How the poorest readers aged six outperformed the national average in two years and reduced the gender gap
 New Every Child a Reader follow-up research finds that the poorest readers now outperform the national average. |
The research by the Institute of Education into the Every Child a Reader project shows that boys benefit to the same extent as girls and that one-to-one tuition helps to reduce the gender gap. The presence of Reading Recovery teachers also helps the other children in the school who do not attend the Reading Recovery lessons.
The two-year research project looked at the reading and writing progress of the lowest achieving children in 42 schools in ten inner London boroughs with the biggest social problems. The eight poorest readers in each class, then aged six, were selected. Eighty-seven of these children had the benefit of the Reading Recovery special tuition programme and their progress was compared to a group of children of similar ability and backgrounds, who did not receive the same tuition.
After one year children who had received the tuition had reading ages that matched their chronological age, and were 14 months ahead of the children in the comparison group.
The latest research looks at the progress of these children one year later, to investigate whether the effects of the one-to-one tuition might wear off, as is sometimes claimed by opponents of the scheme.
This has not happened. At the end of school Year 2 the ‘Reading Recovery’ children were doing as well as their chronological age band and were still at least one year ahead of the other comparison children. They had an average reading age of 7 years 9 months as compared to 6 years 9 months in the comparison group.
But even more important , 86% of the Reading Recovery children went on to achieve level 2+ in their National Curriculum reading assessments in July 2007 – two percentage points ahead of the national average of 84%. 83% of them also passed level 2+ in the national writing test as compared to a national average of 80%.
At the end of school Year 2 in the Reading Recovery group the differences in reading achievement between boys and girls were not significant and showed that the boys had more or less caught up with the girls. However in the comparison group the boys were lagging four to five months behind the girls.
The study also followed up progress in classroom literacy generally at the schools surveyed. Children in sample classrooms with Reading Recovery available to the lowest group in Year 1 ended Year 2 with an average reading age three or more months above the children in the control group schools.
Dr Sue Burroughs-Lange, leader of the research team at the Institute of Education, concludes: “This study provides strong evidence that schools could enable almost every child to read and write appropriately for their age if those who were failing were given access to expert teaching in Reading Recovery at an early age.”
Jean Gross, Director of Every Child a Reader, said: “Six percent of eleven year-olds leave their primary schools every year hardly able to read or write. As a result many are unemployable and according to research published last year by KPMG they cost the country around £2bn a year in terms of unemployment, health, crime and other related costs. This research shows how we can cut down the national illiteracy rate and how by investing money in our primary schools now we can recoup that investment many times over later on.”
Notes for Editors
Every Child a Reader is a unique collaboration between charitable trusts, the business sector and government. It aims to show that, with the right resources, it is possible to overcome the literacy difficulties that blight so many children's lives.
The initiative is funding specialist literacy teachers trained in Reading Recovery to provide intensive one-to-one support to six-year-old children most in need. Every Child a Reader also aims to explore the potential for those teachers to support tailored literacy teaching more broadly within a school, beyond those receiving intensive one-to-one support.
Children benefiting from the Reading Recovery literacy intervention programme receive support for 30 minutes each day over a period of four to five months.
The DCSF has contributed half the cost of the £10m project. Other sponsors include the KPMG Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, SHINE, the Indigo Trust, the JJ Charitable Trust, the Mercers' Company and the Man Group plc Charitable Trust.
The vision is that every child who needs early literacy support receives it and that the numbers of children experiencing long term literacy difficulties are dramatically reduced. Progress towards this vision took a leap forward when government announced in December 2006 that Every Child a Reader will be rolled out nationally, benefiting 30,000 children year on year from 2010-11
Comparison of Literacy Progress of Young Children in London Schools: A Reading Recovery Follow up Study published by the Institute of Education and available at http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=9263
Further information from:
Tim Devlin, Press Officer, ECaR, 07939 544 487 tde@easynet.co.uk
May 2008
