RR
TOPEKA – A new study discovers a strong connection between attending afterschool reading interventions and a child’s early reading proficiency.
The study commissioned by the Reading Roadmap (RR) suggests afterschool programming that includes structured reading interventions aligned with school-day data can accelerate significantly literacy proficiency among young, striving readers.
This study analyzed school individual-level data of 9,000 elementary students across 58 different schools over the 2017-18 academic year. The study compiled data from school-administered reading assessments including AIMSweb, DIBELS and FastBridge. The study compared progress toward reading benchmark among elementary-age children that attended school-based afterschool programs with those that did not.
The study found children attending after school reading interventions were 26% more likely to reach benchmark than their non-attending peers. According to the study’s author, Mustafa Yilmaz, “The effect of the relationship was equivalent to a 1.7% greater chance of achieving benchmark reading for every day a child attended after school. That is quite significant.”
The study suggests that structured afterschool reading interventions, when done in concert with school instruction, can accelerate overall reading progress.
“When a child enters kindergarten, it’s a four-year race for her to learn how to read,” said Andrew Hysell, RR Director. “If she cannot achieve early reading proficiency by the third grade, she will face barriers for the rest of her life.”
Supplemental tutoring outside the school day is considered essential for a reader that is behind. For example, the Center for American Progress prioritizes “provid[ing] a tutor for every child performing below grade level” as its number one recommendation to improve education.
Unfortunately, families without resources cannot pay for professional tutoring, and families in rural communities often lack any high-quality options regardless of cost. Therefore, afterschool programs are the only option for these families and their children.
“School-based afterschool reading intervention is literally their only lifeline,” said Hysell. “The evidence continues to pile up that afterschool programs can be an effective delivery device for high-quality reading interventions for children that need them,” said Hysell. “Let’s continue to invest in after school and get more educational value out of our existing programs for the good of all children.”
A formal report of the RR’s findings is available here.
Highlights of the report include:
● Students who attend after school interventions regularly saw their probability of moving to benchmark increase by an average of 26%;
● The predicted probability of students reaching benchmark reading who attended RR afterschool programs was as high as 38% greater than their non-attending peers; and
● Each day of after school attendance translated into a 1.7% increase in likelihood of being a grade-level reader.
The RR provides a structured after school reading program supporting children PK-3. The model aligns with school-tiered systems of support and provides reading interventions in the five pillars of early literacy: phenome awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
An initiative of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), the Reading Roadmap began in the fall of 2013. DCF recognized the importance of early literacy and understood its connection to success in school and prosperity in life.
While not involved directly with education, DCF funded childcare, afterschool, and family programs targeting low-income populations and believed these types of social service programs could be used in partnership with schools to promote early literacy. To pursue that objective, DCF commissioned the Kansas Reading Roadmap to find innovative strategies for afterschool, summer, and family engagement programs to promote early literacy.