May
5
For those who follow education news, a trend has emerged lately. Education leaders are now focused on the importance of early literacy and ensuring students can read proficiently by the third grade. According to a recent Kids Count Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Failure to read proficiently by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child’s educational development. Failure to read proficiently is linked to higher rates of school dropout, which suppresses individual earning potential as well as the nation’s competitiveness and general productivity.” According to the same report, “Of the fourth-graders who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test in 2009, 83% of children from low-income families—and 85% of low-income students who attend high-poverty schools—failed to reach the ‘proficient’ level in reading.”
Recently, the Worcester Education Collaborative brought together a panel for a Community Briefing entitled “Raising Readers: The Importance of Early and Sustained Literacy.” We heard from a panel of experts, all of whom have done significant work in helping children (and, in some cases, adults) increase their literacy skills.
As Joan Kelley, a researcher in the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education discussed, there is an important new report on literacy among the children of Massachusetts. This report, “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success” has gained much attention since its release in June of 2010. It highlights a growing need for increased efforts in the quality of literacy development, particularly among children of low-income families. A new video, entitled “Change the First Five Years and You Change Everything” that has been released by the Ounce of Prevention Fund, puts this need into perspective. The video, which can be accessed here, effectively captures the disparity in school readiness between a child in poverty who has been exposed to early childhood education and a child who is not. Both the “Turning the Page Report” and the “Change the First Five Years” video focus on the need for increased efforts in educating young children and exposing them to the world of reading, even in the earliest years of their lives.
We also need to focus concern on those children, who may be beyond what is considered the ‘early years,’ but still have challenges with their literacy skills. Students who struggled with reading in their early years may be in middle or high school now, and require additional assistance to ensure they don’t become a drop-out statistic. Dr. James McDermott, a Professor of Education at Clark University, speaks of a class he lead in which the majority of the students were dealing with struggles in literacy. Because they had received passing grades throughout their educational career, the students believed their literacy skills were adequate. Dr. McDermott began an intervention, where he gave the students intense instruction on reading, reading to understand, creative thinking, and formal writing. As time passed, Dr. McDermott began to see dramatic differences in his students’ writing—they were no longer trying to simply pass a class, but were truly gaining a better understanding of what it is they were reading and could apply it to their own experiences.
It is true that literacy development takes a great deal of work. It’s precisely that reason that Casey Leary, the Director of the School Age Program at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, became concerned when he was asked to incorporate literacy instruction at his summer camp program. After receiving a grant from the MA Department of Early Education and Care, the United Way of Central Massachusetts partnered with the YWCA of Central Massachusetts to create a program within Camp Wind in the Pines. “Don’t take away my fun.” Mr. Leary remembers saying. The program, however, was a complete success. The state-wide grant (in addition to Worcester, other districts in Boston, Lynn, Lawrence, Lowell, Springfield, and Holyoke held similar programs) aimed to reduce summer learning loss, that inevitable ‘slip’ that occurs during the summer wherein students are unfocused on their academics and can return to school in the Fall behind their peers. Mr. Leary reported, however, that the programs were not only successful—the study showed that 85% of the children who participated avoided summer learning loss—it was fun for the children as well.
Early and sustained literacy is an important way to ensure our children are getting the most out of their education. Dianne Bruce, Executive Director of Edward Street Child Services and an experienced voice in the field of early childhood education, voiced recently that there is an urgent need to focus on young children. A child who is deemed at-risk is 25% more likely to drop out of school, 40% more likely to become a teen parent, 50% more likely to be placed in special education, 60% more likely to never attend college, and 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime (source: The Ounce). The work needs to be done, and the investment will pay off—our children will be better prepared to learn and they will be better prepared for the lives they have ahead of them.
Ensuring a child can read makes a world of difference, not just in the life of that child. Colloquially, we know that if our children are proficient in their literacy skills, they are less likely to drop out and more likely to become productive members of a workforce and society. Dr. James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate in the field of Economics who specializes in the economics of human development, is widely-cited for his research on the impact early childhood education has on society. He has studied decades of data on programs of early childhood education, particularly among disadvantaged students. According to a recent interview with the New York Times, “high-quality programs focused on birth to age 5…reduce deficits by reducing the need for special education and remediation, and by cutting juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and dropout rates.”