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Promoting Third Grade Reading Proficiency

National Governor’s Association Policy Institute

May, 2012Dorothy S. Strickland, Ph.D.

Professor of Education EmeritaRutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Overview

Importance of a “good start” in literacy education

Research evidence on --providing a “good start”

Some Issues and Concerns

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Increased recognition of --

The Importance of a Good Start

What it means to be literate has changed. Expectations for student performance have

increased. Expectations for teacher performance have

changed. Accountability for student achievement is at

the center of school reform. The demographics of the student population

have changed,

There is increased concern for children considered to be “at risk” for failure.

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Example: key research findings on The Home Environment Meaningful Differences

Averages for measures of parent and child language and test scores

Families

13 Professional 23 Working-class 6 Welfare____Measures and scores Parent Child Parent Child Parent ChildPretest score 41 31 14IQ score at age 3 117 107

79Recorded vocabularysize 2,176 1,116 1,498 749 974 525Average utterances perhour 487 310 301 223 176 168Average differentwords per hour 382 297 251 216 167 149

(Hart & Risley, 1995)

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Example: Key research findings on The Achievement Gap

The Early Childhood Years - Impact

“Taken together, we estimate that at least half of the black-white gap that exists at the end of twelfth grade can be attributed to the gap that already existed at the beginning of first grade. The remainder of the gap seems to emerge during the school years”

from M. Phillips (2000) analyzed several achievement gap related surveys in an attempt to describe age related changes in the Black-White gap as children move through the grades (NCES)

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Research Findings related to literacy achievement:National Reading Panel (2000)National Early Literacy Panel (2008)

National Reading Panel Phonemic Awareness Phonics Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension

Nat. Early Literacy Panel Alphabet Knowledge Phonological/

Phonemic Awareness Concepts About Print Oral Language RAN (Rapid Automatic

Naming)

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Promoting Third Grade Reading ProficiencyIssues and Concerns

Issue #1. Early Literacy Standards

The positive side - Early Literacy Standards help to -

establish a shared vision provide curriculum content establish reasonable expectations provide clear links to accountability

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Promoting Third Grade Reading ProficiencyIssues and Concerns

Issue #1cont. Early Literacy Standards

The negative side - Early Literacy Standards may -

be viewed as discrete and separate skills to be addressed in isolation

inadvertently narrow the curriculum in their implementation

be ignored or misunderstood by those who must implement them

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Making Informed Decisions about -- Promoting Third Grade Reading Proficiency

Issues and Concerns

Issue #2 - Curriculum Organization and management Differentiated instruction Coordinated use of materials Intentional teaching of skills and

strategies within an integrated approach Greater focus on higher order skills:

critical thinking and problem solving

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Making Informed Decisions about -- Promoting Third Grade Reading Proficiency

Issues and Concerns

Issue # 3 - Accountability National and state reform initiatives are

increasingly accompanied by calls for accountability systems that are tied to standards for children, teachers, and programs.

There is growing concern about the types of assessments used to establish accountability and about their use in making effective decisions about policy and practice.

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Making Informed Decisions about -- Promoting Third Grade Reading Proficiency

Issues and Concerns

Issue # 4 - Teacher Quality Teacher quality is highly related to

student achievement. What effective teachers of young children

need to know and be able to do has increased dramatically.

High quality, ongoing, and embedded professional development is essential.

Knowledgeable administrators and effective literacy coaches can make an enormous difference.

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Promoting Third Grade Reading Proficiency Providing the best we have to offer

Making effective decisions for each child

Effective Decision-Making about Third Grade Reading Proficiency will -

- be based on what is known about how young children learn and how we best teach them;

- be linked to both standards and assessment;

- include informed administrative support, high quality materials, and links to the home;

- include high quality professional development for ALL involved.