By Nancy Kerr, President

The National Children's Reading Foundation

Common sense has long told us that reading is the gateway skill to school success. Emerging research confirms this conclusion.

Research also suggests that schools can identify those students who are least likely to achieve the Washington State standards at fourth, seventh and 10^th grades even as they step into their first classroom.

Recent research from Kennewick School District indicates that students at risk of failure can be identified in the first months of kindergarten by measuring the lack of "pre-literacy" skills. These children can be re-identified at first, second and third grade levels on the basis of their low reading abilities.

For better or worse, all of our students are home-schooled. The quality of their first five years of education has a powerful impact on the rest of their education.

In 1985 the U.S. Dept. of Education commissioned national experts to evaluate 25 years of reading research to identify how children master reading skills. The report, Becoming a Nation of Readers, concluded: "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This is especially so during the preschool years."

When parents read aloud with their child 20 minutes a day from birth, they provide that child with about 600 hours of pre-kindergarten, pre-literacy experience. This experience engages parents in the education of their child and results in additional hours of conversation like "can you see an "s" in that red stop sign?"

It also communicates a variety of emotional messages like "books are important," "reading is fun," and "you are important to me."

Current brain research indicates that during these young years, a baby and toddler’s brain is literally being wired to read. (The 90% Reading Goal, page 75-76).

Kennewick kindergarten teachers give a simple one-on-one screening test to incoming students either just before school starts or shortly thereafter. This information is collected district-wide and reported to the Superintendent and school board.

One in four (25%) children entering kindergarten cannot identify the upper case, lower case and sounds of four letters of the alphabet. These appear to be the same 25 percent of students who are still behind in third grade, and have little chance of being at standard at seventh grade.

At the same time, it appears that students who are on track to do well by third grade can also be identified by September of their kindergarten year on the basis of their pre-literacy skills.

A sample of the test on which this graph is based will be on the Internet at www.readingfoundation.org.

Kennewick School District has compared students’ reading scores at third grade with their scores on the seventh grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test.

These scores show 25 in every 100 students leave third grade reading significantly below grade level. Only five of those 25 students will achieve the seventh grade WASL reading standard four years later.

These 25 lowest-achieving students in the third grade appear to be the same ones who do worst on a simple pre-literacy test of entering kindergarten students.

The two studies, taken together, indicate that failure in reading and math at seventh and probably 10^th grades can first be accurately predicted by how well parents prepare their child to begin school, and thereafter predicted by whether a school’s reading program brings the child’s reading skill up to grade level during 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grades.

If parents and schools fail to help children achieve acceptable reading levels by the end of third grade, the children reach a major crisis point in their academic lives.

Through third grade, students learn to read. From fourth through 12^th grade, students read to learn.

After third grade, 85 percent of curriculum is delivered via print: worksheets, textbooks, blackboards, and computer screens. Yet, 25 percent of students enter third grade reading at a kindergarten and first grade level.

These students are already behind, generally understand less than a third of what they read in their math, science and social studies books, and every day they fall further behind in every subject that requires reading.

Research shows that after third grade, 74 percent will never catch up, (Francis, Shaywitz, et. al. 1996). For those few students who do catch up, it requires an extra-ordinary effort and expense. Policymakers should not realistically expect students to learn at a higher rate than they read.

Since these below-level reading skills in students at third grade can be used to predict failure at seventh grade, and since students who will be struggling to read at third grade can be identified earlier, at the beginning of their kindergarten year, schools are able to develop strategies to enhance students' ultimate academic success before they even reach school.

School districts would be wise to work with local preschools, day-care centers, health departments, hospitals, clinics, the Department of Social and Health Services, and any other agency that has contact with the parents of preschool children to affect the pre-literacy experiences of children prior to kindergarten.

This effort can be spearheaded by a local non-profit Reading Foundation. The National Children's Reading Foundation can help school districts set up these local foundations. To find out more, request detailed information through the Migrant Education News or visit the National Foundation's web site (www.readingfoundation.org).

Parents must be encouraged to make reading time and other literacy-oriented activities a high priority at home. If not, schools will likely fail with some 25 percent of their students, despite their best efforts.

EARLY READING KEY TO SCHOLASTIC SUCCESS

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