Confirmatory factor analysis of the Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI)

Area of Science:

• Early Childhood Education
• Educational Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Limited measures exist to track early academic skill development in preschoolers.
• Early intervention requires reliable tools for monitoring foundational literacy and numeracy.
• The Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI) were created to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factor structure of the EARLI probes.
• To evaluate the EARLI's utility in measuring preschool literacy and numeracy.
• To examine the fit of different measurement models (two-factor and bifactor) to the EARLI data.

Main Methods:

• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed.
• The study sample comprised 289 Head Start preschoolers.
• Two models, a two-factor model and a bifactor model, were tested.

Main Results:

• Both the two-factor model and the bifactor model demonstrated comparable fit to the data.
• The bifactor model exhibited some structural limitations.
• The EARLI probes showed utility in assessing early academic skills.

Conclusions:

• The EARLI probes are valuable tools for measuring early literacy and numeracy skills in preschool settings.
• The bifactor model offers insights into the structure of early academic skills, though further refinement may be needed.
• Findings support the use of EARLI for monitoring progress in early academic development.