven randomized controlled trials, A2i…
Making the Case for the Socially Relevant Social Scientist
In the twenty-first century, the role and possibilities of academics could not be more significant. As such, social relevance must be inextricably linked to our goal and work as academics, thinkers, and scholars. The purpose of this article is to put forth and highlight the socially relevant social scientist as a viable and necessary component of the academic enterprise. In particular, we highlight three functions meaningful to the socially relev…
Supporting language and literacy development with intensive small-group interventions: An early childhood efficacy study
Language and Reading Progress of Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
We examined the language and reading progress of 336 young DHH children in kindergarten, first and second grades. Trained assessors tested children’s language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom communication: a spoken-only group (n = 101), a sign-only group (n = 131), and a bimodal group (n = 104). O…
Bringing the Science of Reading to Preservice Elementary Teachers: Tools That Bridge Research and Practice
Teacher preparation institutions have been critiqued for insufficient emphasis on the science of reading. The authors argue that although improving early reading success and teacher preparation are both critical issues, today’s “science of reading” discourse does not fully capture the complexity of teaching students to read. First, the authors describe the lattice model of reading development, which holds that a collection of text‐based, linguist…
Modality and Interrelations Among Language, Reading, Spoken Phonological Awareness, and Fingerspelling
Better understanding of the mechanisms underlying early reading skills can lead to improved interventions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine multivariate associations among reading, language, spoken phonological awareness, and fingerspelling abilities for three groups of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) beginning readers: those who were acquiring only spoken English (n = 101), those who were visual learners and acquiring sign (n = 131…
Observing individual children in early childhood classrooms using Optimizing Learning Opportunities for Students (Olos): A feasibility study
Commentary on the Special Issue on Instructional Coaching Models: Common Elements of Effective Coaching Models
Policymakers and educational leaders are increasingly focused on teacher performance and student outcomes, with the implicit assumption that teachers are fully responsible for their students’ gains
Depressive Symptoms in Third-Grade Teachers: Relations to Classroom Quality and Student Achievement
This study investigated associations among third-grade teachers' (N = 27) symptoms of depression, quality of the classroom-learning environment (CLE), and students' (N = 523, Mage = 8.6 years) math and literacy performance. teachers' depressive symptoms in the winter negatively predicted students' spring mathematics achievement. This depended on students' fall mathematics scores; students who began the year with weaker math skills and were in cla…
Evaluating the Structure of Early English Literacy Skills in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Better understanding the mechanisms underlying developing literacy has promoted the development of more effective reading interventions for typically developing children. Such knowledge may facilitate effective instruction of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Hence, the current study examined the multivariate associations among phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, word reading, and vocabulary skills in DHH children who have audito…
Foundations for Literacy: An Early Literacy Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
The present study evaluated the efficacy of a new preschool early literacy intervention created specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with functional hearing. Teachers implemented Foundations for Literacy with 25 DHH children in 2 schools (intervention group). One school used only spoken language, and the other used sign with and without spoken language. A "business as usual" comparison group included 33 DHH children who were m…
Defining Success in Adult Basic Education Settings: Multiple Stakeholders, Multiple Perspectives
This study employed quantitative and qualitative research approaches to investigate what constitutes "success" in Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs from the perspectives of multiple educational stakeholders: the state funding agency, the teachers, and the students. Success was defined in multiple ways. In the quantitative section of the study, we computed classroom value-added scores (used as a metric of the state's definition of success) to i…
The Effects of Teacher Qualification, Teacher Self-Efficacy, and Classroom Practices on Fifth Graders' Literacy Outcomes
This study examined the effects of teacher self-efficacy, education, and years of experience on observed classroom practices across 2 dimensions—teacher support for student learning and time in academics—as they related to fifth-grade students' (n = 1,043) literacy skills. To address these issues, the study used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Developm…
Testing the Impact of Child Characteristics × Instruction Interactions on Third Graders' Reading Comprehension by Differentiating Literacy Instruction
There is accumulating correlational evidence that the effect of specific types of reading instruction depends on children's initial language and literacy skills, called child characteristics × instruction (C×I) interactions. There is, however, no experimental evidence beyond first grade. This randomized control study examined whether C×I interactions might present an underlying and predictable mechanism for explaining individual differences in ho…
Schooling effects on preschoolers’ self-regulation, early literacy, and language growth
Teachers' Knowledge of Literacy Concepts, Classroom Practices, and Student Reading Growth
We examined the relations of teacher knowledge (n = 42 first-grade teachers), explicit decoding instruction provided, and students' (n = 437) word-reading gains. Results revealed an interaction between teacher knowledge and observed decoding instruction: For students of more knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction predicted stronger word-reading gains. For students of less knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instructio…
Back to the Future: Contrasting Scientific Styles in Understanding Reading
In this rejoinder to Willis, Smagorinsky, and Douglas (this issue of Educational Researcher), the authors discuss how many of the points raised by Willis and Smagorinsky regarding their original article, which appeared in the March 2009 issue of Educational Researcher, are concerned less with the methods themselves than with different styles of science. The authors of this rejoinder examine their differing styles of science, using Stanovich’s 200…
The ISI Classroom Observation System: Examining the Literacy Instruction Provided to Individual Students
The Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation and coding system is designed to provide a detailed picture of the classroom environment at the level of the individual student. Using a multidimensional conceptualization of the classroom environment, foundational elements (teacher warmth and responsiveness to students, classroom management) and instructional elements (teacher-child interactions, context, and content) are descri…
Untangling the effects of shared book reading: Multiple factors and their associations with preschool literacy outcomes
Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills
This study investigated predictive relations between preschoolers' (N=310) behavioral regulation and emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Behavioral regulation was assessed using a direct measure called the Head-to-Toes Task, which taps inhibitory control, attention, and working memory, and requires children to perform the opposite of what is instructed verbally. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized because children were nes…
Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood
Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills
This study investigated predictive relations between preschoolers' (N=310) behavioral regulation and emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Behavioral regulation was assessed using a direct measure called the Head-to-Toes Task, which taps inhibitory control, attention, and working memory, and requires children to perform the opposite of what is instructed verbally. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized because children were nes…
Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood
Untangling the effects of shared book reading: Multiple factors and their associations with preschool literacy outcomes
The ISI Classroom Observation System: Examining the Literacy Instruction Provided to Individual Students
The Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation and coding system is designed to provide a detailed picture of the classroom environment at the level of the individual student. Using a multidimensional conceptualization of the classroom environment, foundational elements (teacher warmth and responsiveness to students, classroom management) and instructional elements (teacher-child interactions, context, and content) are descri…
Schooling effects on preschoolers’ self-regulation, early literacy, and language growth
Testing the Impact of Child Characteristics × Instruction Interactions on Third Graders' Reading Comprehension by Differentiating Literacy Instruction
There is accumulating correlational evidence that the effect of specific types of reading instruction depends on children's initial language and literacy skills, called child characteristics × instruction (C×I) interactions. There is, however, no experimental evidence beyond first grade. This randomized control study examined whether C×I interactions might present an underlying and predictable mechanism for explaining individual differences in ho…
Bringing the Science of Reading to Preservice Elementary Teachers: Tools That Bridge Research and Practice
Teacher preparation institutions have been critiqued for insufficient emphasis on the science of reading. The authors argue that although improving early reading success and teacher preparation are both critical issues, today’s “science of reading” discourse does not fully capture the complexity of teaching students to read. First, the authors describe the lattice model of reading development, which holds that a collection of text‐based, linguist…
Observing individual children in early childhood classrooms using Optimizing Learning Opportunities for Students (Olos): A feasibility study
Supporting language and literacy development with intensive small-group interventions: An early childhood efficacy study
Commentary on the Special Issue on Instructional Coaching Models: Common Elements of Effective Coaching Models
Policymakers and educational leaders are increasingly focused on teacher performance and student outcomes, with the implicit assumption that teachers are fully responsible for their students’ gains
Back to the Future: Contrasting Scientific Styles in Understanding Reading
In this rejoinder to Willis, Smagorinsky, and Douglas (this issue of Educational Researcher), the authors discuss how many of the points raised by Willis and Smagorinsky regarding their original article, which appeared in the March 2009 issue of Educational Researcher, are concerned less with the methods themselves than with different styles of science. The authors of this rejoinder examine their differing styles of science, using Stanovich’s 200…
Improving Literacy in America: Guidelines from Research
An alarmingly high number of American students continue to lack proficiency in reading, maths, and science. The various attempts to address this problem have all too often resulted in “silver bullet” solutions such as reducing class sizes or implementing voucher programs. But this book shows, improving literacy also requires an understanding of complex and interrelated social issues that shape a child's learning. The book presents the most up-to-…
Teacher qualifications, classroom practices, family characteristics, and preschool experience: Complex effects on first graders' vocabulary and early reading outcomes
Improving Literacy in America: Guidelines from Research (Current Perspectives in Psychology)
An alarmingly high number of American students continue to lack proficiency in reading, math, and science. The various attempts to address this problem have all too often resulted in "silver bullet" solutions such as reducing class size or implementing voucher programs. But as the authors of this book show, improving literacy also requires an understanding of complex and interrelated social issues that shape a child's learning. More than twenty y…
Preschool instruction and children's emergent literacy growth.
Preschoolers ’ (N 156) classroom language and literacy experiences, defined across multiple dimen-sions, and their vocabulary and emergent literacy development were investigated. Videotaped classroom observations revealed substantial variability in amount and types of language and emergent literacy activities, across classrooms and for individual children within classrooms. Generally, more time in emergent code-focused activities was associated w…
Examining the Communication Skills of a Young Cochlear Implant Pioneer
The purpose of this longitudinal case study was to closely examine one deaf child's experience with a cochlear implant and his speech, language, and communication skills from kindergarten through middle and high school using both developmental and sociocultural frameworks. The target child was one of the first children to receive a cochlear implant in the United States in 1988, when he was 5 years of age. The developmental analysis revealed that …
Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills
This study investigated predictive relations between preschoolers' (N=310) behavioral regulation and emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Behavioral regulation was assessed using a direct measure called the Head-to-Toes Task, which taps inhibitory control, attention, and working memory, and requires children to perform the opposite of what is instructed verbally. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized because children were nes…
Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood
Untangling the effects of shared book reading: Multiple factors and their associations with preschool literacy outcomes
Teachers' Knowledge of Literacy Concepts, Classroom Practices, and Student Reading Growth
We examined the relations of teacher knowledge (n = 42 first-grade teachers), explicit decoding instruction provided, and students' (n = 437) word-reading gains. Results revealed an interaction between teacher knowledge and observed decoding instruction: For students of more knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction predicted stronger word-reading gains. For students of less knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instructio…
Back to the Future: Contrasting Scientific Styles in Understanding Reading
In this rejoinder to Willis, Smagorinsky, and Douglas (this issue of Educational Researcher), the authors discuss how many of the points raised by Willis and Smagorinsky regarding their original article, which appeared in the March 2009 issue of Educational Researcher, are concerned less with the methods themselves than with different styles of science. The authors of this rejoinder examine their differing styles of science, using Stanovich’s 200…
The ISI Classroom Observation System: Examining the Literacy Instruction Provided to Individual Students
The Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation and coding system is designed to provide a detailed picture of the classroom environment at the level of the individual student. Using a multidimensional conceptualization of the classroom environment, foundational elements (teacher warmth and responsiveness to students, classroom management) and instructional elements (teacher-child interactions, context, and content) are descri…
Schooling effects on preschoolers’ self-regulation, early literacy, and language growth
Testing the Impact of Child Characteristics × Instruction Interactions on Third Graders' Reading Comprehension by Differentiating Literacy Instruction
There is accumulating correlational evidence that the effect of specific types of reading instruction depends on children's initial language and literacy skills, called child characteristics × instruction (C×I) interactions. There is, however, no experimental evidence beyond first grade. This randomized control study examined whether C×I interactions might present an underlying and predictable mechanism for explaining individual differences in ho…
The Effects of Teacher Qualification, Teacher Self-Efficacy, and Classroom Practices on Fifth Graders' Literacy Outcomes
This study examined the effects of teacher self-efficacy, education, and years of experience on observed classroom practices across 2 dimensions—teacher support for student learning and time in academics—as they related to fifth-grade students' (n = 1,043) literacy skills. To address these issues, the study used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Developm…
Defining Success in Adult Basic Education Settings: Multiple Stakeholders, Multiple Perspectives
This study employed quantitative and qualitative research approaches to investigate what constitutes "success" in Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs from the perspectives of multiple educational stakeholders: the state funding agency, the teachers, and the students. Success was defined in multiple ways. In the quantitative section of the study, we computed classroom value-added scores (used as a metric of the state's definition of success) to i…
Foundations for Literacy: An Early Literacy Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
The present study evaluated the efficacy of a new preschool early literacy intervention created specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with functional hearing. Teachers implemented Foundations for Literacy with 25 DHH children in 2 schools (intervention group). One school used only spoken language, and the other used sign with and without spoken language. A "business as usual" comparison group included 33 DHH children who were m…
Depressive Symptoms in Third-Grade Teachers: Relations to Classroom Quality and Student Achievement
This study investigated associations among third-grade teachers' (N = 27) symptoms of depression, quality of the classroom-learning environment (CLE), and students' (N = 523, Mage = 8.6 years) math and literacy performance. teachers' depressive symptoms in the winter negatively predicted students' spring mathematics achievement. This depended on students' fall mathematics scores; students who began the year with weaker math skills and were in cla…
Evaluating the Structure of Early English Literacy Skills in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Better understanding the mechanisms underlying developing literacy has promoted the development of more effective reading interventions for typically developing children. Such knowledge may facilitate effective instruction of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Hence, the current study examined the multivariate associations among phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, word reading, and vocabulary skills in DHH children who have audito…
Commentary on the Special Issue on Instructional Coaching Models: Common Elements of Effective Coaching Models
Policymakers and educational leaders are increasingly focused on teacher performance and student outcomes, with the implicit assumption that teachers are fully responsible for their students’ gains
Modality and Interrelations Among Language, Reading, Spoken Phonological Awareness, and Fingerspelling
Better understanding of the mechanisms underlying early reading skills can lead to improved interventions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine multivariate associations among reading, language, spoken phonological awareness, and fingerspelling abilities for three groups of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) beginning readers: those who were acquiring only spoken English (n = 101), those who were visual learners and acquiring sign (n = 131…
Observing individual children in early childhood classrooms using Optimizing Learning Opportunities for Students (Olos): A feasibility study
Language and Reading Progress of Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
We examined the language and reading progress of 336 young DHH children in kindergarten, first and second grades. Trained assessors tested children’s language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom communication: a spoken-only group (n = 101), a sign-only group (n = 131), and a bimodal group (n = 104). O…
Bringing the Science of Reading to Preservice Elementary Teachers: Tools That Bridge Research and Practice
Teacher preparation institutions have been critiqued for insufficient emphasis on the science of reading. The authors argue that although improving early reading success and teacher preparation are both critical issues, today’s “science of reading” discourse does not fully capture the complexity of teaching students to read. First, the authors describe the lattice model of reading development, which holds that a collection of text‐based, linguist…
Making the Case for the Socially Relevant Social Scientist
In the twenty-first century, the role and possibilities of academics could not be more significant. As such, social relevance must be inextricably linked to our goal and work as academics, thinkers, and scholars. The purpose of this article is to put forth and highlight the socially relevant social scientist as a viable and necessary component of the academic enterprise. In particular, we highlight three functions meaningful to the socially relev…
Supporting language and literacy development with intensive small-group interventions: An early childhood efficacy study
Psychology (25 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (20 works) · Mathematics education (19 works) · Pedagogy (19 works) · Linguistics (17 works) · Literacy (17 works) · Developmental psychology (14 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Reading (process) (10 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (9 works)