The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP), 2002-2006

The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) was convened in 2002 to conduct a synthesis of the scientific research on the development of early literacy skills in children ages zero to five. NELP met on 12 occasions between April 2002- February 2006. NELP's primary goal was to identify interventions, parenting activities, and instructional practices that promote the development of children's early literacy skills. Toward that end, the panel posed the following four questions: What are the skills and abilities of young children (age birth through five years or kindergarten) that predict later reading, writing, or spelling outcome? Which programs, interventions, and other instructional approaches or procedures have contributed to or inhibited gains in children's skills and abilities that are linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, or spelling? What environments and settings have contributed to or inhibited gains in children's skills and abilities that are linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, or spelling? What child characteristics have contributed to or inhibited gains in children's skills and abilities that are linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, or spelling? NELP adopted a methodology that allowed for the identification and selection of published studies relevant to the panel's questions, a coding system that allowed for the combination and comparison of studies, and an appropriate method of statistical analysis. Approximately 500 research articles were used in the meta-analyses conducted by the panel. The meta-analyses summarized both correlational data showing the relationships between children's early abilities and skills and later literacy development and experimental data that showed the impact of instructional interventions on children's learning.