EDO-CS-92-01 Feb 1992
Prescription for Literacy: Providing Critical Educational
Experiences
Prepared by: Donna Farrell Siegel & Ralph A. Hanson
ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication
Digest #68
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
Digest#68 is EDO-CS-92-01 and was published in February 1992 by the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, 2805 E 10th Street, Bloomington, IN
47408-2698, Telephone (812) 855-5847 or (800) 759-4723. ERIC Digests are in the public
domain and may be freely reproduced. Additional copies may be ordered by contacting the ERIC
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This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of
Education under contract number RI88062001. The content of this publication does not
necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of
trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
