Category: Language Development

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Language Development Maths and Science Learning Primary School Education Programme Evaluation

Positive progress for math, but not reading, for a thinking-skills intervention

The Education Endowment Foundation evaluated the impact of the ReflectED programme using a randomised controlled trial involving 1,858 pupils across 30 schools in five areas throughout England over the academic year 2014/15. The evaluation examined the impact on the math and reading achievement of Year 5 pupils, and also their attitudes toward reading and math.

The ReflectED programme was developed by Rosendale Primary School to improve pupils’ metacognition — their ability to think about and manage their own learning. This includes the skills of setting and monitoring goals, assessing progress, and identifying personal strengths and challenges. The evaluation findings showed:

  • Year 5 pupils who took part in the trial made an average of four months’ additional progress in math (ES = +0.30) compared to those in the control groups.
  • There was also evidence that pupils in the programme developed a more positive attitude toward math.
  • However, in reading they made two fewer months’ progress than the control group (ES = -0.16) and developed a slightly less positive attitude toward the subject.

The evaluation also found that most schools were already teaching metacognitive and reflective skills similar to those taught in the ReflectED programme, which are likely to have continued in the control group classes. This might have limited the impact that ReflectED had on teachers’ practice and pupils’ outcomes.

 

Source: (Open Access): Motteram,G., Choudry, S., Kalambouka, A., Hutcheson, G., & Barton, A. (2016). ReflectED : Evaluation report and executive summary. London: Education Endowment Foundation. … Read the rest

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Kindergarten Language Development Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Effect of preschool home visiting on school readiness

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics examines the sustained effects of a preschool home visiting program on child outcomes in third grade. Karen L. Bierman and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial of the Research-Based and Developmentally Informed Parent home visiting program (REDI-P) on 200 families with preschool children recruited from 24 Head Start centers in Pennsylvania.

Families were assigned to either receive the REDI-P intervention or be sent math learning games in the mail (control group). The intervention focused on improving academic performance and social-emotional adjustment, and reducing children’s problems at home. Families received 10 visits from home visitors during preschool and six follow-up visits in kindergarten. Parents received coaching to enhance parent-child relationships and home learning materials to support children’s development and school readiness.

Overall, REDI-P produced sustained benefits four years after the intervention, with children in the REDI-P intervention group needing and using fewer school services than children in the control group. Results showed:

  • There were improvements in academic performance in third grade, measured by direct assessments of child sight-word reading fluency (effect size = +0.28) and teacher-rated academic performance in third grade (effect size= +0.29).
  • The intervention also promoted sustained improvements in children’s social-emotional adjustment, reflected in direct assessments of social understanding (effect size = +0.31).
  • REDI-P also produced reductions in the home problems that parents reported (effect size= −0.28).

The authors suggested that the sustained effects indicated that similar preschool home visiting program might leverage upward socioeconomic mobility and promote improved health and well-being in later years.

 

Source: Bierman, K. L., Welsh, J., Heinrichs, B. S., & Nix, R. L. (2018). Effect of preschool home visiting on school readiness and need for services in elementary school: A randomized clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(8), e181029. … Read the rest

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Kindergarten Language Development Primary School Education Programme Evaluation

Targeted Reading Intervention and struggling readers

Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) is a program that uses webcam technology to allow kindergarten and first grade teachers to help struggling readers while being observed by a coach who gives them real-time feedback as they work with a student. TRI trains teachers in their strategies during a 3-day workshop in the summer, with webcam observations and feedback during the school year.

Researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina evaluated the effect of TRI in a two-year randomized evaluation to examine its one-year effects on struggling readers, and to examine if having a teacher teach the program for two years affected student achievement.

The study took place in kindergarten and first grade classrooms in ten schools in high-poverty southeastern rural counties in the U.S. Subjects were equivalent at baseline on standardized testing in the fall, and randomization occurred at the classroom level. During the two years of the study, a total of 50 kindergarten classrooms (26 treatment, 24 control) and 50 first grade classrooms (29 treatment, 21 control) at each school were randomized, and then three struggling readers from each classroom were selected to either the treatment or control condition in each year of the study. In total, 305 students were assigned to receive TRI training, and 251 students served in the untreated control group. Treatment students worked with teachers 1-1, 15 minutes a day every day for 6-8 weeks.

Spring post-tests showed that:

  • Struggling readers who received TRI showed greater gains than struggling readers in the control condition (ES=+0.26).
  • Longevity of teaching the program did not show any significant effect on student achievement.

Researchers also report on the results for the subset of English language learners experiencing the program, which may be found here.

 

Source: Vernon-Feagans, L., Bratsch-Hines, M., Varghese, C., Cutrer, E. A., & Garwood, J. D. (2018). Improving struggling readers’ early literacy skills through a tier 2 professional development program for rural classroom teachers: The Targeted Reading Intervention. The Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 525–548. … Read the rest

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Language Development Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Good behavior is no game

An evaluation conducted for the Education Endowment Foundation in the UK looked at whether the Good Behaviour Game (GBG) improved students’ reading skills and behavior.

The GBG intervention is a classroom management approach designed to improve student behavior and build confidence and resilience. The game is played in groups and rewards students for good behavior. More than 3,000 Year 3 students from 77 UK schools took part in a randomized controlled trial of GBG over two years. Around a quarter of the students in the schools were eligible for free school meals, around a fifth were students with special educational needs, and 23% had English as an additional language.

The analysis indicated that:

  • On average, GBG had no significant impact on students’ reading skills (effect size = +0.03) or their behavior (concentration, disruptive behavior, and pro-social behavior) when compared to the control group students.
  • However, there was some tentative evidence that boys at risk of developing conduct problems showed improvements in behavior.

The authors identified the result might be affected by the implementation. In fact, one-quarter of schools in the intervention arm ceased implementation before the end of the trial.

 

Source (Open Access): Humphrey, N., Hennessey, A., Ashworth,E. , Frearson, K., Black, L., Petersen, K., …Pampaka, M. (2018). Good Behaviour Game (GBG): Evaluation report and executive summary. London: Education Endowment Foundation. … Read the rest

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Language Development Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Children who enjoy reading over three years ahead in the classroom

Research published by the National Literacy Trust highlights the link between enjoyment of reading and achievement, with children who enjoy reading more likely to do better at reading – over three years ahead in the classroom – of their peers who don’t enjoy it.

The findings are based on data from 42,406 children aged 8 to 18 who participated in a National Literacy Trust survey at the end of 2016. The study finds that:

  • At age 10, children who enjoy reading have a reading age 1.3 years higher than their peers who don’t enjoy reading, rising to 2.1 years for 12-year-olds.
  • At age 14, children who enjoy reading have an average reading age of 15.3 years, while those who don’t enjoy reading have an average reading age of just 12 years, a difference of 3.3 years.

The survey also indicates that three-quarters (78%) of UK primary school children enjoy reading, with girls more likely to enjoy reading than boys, with details as follows:

  • Overall, 64.9% of girls enjoying reading either very much or quite a lot compared with 52.4% of boys, and this gap increases with age.
  • At ages 8 to 11, 82.8% of girls and 72.4% of boys said they enjoyed reading.
  • By ages 14 to 16, this figure has dropped to 53.3% of girls and 35.7% of boys reporting that they enjoy reading.

The study also finds that children from Asian ethnic backgrounds are most likely to enjoy reading while children from White backgrounds are least likely to say they enjoy reading.

 

Source (Open Access): Clark, C. & Teravainen, A. (2017). Celebrating reading for enjoyment: Findings from our annual literacy survey 2016. London: National Literacy Trust.… Read the rest

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Language Development Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Bookworms benefit

Research published in the British Educational Research Journal has found that reading for pleasure is more strongly linked to cognitive progress in adolescence than parents’ education.

Data on 3,583 16-year-olds was taken from the 1970 British Cohort Study. This study follows the lives of people born in England, Scotland, and Wales in a single week of 1970, collecting information on health, physical, educational, and social development, and economic circumstances among other factors.

The authors set out to explore the relative importance of economic and cultural resources in determining class differentials in educational outcomes. They found that:

  • The home reading culture (including reading to the child and parents reading books and newspapers) was linked to children’s test scores, and this had a role in mediating the influence of parents’ education and also to some extent in mediating parents’ social class.
  • Childhood reading was linked to substantial cognitive progress between the ages of 10 and 16. Reading was most strongly linked to progress in vocabulary, with a weaker, but still substantial link to progress in mathematics.

The research also found that parental education was much more strongly linked than parental social class to both vocabulary and mathematics scores, broadly supporting the idea that cultural resources matter more to cognitive outcomes than economic resources.

 

Source : Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. (2015). Reading for pleasure and progress in vocabulary and mathematics. British Educational Research Journal, 41(6), 971–991. … Read the rest