Parental and Community Involvement in Early Grade Reading Yvonne - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Parental and Community Involvement in Early Grade Reading

Yvonne Cao Aparna Ramesh NORC at the University of Chicago December 2014

Welcome and Introductions Yvonne Cao and Aparna Ramesh USAID Reading and Access Evaluation Contract

Quick Audience Poll

• Who has worked on a parental and/ or

community involvement intervention for early grade reading?

• Who has researched parental and/ or

community involvement for early grade reading?

• Who is a parent?
• Of those, who have kids in the primary grades
• r below?
• Of those who are not parents, who has tutored
• r done some other volunteering to help

children learn to read?

By the end of this webinar, you should be able to:

• Articulate the importance of parental and community

involvement research

• Define parental/community involvement interventions

in the literature

• Identify which interventions seem promising based on

the literature

• Articulate good monitoring and evaluation practices

and lessons learned around parental/community involvement

• Articulate implementation considerations to keep in

mind

Roadmap

• Part 1: Why research: Why is parental and community

involvement research important?

• Part 2: Definitions: What do we actually mean by

parental and community involvement?

• Part 3: What’s effective: What parental and community

involvement interventions are effective?

• Part 4: Behavior change: What interventions are effective

at bringing about behavior change and adoption?

• Part 5: So What?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

Key Take-Away: Home literacy environment is highly predictive of later literacy skills but is there a causal relationship?

Part 1: Why is parental and community involvement research important?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

The 30-million Word gap

Hart & Risley, 1995

Where do children read?

71% 35% 10% 12% 5% 22% 6% 4% 3% 2% 6% 24% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Use of Reading Skills by Grade 3 children in Malawi (n=600)

• ther

herding animals hospital in the kitchen market church/mosque do not use Save the Children, Literacy Boost Data

Midline Baseline

Contradictory Evidence? “[There is ] little empirical support for the widespread claim that parent involvement programs are an effective means of improving student achievement or changing parent, teacher and student behavior.”

• Mattingly et al, 2002

“The combined results for the 16 intervention studies, representing 1,340 families, were clear: Parent involvement has a positive effect on children’s reading acquisition.”

• Senechal & Young, 2008

Interventions work in two steps

Intervention Behavioral Outcome Improved Literacy Skills (Overall goal) Intervention Behavioral Outcome Improved Literacy Skills (Overall goal)

If we see improved literacy skills, we assume that the intervention led to an adoption of new behavior, which led to improved literacy.

Intervention Behavioral Outcome No Change in Literacy Skills (Overall goal)

What if we do not see a change in literary skills? We could attribute this to either 1) no behavior change or 2) the behavior not being effective

? ?

Many studies do not systematically measure behavioral

• utcomes. When an intervention yields no change in literacy

skills, it is difficult to understand why there was no change.

Key Take-Away: parental and community involvement encompasses a wide variety of activities

Part 2: What do we actually mean by parental and community involvement?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

Our focus: Out-of-School Learning

Parents/ Community Teachers/ Schools Students

“Family Literacy” “Home Literacy”

Family Literacy Programs generally aim to impact the Home Literacy Environment

Home Literacy Environment

Value placed on literacy Encouraging reading Availability

• f print

material Family members reading with children Opportunities for verbal interaction

Hess & Holloway, 1984

There is a wide variety of

• ut-of-school interventions

Parents / Other caregivers Peers Community

Teaching parents how to read Encouraging parents to read with their children Tutoring by volunteers Tutoring/help from peers Educational TV Educational radio Reading buddies Reading camps Community libraries Distribution of print Teaching parents how to read with their children

Hom e Reading Program s Fam ily Literacy Program s Peer/ Com m unity Tutoring Com m unity- Based I nterventions

Home Reading Programs (HRP) Family Literacy Programs (FLP) Peer/Community Tutoring Programs Other Community-based Interventions 4 types of interventions reviewed

Annex A: Typology of interventions

Question to Participants What out-of-school learning interventions have you implemented or do you know about?

Handout 2 – Page 1 (Part 1)

• 1. Think of a parental/community

involvement intervention

• 2. As a table, complete a theory of

change diagram using one intervention. We will use this as a case study throughout the webinar.

Key Take-Away: The evidence is mixed although some interventions seem to show more promise: (a)interventions that teach specific skills to parents (b)interventions that are more structured (c) community tutors

Part 3: What’s effective: What parental and community involvement interventions are effective?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

We reviewed a total of 47 studies

Design Experimental Quasi-experimental Countries Low/Middle-Income High Income Intervention type Aimed at changing parental involvement through direction action with child Community-based interventions Target age of children Pre-K P1-P3 Outcome Emergent Literacy Skills Literacy Skills Annex B: List of select references

Methodology

Home Reading Programs (HRP) Family Literacy Programs (FLP) Peer/Community Tutoring Programs Other Community-based Interventions 4 types of interventions

Types of Home Reading Programs

• Listens to

child read

• Use of

structured activities and lessons

• Take turns or

read chorally

• Reads aloud

to child / style

• f interactive

reading

Read Aloud/ Dialogic Reading Paired / Shared Reading Hearing Reading Direct Instruction / Structured tutoring

Which of these HRPs do you think may be more effective?

• Hearing Reading
• Paired Reading
• Dialogic Reading
• Direct Instruction

Quick Audience Poll

Home Reading Programs Some Examples (Handout 1: Page 2, Part 3)

What is Paired Reading?

http://youtu.be/H5RJyUnAkWM

What is Dialogic Reading?

http://youtu.be/q30BdJm3Eeg?t=2s

Think-Pair-Share

What did you notice in the videos? Do you think this would be implementable in your country? Why or why not?

Engaging in Paired Reading

1. Choral reading at child’s pace 2. Independent reading: nudge 3. If error, parents correct and child repeats the word 4. Choral reading until new nudge 5. Praise

Engaging in Dialogic Reading

PEER Dialogue Structure P – Prompt the child to say something about the book. E – Evaluate the response. E – Extend the response. R – Repeat.

Engaging in Hearing Reading

1. Listen to the child read 2. Provide feedback – telling the child whether they have read accurately 3. Provide assistance – words or phrases that child cannot read

• Evidence mostly positive: Literature review of DR interventions

found overall positive effect (Mol et al, 2008)

• Landmark study by Whitehurst et al, 1988 (US)
• Other studies found positive effects in other contexts
• Sim et al, 2013: Australia
• Chow & Mc-Bride Chang, 2003: Hong Kong
• Opel et al, 2007: Bangladesh (daycare setting)
• Valdez-Menchaca & Whitehurst, 1992: Mexico (daycare setting)
• However, long-term effects are unclear
• Whitehurst et al, 1988; Whitehurst et al, 1999; Sim et al 2013

Home Reading Programs

Dialogic Reading

Home Reading Programs

Hearing Reading/Paired Reading

Mixed Impact

• Hearing Reading
• Positive: Tizard et al 1982 (UK), with positive follow-up 3 years later
• Mixed/No impact: Hannon, 1987 (UK); Wilks & Clarke, 1988 (Australia)
• Paired Reading
• Positive: Leach & Siddall, 1990 (Australia)
• Mixed/No impact:
• Miller et al (1986) (UK); Miller & Narrett, 1995 (US)
• One study in India found both PR and HR to be equally effective

(Shah-Wundenberg et al, 2012)

• Case-Study 1

Home Reading Programs

Direct Instruction / Parent Tutoring

• Positive impact
• Vinograd-Bausell & Bausell, 1987 (US)
• Kraft et al, 2001 (US)
• Buyuktaskapu, 2012 (Turkey)
• Mixed/no impact
• Searls et al, 1982 (US): effect in 1st grade but not in 2nd grade
• Mehran & White, 1988 (US): after 3 months positive but not at follow-up
• Powell-Smith et al, 2000 (US): children’s books vs school curriculum
• Comparison of DI vs other HRPs
• Meta-analyses showed that DI bigger effect sizes than other HRPs

(Senechal & Young, 2008; Nye, 2006)

• Leach & Siddall, 1990 (Australia)

• Dialogic Reading generally found to be positive with

preschool-age children, although long-term effects are unclear

• There is mixed evidence for Paired Reading and

Hearing Reading with early primary grade students

• There is also mixed evidence for Direct Instruction
• Comparisons of different HRPs show that on average

Direct Instruction may be more effective than other types of HRP

• Length of intervention does not seem to matter

(HRPs tend to be short in duration, 4-10 weeks) Home Reading Programs: Key take-aways

Home Reading Programs (HRP) Family Literacy Programs (FLP) Peer/Community Tutoring Other Community-based Interventions

4 types of interventions

Family Literacy is… “…any initiative which aims to work through parents to improve the reading and writing of their children, as well as those which have the improvement of the parents’ literacy as an aim.”

• UK National Literacy Trust

Family Literacy Programs

Primary School Students Mixed or no impact

• SPOKES evaluation: Sylva et al, 2008 (UK)
• Positive impact on word reading and writing but not on

phonological awareness, concepts about print, receptive vocabulary

• PALS trial (SPOKES): Scott et al, 2010 (UK)
• Parenting-group program had positive effects on parent-child

relationship but no effect on child literacy outcomes

• Pratham FLP: Banerji et al, 2013 (India)
• Combination of mother literacy classes + home activities

produced positive impact on child literacy outcomes

• No effect on isolated interventions (ML alone, or activities alone)

Family Literacy Programs

Pre-K Students

Positive Impact Turkish Early Enrichment Project (TEEP) - Kagitcibasi 1997, 2009 Birth to School Study - Evangelou et al 2007 Project EASE – Jordan et al, 2000 Turkey UK US Mixed/No Impact Even Start -

• St. Pierre et al 2005

REAL project - Hannon et al 2005 Aboud 2007 Rolla et al 2006 Open Society Institute (OSI)’s Getting Ready for School US US Bangladesh Costa Rica

Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina

• The evidence on Family Literacy Programs is overall

mixed

• Programs that paid attention to uptake and with

higher training intensity seem more effective

• Caveat: no meta-analysis, difficult to assess trends

Family Literacy Programs: Key take-aways

Limitations (HRP and FLP)

• Mediation mechanisms are unclear; is it…
• Increased time on task?
• Increased child motivation in reading?
• Parents modelling fluency?
• Corrective feedback provided by parents?
• Multiple components of FLPs
• Sample sizes are small, especially in HRP

studies

• Timeframe: HRP studies are short. Long-term

effects often unknown Q&A

Home Reading Programs Family Literacy Programs Peer/Community Tutoring Other Community-based Interventions

4 types of interventions

Positive Impact Mixed or No Impact UNICEF Getting Ready For School: A Child-to-Child Approach Incentivized Peer Tutoring - Li et al, 2010 Yemen DRC China UNICEF Getting Reading For School: A Child-to-Child Approach Tajikistan Bangladesh

Peer Tutoring

Community Tutoring

Positive Impact Balsakhi Program – Banerjee et al, 2005 Community Reading Camps - Banerjee et al, 2010 Preliminary Findings from TCAI – Duflo et al India India Ghana

• Some evidence for effectiveness of tutoring by older

peers, intensity of intervention is related to effectiveness

• Also some evidence for effectiveness of same-age

peers, especially combined with incentives

• Positive impact of community tutoring (volunteers or

paid community members) with short training Peer/Community Tutoring: Key take-aways

Home Reading Programs Family Literacy Programs Peer/Community Tutoring Programs Other Community-based Interventions 4 types of interventions

Some Positive Impact Sesame Street (high exposure group only) – Borzekowski & Henri, 2010 Will you Play with me? (high exposure group) - Baydar et al, 2008 Interactive Radio Instruction (only post-test data) – Ho & Thukral, 2009 Indonesia: impact on letter recognition but not early reading/writing Turkey: impact on vocab and syllabification Zambia, Sudan, Somalia, Haiti

Educational Radio and TV

Mixed or No Impact Read-a-Thon – Abeberese et al, 2011 Aga Khan Reading to Learn (RtL) Oketch et al, 2012 Literacy Boost Community Action (midline) Kajangwa et al, 2013 Philippines Uganda Burundi

Other Community Activities

• Lack of evidence on community-based activities such

as reading camps, provision of mobile libraries, etc

• Some evidence of effectiveness of educational TV

and Interactive Radio Instruction Other Community-Based Interventions: Key take-aways

Handout 2 – Page 3 (Part 2) How is this connected to what you knew already about parental and community involvement interventions? What extended your thinking in new directions about parental and community involvement interventions? What is still challenging or confusing about parental and community involvement interventions? Discussion: Connect – Extend – Challenge

Project Zero Thinking Routine

Key Take-Away: Many studies do not measure behavioral outcomes. However, the evidence indicates that providing tangible skills in tutoring for parents and communities yields changes in behavior that, in turn, lead to improved learning outcomes.

Part 4: Which interventions are effective at bringing about behavior change?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

Intervention Behavioral Outcome Improved Literacy Skills (Overall goal)

Interventions have focused on reducing the barriers to participation for parents and community members in three areas:

• Tangible tutoring skills for parents and communities is linked to

behavior adoption and improved literacy outcomes.

• Information is not enough– messages more successful if coupled

with tangible skills or actions

• Addressing the need for physical resources is a necessity: safe

space to read, cultural- and age- appropriate materials

Skills

Attitudes Resources

Providing instructional skills to families and communities can lead to successful behavior adoption.

Skills These interventions provide two types of skills:

• Adult/family literacy
• Instructional skills
• Providing literacy skills: increases

return on helping child

• Mother literacy classes in India

Banerji et al (2013): positive changes in parental behavior

• Comprehensive Child Development

Program (US): teaching through home- visits yielded no behavioral change

Adult/Family Literacy

• Provides tangible actions on how a

parent/community member can get involved in a child’s education

• Adoption of instruction techniques:
• India: Shah-Wundenberg et al

(2012)

• India: Banerjee et al (2005)
• US: Evangelou et al (2007)
• US: Huebner and Meltzoff (2005) find

in-person instruction most effective at promoting behavior adoption

Instructional Skills

Behavior Change: Information alone is insufficient

Attitudes

These interventions provide parents and community members to catalyze action or changes in behavior.

• Kenya: Uwezo Initiative (Lieberman et

al 2013)– call to action yielded no change in behavior or outcomes

• Performance met or exceeded

parents’ expectations

• US: Miller and Narrett, 1995
• Treatment arms: 1) paired-

reading only, 2) feedback only, 3) paired reading + feedback

• No effect

Changing parent attitudes

• India: Remedial Reading Camps

(Banerjee et al 2010): information to mobilize community involvement

• Three treatment arms: 1)

information, 2) info + tool to test performance, 3): info + tool + week-long training on how to host remedial reading camps

• Only 3) saw changes in

community behavior and

• utcomes

Changing community attitudes

Behavior Change: Study Highlight

Intervention: Remedial Reading Camps (Banerjee et al 2010)

Develop curriculum Recruit community- members with requisite literacy level (e.g. high school graduates) Provide training on tutoring techniques (e.g. 4 days) Deploy volunteers for supplementary tutoring

• Over a year: 84% of treatment villages had volunteers that ran reading camps after

they were trained (no courses held in other treatment arms)

Positive Results: Implementation considerations:

• Recruitment and retention of volunteers: subject to high-turnover
• Development of curriculum with tried and tested method (e.g. Read India)
• Availability of age- and culturally- appropriate materials

Your Key Take-Aways:

1) Lessons learned from evidence to structure or improve your parental/ community involvement programs 2) Ideas of data and information you can collect to continually assess and improve your programs 3) Gaps in the literature that you can help fill

Part 5: So What?

Why research Definitions What‘s effective Behavior change So what

Implementation considerations: two common pitfalls

• What’s the demand for

programs?

• Community-run literacy centers in

Cambodia: centers were built, volunteers recruited, but parents did not use center.

• Need to communicate or

incentivize the importance of participating in these programs If you build it, will they come?

• Parental involvement was already

high

• Uwezo in Kenya: 74% of parents

report that they help children with schoolwork

• Reading to Learn in Kenya v

Uganda: High awareness around the need for involvement in Kenya but not in Uganda Trying to fix what is not broken

Handout 2 –Pages 4 and 5 (Part 3 and Part 4) As a table, complete Part 3 “Evaluation Considerations” and Part 4 “Putting it all together”

For your consideration:

Design and Implementation

• Agent of change
• Target age of children
• Target behavior/activity for

parents/community

• Recommended frequency of

activity

• Length of intervention
• Training (mode, content,

frequency, length)

• Type of materials

Research and Evaluation

• Monitoring processes:

Measuring behavior adoption

• Learning mediation

mechanism

• Unbundling interventions
• Sample size
• Long-term effect
• Literacy outcome measures

What else?

Studies to look forward to

• Save the Children Literacy Boost Rwanda
• Tostan Evaluation Senegal
• Teacher Community Assistant Initiative (TCAI) Ghana

Do you know of other upcoming studies that are relevant to this topic? Let us know!

I used to think… Now, I think…

About… …the importance of parental involvement …the design and implementation of parental and community involvement interventions …the monitoring and evaluation of parental and community involvement interventions Wrapping Up

Concluding Remarks

Thank you

Questions? Email cao-yvonne@norc.org ramesh-aparna@norc.org