![Headshot of Karen Bierman](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Karen-Bierman-Aug.-2016-111x150.jpg)
IES R305A200436
Administered in: College of the Liberal Arts
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of the GoPals Kindergarten Club intervention. GoPals is designed to address the needs of economically disadvantaged students living in rural communities by engaging their families in guided home learning activities and fostering positive family-school involvement. Children from low-income families often enter school with less social-emotional and cognitive school readiness than their more advantaged peers, fueling a socioeconomic gap in school attainment that grows over time. Although public investment in prekindergarten programs is designed to reduce these early socioeconomic disparities, fewer than half of the children in rural areas attend prekindergarten.
Additional Faculty:
![Headshot of Cristin Hall](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Cristin-Hall.jpg)
School Psychology
![Headshot of Damon E. Jones](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Damon-E.-Jones.jpg)
![Headshot of Janet Welsh](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/image-2020-11-05T160243.645-109x150.jpg)
Prevention Research Center
Research Staff:
![Headshot of Sandra Stewart](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Sandra-Stewart-100x150.jpg)
Project Director
University Park
![Headshot of Linda Jacobson](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Linda-Jacobson.jpg)
![Headshot of Michele Kelly](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Michele-Kelly.jpg)
![Headshot of Shari Keyser-Groff](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Shari-Keyser-Groff-113x150.jpg)
![Headshot of Lisa Knudson](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Lisa-Knudson.jpg)
Family Educator
University Park
![Headshot of Becky Leiter](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2022/11/Becky-HV-pic-140x150.jpg)
Family Educator
University Park
![Headshot of Stella Robinson](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/d4554ed9-01f8-44b9-85fc-c1eea2f26b3e.png)
Family Educator
University Park
![Headshot of Brad Sizemore](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Brad-Sizemore-124x150.jpg)
![Headshot of Tracy Spalvins](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/11/Tracy-Spalvins.jpg)
![Headshot of Mary Whittaker-Myers](https://csc.la.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2022/11/Mary-Whittaker-Myers-113x150.jpg)
Family Educator
University Park