Lillie Moffett's research while affiliated with University of Michigan and other places

... In a phenomenon termed convergence (Weiland et al., 2020), researchers document that comparison children often catch up to children in the early childhood treatment groups in the early elementary grades because they experience other early learning or school-based supports designed to promote learning (Hill et al., 2015). Much of the convergence for reading and math skills occurs during the kindergarten year with remaining differences fading by the end of second grade (Ansari et al., 2020;McCormick et al., 2022;Weiland et al., 2021), a finding replicated in this study. ...

... Strong instruction and assessment processes must be in place to ensure that kindergarten instruction is not wasted by repeating skills children have already obtained (Al Otaiba et al., 2011;Engel et al., 2013) or engaging in didactic teaching that is predominately focused on isolated basic reading skills unconnected to meaning and context that do not serve children well in the long term (Bassok et al., 2019). Emerging evidence suggests that children may be more likely to maintain early childhood gains when daily activities focus more heavily on meaning-making skills such as vocabulary and listening comprehension (McCormick et al., 2021). Unfortunately, studies of kindergarten classrooms reveal that children spend little time in explicit vocabulary instruction, particularly in schools serving students who are economically disadvantaged (Wright & Neuman, 2014). ...