A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Center for Research on the Education of Disadvantaged Students (CDS)

Project #8109: Preventing Early Reading Failure

Project Description: Preventing Early Reading Failure is synthesizing the current state of knowledge about preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary programs that are designed to ensure success for students in beginning reading.

Project Director: Slavin, Robert E.

Institution: Johns Hopkins University

List of Selected Publications

Activity ID: 8109-20022

Name of Activity: Preventing Early Reading Failure

Description of Activity: This project is synthesizing the current state of knowledge about preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary programs that are designed to ensure success for students in beginning reading. This activity represents a synthesis of the current state of knowledge about preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary programs designed to ensure success for students in beginning reading. The authors review research on a wide variety of programs and approaches intended to prevent early reading failure, including the Abecedarian Project, preschool and kindergarten programs, IBM's Writing to Read, one-to-one tutoring models, retention in grade, pre-first and other extra-year programs, reductions in class size and use of instructional aides, school organizational and curricular changes, and Success for All. These approaches are reviewed in terms of their short and long-term impact on early reading success with disadvantaged or at-risk learners, with uniform procedures and standards applied to each. The synthesis compares alternative approaches to obtaining the same well-defined objective and examines policy implications of educators' increased ability to prevent reading failure.

This project has been completed.

Statement of Finding(s): Prevention of school failure through the elementary grades for most disadvantaged children can be assured through the implementation of effective birth-to-three interventions, effective preschool and kindergarten programs, and effective curriculum and instruction in the elementary grades combined with support services for those children who need them.

Description of Finding(s): This project provides a documented review of the state of the art in prevention and early intervention to prevent failure of students placed at risk. Reviews of the effects of birth-to-three interventions on early school success identify effective practices for children at those ages. A review of preschool effects finds positive outcomes but notes that preschool alone is not sufficient to assure the success of children placed at risk in schools. A review of kindergarten organization and curriculum identifies effective programs. A review of the effects of school and classroom organization in beginning reading examines class size, aides, and instructional grouping. A review of One-to-One tutoring practices finds positive effects across the board for these processes. Finally, a report on the effects of the Success for All Program illustrates the research base which shows this program to be highly effective in preventing early school failure.

Are data from the study available? Yes

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