Evidence-Based Education Preventing Reading Failure in America Presentation to the American Psychological Association

1. Evidence-Based EducationPreventing Reading Failure in AmericaPresentation to the American Psychological Association G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. President and CEO Synergistic Education Solutions Dallas, Texas learning4all@tx.rr.com

2. Reading FailureAn Educational and a Public Health Problem • Reading Proficiency is Critical to Academic Learning and Success in School • (Lyon, 1998; 2002, 2003, 2004; Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998) • The Ability to Read Proficiently is Significantly Related to Quality of Life and Health Outcomes • (Lyon, 1997; Lyon & Chhabra, 2004; Thompson, 2001)

3. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Percent of 4th Grade Students Performing Below Basic Level - 37% White 27 Black 63 Hispanic 58 Poor 60 Non-poor 26 Percent Performing Below the Basic Reading Level National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003

4. Research Questions • How do children develop language abilities? • How do children develop social competencies? • How can we foster children’s emotional health? • How do children learn to read? • Why do some children have difficulties learning to read? • How can we prevent reading difficulties? • How can we remediate reading difficulties?

5. The Scientific Investment • Number of Research Sites: 44 • Children and Adults Studied: 48,000 • Proficient Readers: 22,000 • At-Risk/Struggling Readers 26,000 • Average Years Studied/Followed: 9 • Max Longitudinal Span to Date: 24 • Current Prevention/Intervention Trials 12 • Schools Currently Participating: 266 • Classrooms Currently Participating: 985 • Classroom Teachers Participating: 1,012

6. NIH-NICHD Multidisciplinary Research Program (North America; Lyon, 1985-2005) Children’s Hospital/ Harvard LDRC Waber U of Washington Berninger U of Massachusetts Rayner Emerson College Aram Toronto Lovett Beth Israel Galaburda Mayo Clinic Kalusic Tufts Wolf Yale Shaywitz Syracuse U Blachman Haskins Labs Fowler/Liberman U of Michigan Morrison SUNY Albany Vellutino U of WisconsinJohnson-Glenburg Stanford Reiss Carnegie-Mellon Northwestern UBooth Boy’s Town Smith Rutgers UScarboro-ugh Johns Hopkins Denckla U of Southern California Manis/Seidenberg Purdue U Hynd D.C./Houston Forman/Moats Colorado LDRC Defries Duke UGoldston U of KansasShumaker U of Missouri Geary Georgetown U Eden U of Louisville Molfese Univ of California – IrvineFilipek ColoradoMoats Gallaudet ULaSasso San FranciscoHerron Bowman Gray Wood U of California – San Diego, Salk Institute Bellugi U of Arkansas – Med Ctr Dykman Georgia State R. Morris U of GeorgiaStahl U of Houston Francis Yale Methodology Fletcher Florida State Torgesen/Wagner U of Texas – Med Ctr Foorman/Fletcher Univ of Florida Alexander/Conway NICHD Sites U of TexasVaughn

7. Some Reasons Why Reading Instruction Has Not Been Helpful • Untested Theories and Assumptions Regarding Reading Development and Instruction • Romantic Beliefs About Learning and Teaching • Fads • Appeals to “So Called” Authority

8. Our Youngest Citizens Will Surprise Us Infants, Toddlers, and preschoolers can learn more than we ever thought possible From birth to age 3 the brains of children are rapidly forming connections between neural cells The quality and degree of connections between neural cells are established through the the quality of interactions the child has with adults, other children, and the environment Infants before the age of 6 months can perceive and express all sounds of all languages spoken on the planet

9. P. Kuhl, U. Washington

10. P. Kuhl, U. Washington

11. Our Youngest Citizens Will Surprise Us • Depending on the environment, vocabulary development accelerates rapidly during the second year of life. • Under the right circumstances, most 18 month olds (on average) learn 9 new words a day, every day, throughout the preschool years • By 3 years of age the child can speak in full sentences

12. Learning Begins Early P. Kuhl, U. Washington

13. The Role of the Environment and Early Experience on Language Development • Language development requires an interplay between genes, biology, and environmental factors • Poverty and disadvantage reduce the quantity and quality of interactions with language • Limited language interactions in the home environment place children at severe risk for school failure, particularly in reading • Cultural influences every aspect of human development and must be considered in the design and implementation of any program

14. Environmental Influences • By kindergarten a child from disadvantage typically has twice the vocabulary as a youngster born into poverty • The typical 5-year-old from an urban environment and disadvantaged home enters kindergarten at the 5th percentile in vocabulary • By age 16 advantaged children have four times the vocabulary as children born into poverty

15. Major Sources of Reading Failure • Socioeconomic Factors – Poverty • Biological Factors – Genetics and Neurobiology • Instructional Factors – Predominate

16. What Do Kids Need to Know to Read? A HECK OF A LOT

17. In 1995, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health National Academy of Sciences Report from the National Research Council 1998

18. In 1997, United States Congress National Institute of Child Health and Human Development & U.S. Department of Education Report of the National Reading Panel

19. How Do Children Learn to Read? Hart and Risley, 1995

20. How Do Children Learn to Read?The Influence of Early Language and Literacy Experiences Differences in exposure to words over one year can predict substantial difficulties in oral language and reading development: • Children in Professional Families – 11 million • Children in Working-class Families – 6 million • Children in Welfare Families – 3 million

21. Mean Number of Interactions Initiated per Hour 50 40 30 20 10 0 Mean Number of Minutes per Interaction per Hour 50 Professional 40 42 Professional Working-class Welfare Working-class 30 33 29 28.5 26 Welfare 20 18 10 0 Hart and Risley, 1995

22. Cumulative Language Experiences Cumulative Words Spoken to Child (in millions) 50 Professional 48 40 Working-class 30 30 20 12 Welfare 12 10 7.5 3 0 0 12 24 36 48 Age of Child (in months) Hart and Risley, 1995

23. The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth Reading Age Level 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 High Oral Language in Kindergarten 5.2 years difference Low Oral Language in Kindergarten 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Chronological Age Hirsch, 1996

24. How Do Children Learn to Read? Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

25. What is Phonological Awareness?

26. How Do Children Learn to Read? Phonological Awareness • Phonological awareness involves theunderstandingthat spoken words are composed of segments of sound smaller than a syllable. • It also involves theabilityto notice, think about, or manipulate the individual sounds in words.

27. How Do Children Learn to Read? 7 7 6 6 5.9 5.7 5 5 Reading Grade Level 4 4 3.5 3 3 2.3 2 2 Average Average 1 Low Average 1 Low K K 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Grade Level Corresponding to Age Grade Level Corresponding to Age Growth in “phonics” ability of children who begin 1st grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge Growth in word reading abilityof children who begin 1st grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge Torgesen & Mathes, 2000

28. Growth in Reading Comprehensionof Children Who Begin 1st Grade in the Bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge 7 6.9 6 5 4 3.4 Reading Grade Level 3 2 Average 1 Low K 1 2 3 4 5 Grade Level Corresponding to Age Torgesen & Mathes, 2000

29. How Do Children Learn to Read? PHONICS Oh My Gosh – The F word

30. What is “Phonics”? It is a kind of knowledge Which letters are used to represent which phonemes It is a kind of skill Pronounce this word… blit fratchet

31. How Do Children Learn to Read? FLUENCY A common definition of reading fluency: “Fluency is the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression” National Reading Panel

32. The Most Common Method of Measuring Reading Fluency in the Early Elementary Grades: Measuring the number of words per minute a child can read accurately

33. Fluency There is a strong relationship between how fast you read and how well you comprehend Fluent and automatic reading frees up “cognitive space” so that conscious attention can be devoted to textual meaning If decoding and word recognition are slow and labored, material will be forgotten before it is understood The most powerful way to increase reading fluency is through reading and reading and reading (see NRP)

34. Fundamental Discoveries About How Children Learn to Read The challenge of continuing growth in fluency becomes even greater after 3rd grade. 4th, 5th, and 6th graders encounter about 10,000 words they have never seen before in print during a year’s worth of reading. Furthermore, each of these “new” words occurs only about 10 times in a year’s worth of reading. Sadly, its very difficult to correctly guess the identity of these “new words” just from the context of the passage. Torgesen, 2001-2006

35. How Do Children Learn To Read? VOCABULARY

36. VocabularyYou Can’t Read Without Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary • Relationship between Vocabulary Score (PPVT) measures in Kindergarten and later reading comprehension: • Grade 1 - .45 • Grade 4 - .62 • Grade 7 - .69

37. Vocabulary:You Can’t Read Without It The “ fourth grade reading slump” reflects a language gap as much as a reading gap – Why? Reading tests (e.g., NAEP) in 4th grade are primarily measures of reading comprehension It is impossible to comprehend what is read without the vocabulary relevant to what is being read

38. Vocabulary:You Can’t Read Without It Reading comprehension, at a minimum, depends on decoding/word recognition accuracy and fluency, VOCABULARY, AND BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE A student must be able to read correctly approximately 95 percent of the words accurately in text to comprehend what is read MOREOVER, to comprehend, a student must know the meanings of 90 to 95 percent of the words being read The unknown 5 to 10 percent can be inferred from text

39. What Do Kids Need To Know To Read For Meaning? Accurate and fluent word reading skills Oral language skills (vocabulary, linguistic comprehension) Extent of conceptual and factual knowledge Knowledge and skill in use of cognitive strategies to improve comprehension or repair it when it breaks down. Reasoning and inferential skills Motivation to understand and interest in task and materials Torgesen, 2000

40. Language Knowledge Fluency Metacognition Life Experience Content Knowledge Activation of Prior Knowledge Knowledge about Texts Oral Language Skills Knowledge of Language Structures Vocabulary Cultural Influences Reading Comprehension Prosody Automaticity / Rate Accuracy Decoding Phonemic Awareness Motivation & Engagement Active Reading Strategies Monitoring Strategies Fix-Up Strategies Florida Reading Initiative

41. Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty? • Deficient Word Level Reading Skills • Deficits in Fluency/Automaticity • Limitations In Vocabulary • Limitations in Background Knowledge • Limited Reading Comprehension Strategy Use

42. Early Intervention is Clearly Effective Prevention studies commonly show that 70- 90% of at risk children (bottom 20%) in K- 2 can learn to read in average range

43. Early Intervention is Possible • Risk characteristics present in Preschool, Kindergarten and G1 • Print awareness, Letter knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language development, vocabulary, background knowledge • Assess all children and INTERVENE

44. 96 91 89 86 83 75 74 73 71 68 Outcomes from 67.5 Hours of Intensive LiPSTM Intervention Standard Score 100 30% 90 80 70 Word Attack Text ReadingAccuracy Reading Comprehension Text Reading Rate Torgesen, 2003

45. How Can We Prevent and Remediate Reading Failure? Evidence from one school that we can do substantially better than ever before: • Elements of Curriculum Change: • Movement to a comprehensive reading curriculum beginning in 1994-1995 school year (incomplete implementation) for K-2 • Improved implementation in 1995-1996 • Implementation in Fall of 1996 of screening and more intensive small group instruction for at-risk students

46. Screening at beginning of 1st grade, with extra instruction for those in bottom 30-40% 31.8 20.4 Hartsfield Elementary School Progress Over Five Years 40 Proportion falling below the 25th percentile in word reading ability at the end of 1st grade 30 20 10 1995 1996 Torgesen, Alexander et al., 2001

47. Screening at beginning of first grade, with extra instruction for those in bottom 30-40% 31.8 20.4 10.9 6.7 3.7 Hartsfield Elementary ProgressOver Five Years 40 Proportion falling below the 25th percentile in word reading ability at the end of first grade 30 20 10 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Average Percentile 48.9 55.2 61.4 73.5 81.7 for entire grade (n=105) King & Torgesen (in press)

48. Proactive Intervention • Explicit instruction in synthetic phonics, with emphasis on fluency. • Integrates decoding, fluency, and comprehension strategies. • 100% decodable text • Carefully constructed scope and sequence designed to prevent possible confusions. • Every activity taught to 100% mastery everyday. Mathes, Denton, Fletcher, et al, 2005

49. Responsive Intervention • Explicit instruction in synthetic phonics and in analogy phonics • Teaches decoding, using the alphabetic principle, fluency, and comprehension strategies in the context of reading and writing • No pre-determined scope and sequence • Teachers respond to student needs as they are observed. • Leveled text not phonetically decodable Mathes, Denton, Fletcher et al, 2005

50. Mathes, Denton, Fletcher, et al, 2005