ERIC Identifier: ED340001
Publication Date: 1992-00-00
Author: Siegel, Donna Farrell - Hanson, Ralph A.
Source:
ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills Bloomington IN.
Prescription for Literacy: Providing Critical Educational
Experiences. ERIC Digest.
Specific kinds of educational experiences provided for children by both
parents and teachers, from preschool through high school, can make a significant
difference in their reading ability as young adults. Two national studies have
recently confirmed the particular home, school, and extracurricular experiences
that impact an individual's reading achievement over the course of development.
These studies analyzed comprehensive data gathered from 3,959 high school
students in 24 school districts across the U.S. The first study, the
Kindergarten Reading Follow-up (KRF) Study, examined the long-term effects on
children of being taught to read in kindergarten (Hanson and Siegel, 1988;
1991). The second study, the Reading Development Follow-up (RDF) Study, analyzed
the same data to identify the specific kinds of experience, from preschool
through high school, that foster high levels of reading achievement in high
school seniors (Siegel, 1987). The results of these two policy studies provide
parents, educators, and policy makers with some straightforward guidelines for
cultivating literacy development. The implications are quite clear: students who
are provided with more of these specific kinds of experiences across their
development will have higher reading achievement levels as young adults than
those who have less.
EARLY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES
Early language and
educational experiences for children were found to be particularly critical to
adult literacy levels. Although early childhood experiences have long been known
to be important in terms of general intellectual development, the RDF Study
confirmed that the specific kinds of early educational experiences students have
are highly predictive of later reading abilities as well. That is, those high
school seniors who were provided with more reading, language, and other kinds of
both direct and indirect educational experiences during their preschool years
had higher overall levels of reading competency than those provided with less.
Such preschool activities as learning nursery rhymes and stories, watching
Sesame Street, playing word and number games, being read to, attending
nursery/preschool, and participating in special lessons such as swimming, dance,
or music were all positively related to students' reading ability in high
school. Finally, later "high stakes" schooling experiences, such as placement in
remedial/developmental classes and/or a particular type of high school academic
track, could be linked to the students' level of involvement in early
educational experiences.
EARLY READING INSTRUCTION
Children who learn to read early,
either indirectly through home and family experiences, or directly through
formal beginning reading programs implemented in preschools and kindergartens,
are typically good readers in the primary grades (Mason, 1987). Until recently,
however, it was unclear as to whether this advantage was maintained through high
school. The findings of the KRF Study now provide some resolve to this age-old
debate (Hanson and Siegel, 1988; 1991). The results of this study clearly
indicated that those students who began their formal reading instruction in
kindergarten had higher reading achievement scores, both at the end of their
kindergarten year AND as seniors in high school, than those students who did
not. Also, compared to other high school seniors in the same school districts,
those who received the kindergarten reading instruction had better grades,
attendance, and attitudes toward reading, as well as less need for remediation.
More importantly, these same results held up across ethnic, gender, and social
class groups. Perhaps the most astounding finding was that those students in the
study who were provided with formal reading instruction in kindergarten were, as
a group, from LOWER social class backgrounds than those students who were not;
yet, they scored HIGHER on all indicators of educational achievement as high
school seniors than their higher SES peers who attended elementary schools in
the same districts.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES
In regard to elementary
schooling experiences in general, the RDF Study (Siegel, 1987; 1990) found that
those students who participated in activities and classes with an academic
emphasis, and avoided remedial classes and/or repeating grades, had higher
achievement levels than those who did not. The more classes and situations in
which students participated that had an academic and/or accelerated emphasis
(including skipping a grade or double promotion), as opposed to a non-academic
and/or remedial or developmental emphasis, the higher their reading achievement
was in their senior year of high school. More specifically, those students who
spent more time in writing stories or papers, doing math problems, reading
books, working on science projects, and/or working on spelling and language
lessons had good school attendance records and high levels of reading
achievement.
SECONDARY EXPERIENCES
At the secondary schooling level,
those students who spent more time in organized extracurricular activities such
as academic clubs, athletic teams, student government, band, and/or special
lessons, had higher reading achievement scores as seniors than those who spent
more time in unorganized extracurricular activities such as watching TV, talking
on the phone, or hanging out at the mall. Also, the students who were programmed
through an academic track, as opposed to a vocational track, and/or those who
took more than one year of high school math, science, and foreign language
courses had better reading skills at the end of their senior year of high school
than those who did not. Finally, those students who spent less time working in
part-time jobs, paid or unpaid, had better reading skills than students who
worked more.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND SUPPORT
Specific experiences
provided by parents, at every schooling level (i.e., pre through high school),
were clearly related to adult literacy levels. Results indicated that if parents
expect their children to become literate adults, then they must provide
guidelines for their behavior and encourage participation in reading and reading
related activities, at least through high school. For example, having rules
concerning the student's bedtime, household chores, and/or homework, along with
giving rewards for school work, providing books and magazines, and taking the
student to the library, museum, and concerts, were all shown to contribute to
the level of a student's high school reading achievement. Moreover, parental
expectations in regard to students' educational attainment are extremely
important. The students who did well in school, and/or indicated that they
wanted to continue their education beyond high school, had parents or guardians
who expected them to do so, and provided them with the necessary support and
encouragement.
IMPLICATIONS
The findings of both the Reading Development
Follow-up Study and the Kindergarten Reading Follow-up Study emphasize the
responsibility of parents, educators, and policy makers in regard to literacy
development: to offer, encourage, and support activities that provide these
kinds of experiences and require the use of such skills for students at every
schooling level. Early childhood learning experiences, however, are particularly
important to literacy development. The finding that early childhood educational
experiences, and early reading instruction in particular, are key factors in the
reading competency level of high school seniors strongly suggests that ALL
children should be given the opportunity to attend high quality preschools and
kindergartens that would provide them with these experiences (Siegel and Hanson,
1991).
Information and research documenting the long-term benefits for children of
being provided with such experiences first began to appear in the late 1960s and
has continued to build since then, nationally as well as internationally (Teale,
1980; Durkin, 1987). Today, however, the vast majority of preschool children ARE
NOT provided with these kinds of early educational experiences; yet, amazingly,
educational leaders and national policy makers seem puzzled as to why so many
students graduate from high school as functional illiterates.
If our nation's schools are going to have any impact on future literacy
rates, then clearly ALL children must be given the opportunity to attend
full-day preschools and kindergartens that would provide them with beginning
reading instruction and related educational experiences now known to be critical
to literacy development. Furthermore, school districts and policy makers must
also be ready to present new and compelling evidence for NOT providing early
childhood teachers with valid programs that would enable them to teach the
appropriate language and beginning reading skills to students in their preschool
and kindergarten classes.
REFERENCES
Durkin, D. (1987). Children Who Read Early. New
York: Teachers College Press.
Hanson, R. & Siegel, D.F. (1988). "The Effects on High School Seniors of
Learning to Read in Kindergarten." Technical Report No. 1. Garden Grove, CA:
Hanson Research Systems.
Hanson, R. & Siegel, D.F. (1991). The Long-Term Effects on High School
Seniors of Learning To Read in Kindergarten: A Twelve-Year Follow-Up Study. [ED
323 494]
Mason, J. (1984). "Early Reading from a Developmental Perspective." In D.
Pearson (ED.), Handbook of Reading Research (p.505-43). New York: Longman.
Siegel, D.F. (1987). Identification and Validation of Process Factors Related
to the Reading Achievement of High School Seniors: A Follow-Up Study.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Tulsa.
Siegel, D.F. (1990). "The Literacy Press: A Process Model for Reading
Development." Journal of Educational Research, 83(6), 336-47. [EJ 415 826]
Siegel, D.F. & Hanson, R. (1991). "Kindergarten Educational Policies:
Separating Myth from Reality." Early Education and Development, 2(1), 5-31.
Teale, W. (1980). Early Reading: An Annotated Bibliography. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association. [ED 190 995]
