A Vision for Literacy Why has WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE Hit the Headlines? ‘Something quite remarkable… able to revolutionise an education system’ (Gordon Brown)

A Vision for LiteracyA Vision for Literacy

Why has Why has

WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE

Hit the Headlines?Hit the Headlines?

‘Something quite remarkable… able to revolutionise an education system’

(Gordon Brown)

Tommy MacKayPsychology Consultancy Services

PLEASE NOTE

THIS IS A SHORTENED VERSION OF THE PRESENTATION – ALL OF THE

TEXT IS HERE BUT THE VISUAL SLIDES HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO MAKE THE FILE OF MANAGEABLE

SIZE

Why is literacy so Why is literacy so important?important?1 It’s central to everything in the school

curriculum, so without it you can’t achieve educationally

2 Without educational achievement your life opportunities for employment and most other things are very limited

3 It’s of central importance nationally – illiteracy leads to a weaker economy, to higher crime and to a less stable society.

The national position in The national position in ScotlandScotland

Virtually no education authority in Scotland knows at any stage how many of its children are heading for functional illiteracy

Virtually no education authority in Scotland has any method in place for preventing illiteracy

Eradicating illiteracy: never Eradicating illiteracy: never before achieved anywhere before achieved anywhere in the worldin the world

‘Each year in the UK over 100,000 young people leave school functionally illiterate’ (OECD, 2000; The Basic Skills Agency, 2001)

Most of these young people are in areas of socio-economic disadvantage

West Dunbartonshire is the 2nd most disadvantaged Council area in Scotland and one of the most disadvantaged in the UK

Effects of socio-economic Effects of socio-economic disadvantage disadvantage (MacKay, 1995c)(MacKay, 1995c)

‘The impact of socio-economic disadvantage is experienced literally from the cradle to the grave. It is associated with significantly higher infant mortality rates and significantly lower longevity.

The entire span of life in between is marked by poorer health on virtually every measurable indicator and by a higher incidence of physical and mental disabilities’

SummarySummary If you are poor you are more likely:If you are poor you are more likely:

to die in infancy or childhood to have lower life expectancy to have congenital abnormalities to be disabled to have worse sequelae of serious illnesses to have serious head injuries in childhood to be burned to death to be knocked down and killed

MacKay (1995c)

‘‘The Maryhill factor’The Maryhill factor’

Poverty and educational Poverty and educational achievement (GCSE achievement (GCSE results)results) MacKay (1999d)MacKay (1999d)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Poverty

Achievement

Literacy – why children differ Literacy – why children differ (and what (and what doesn’t doesn’t happen in happen in poor homes)poor homes) (Adams, 1990)(Adams, 1990)

‘Since he was six weeks old, we have spent 30 to 45 minutes reading to him each day. By the time he reaches first grade at age six and a quarter, that will amount to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of storybook reading – one to one, with his face in the books. He will also have spent more than 1,000 hours watching “Sesame Street”.

And he will have spent at least as many hours fooling around with magnetic letters on the refrigerator, writing, participating in reading/writing/language activities in pre-school, playing word and “spelling” games in the car, on the computer, with us, with his sister, with his friends, and by himself’

West Dunbartonshire’s West Dunbartonshire’s socio-economic profilesocio-economic profile

EAST DUNBARTON

78

6.67

180

77

DRUG ABUSE(new patients/100,000)

MALE MORTALITY(age 45-64/1,000)

MORTALITY(all <65/1000,000)

LIFE EXPECTANCY(male)

WEST DUNBARTON

384

13.2

350

70.7*

*of which, 48 are healthy

Where it all began…Where it all began… The purpose of this paper is to offer a

proposal for achieving something that has not been done before, but which I believe to be fully achievable…

Unless the council is willing to risk a commitment to achieving the impossible it is limited to only ever achieving the ordinary and the possible… There can be nothing to lose

(paper to West Dunbartonshire, 1996)

Largest literacy study Largest literacy study in the worldin the world

33,465 individual tests

30,098 group tests

Total research sample: 63,563

Longest literacy study Longest literacy study in the worldin the world

Commitment from Council to run project for 10 years until research complete

Commenced: August 1997 Completed: June 2007

Most ambitious literacy Most ambitious literacy study in the worldstudy in the world

‘a vision for transforming reading standards for all children’

‘a total commitment to achieving extraordinary results’

‘something that has never been done in the world before’

‘the vision will be regarded as impossible... because no one has ever done it before’

to eradicate illiteracy in 10 years

…back to before the beginning

The Edinbarnet Playground Project

(Briggs, MacKay & Miller, 1995)

Raising children’s self-esteem and changing their attitudes to their own behaviour and

to respecting others

The results…The results…

school transformed

still transformed 2 years later

‘Before this I used to believe that nothing could be done…now for the first time I see that these children can really change’

(Shona Carmichael, Head Teacher)

The Edinbarnet

Reading Project(MacKay, 1995, 1999)

A 10-week groupwork programme to change children’s attitudes to their reading

LITERACY - ATTITUDE CHANGE AND RAISING SELF-ESTEEM

Results of 10-week intervention (P4, P5)

Gains in reading accuracy

Mean 12.75 months Range 6-21 months

Gains in reading comprehension

Mean 18.25 months Range 3-30 months

(MacKay, 1995, 1999b, 1999d)

The Edinbarnet Early Reading Project

‘Literacy, social disadvantage and early intervention: enhancing reading achievement in

primary school’(MacKay & Watson, 1999)

A multiple-strategy intervention – 90 children in two matched primaries, 1 experimental, 1 control

Basic principles of West Basic principles of West Dunbartonshire projectDunbartonshire project

1 To raise achievement and reduce the numbers failing in reading through the early intervention programme

2 To support those continuing to fail through intensive individual tuition

Building a research Building a research basebaseThe main study

– cross-lagged cohort study, 35 primaries, 23 nurseries

The synthetic phonics study– quasi-experimental study, 18 primaries

The attitudes study– randomised control trial (follow up), N=24, 1

primaryThe declaration study

– quasi-experimental study, 6 nurseries, 6 primariesThe individual support study

– quasi-experimental study, 1 secondary + gains score study 35 primaries

THE MAIN STUDY

Phonological Phonological awareness Pre-5awareness Pre-5

1997

Mean 14

2007

Mean 28

Effect size: 1.61 0

10

20

30

1997 2007

Combined early Combined early literacy skills P1literacy skills P1

1997

Mean 27

2007

Mean 74

Effect size: 2.26 01020304050607080

1997 2007

Word Reading P2Word Reading P2

1997

Mean 24 words

2007

Mean 40 words

Effect size: 1.15 0

10

20

30

40

50

1997 2007

Word Reading P2 - Word Reading P2 - Very high scoresVery high scores1997

5%

2007

47% 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

1997 2007

Have we transformed Have we transformed reading achievement?reading achievement?

Where would the ‘average’ Where would the ‘average’ 1997 child score in 2007?1997 child score in 2007?

P2 Word ReadingBottom 10%

Pre-5 Rhyme ProductionBottom 9%

P1 Letter SoundsBottom 1%

THE SYNTHETIC PHONICS STUDY

Primary 1 classes in

9 experimental, 9 control schools

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1

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3

4

5

6

7

1997 1998

Experimentals Controls

P1 Baseline Assessments

Synthetic phonics v controls

Non-word Reading Test

The effect of synthetic The effect of synthetic phonics 4 years laterphonics 4 years later

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Preschool1997 (Exper. &

controls)

P4 2002Controls

P4 2002Experimentals

Nu

mb

er

of

child

ren

Quartiles 1 & 2

Quartiles 3 & 4

THE ATTITUDES STUDY

What happen if you change children’s attitudes to reading?

The attitudes The attitudes study: 5-year follow study: 5-year follow up up (N=22)(N=22)

8

9

10

11

Accuracy Comprehension

ExperimentalsControls

Reading Age(Years)

10y5m

9y2m

11y1m

10y3m

THEDECLARATION STUDY

We want to do We want to do something that’s never something that’s never been done beforebeen done before

To raise children’s reading levels by doing nothing different from what we were already doing, except…

…getting them to declare that they will do it

The power of The power of declarationdeclaration

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5

6

7

8

Letter names Word reading

ExperimentalsControls

Declaration Declaration study: attitude study: attitude changechange

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Positive Negative

ExperimentalsControls

Declaration: its Declaration: its attractiveness as an attractiveness as an interventionintervention simple to the point of naivety

fits the curriculum - no need to change

anybody can do it

children enjoy it

teachers enjoy it

What the children What the children rememberedremembered I like books, books are fun

We’ll all be great wee readers when we go to school I can read by myself - I’m going to be a good reader Reading is great - let’s celebrate Books and school - are cool I will read my work very well I will do my sums very well today ‘Yes - I’m getting better: we’re doing more than we normally would’

THE INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT STUDY

‘…a decade and we can end illiteracy’

- Headline from Times Educational Supplement, 2007

Word Reading P2 - Word Reading P2 - High and low scoresHigh and low scores1997

Low 11%

High 32%

2007

Low 0.5%

High 78%0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

1997 2007

Low 0-6 High 30+

Toe-by-Toe study Toe-by-Toe study (secondary)(secondary)N=24 (12 matched pairs)N=24 (12 matched pairs)

7

8

9

10

11

12

Pre Post

ExperimentalsControls

Experimentals gained 2 years with a 3 month intervention

ReadingAge

(Years)

The intensive The intensive individual support individual support programmeprogramme 104 children from 32 schools (mainly

Primary 7) All had difficulties with their reading Intensive help 20 minutes a day, 5 days a

week In less than 6 months the average gain in

reading age was 1 year 2 months By the time of the 2nd test, one-third of the

children did not have a ‘reading problem’

Why we believed Why we believed we’d succeedwe’d succeed

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Before After

Rate of progress

Achieving the Achieving the impossible: the impossible: the eradication of illiteracyeradication of illiteracy At the start of the project in 1997

hundreds of our children (over 20%) were leaving secondary school ‘functionally illiterate’

The number on our ‘concern list’ on 1 June 2007 was 3.

Content variablesContent variables‘The 10 strands’‘The 10 strands’

phonological awareness and the alphabet a strong and structured phonics emphasis extra classroom help in early years fostering a ‘literacy environment’ in school and

community raising teacher awareness through assessment increased time spent on key aspects of reading early identification of children who are failing lessons from research on interactive learning home support for encouraging literacy changing attitudes, values and expectations

The context The context variablesvariables(MacKay, 2001, 2006; Greig, Taylor & MacKay, (MacKay, 2001, 2006; Greig, Taylor & MacKay, 2007)2007)

VISION

PROFILE

COMMITMENT

OWNERSHIP

DECLARATION

One of many reasons One of many reasons we need vision and we need vision and commitmentcommitment

During the project West Dunbartonshire had:

6 changes of Director of Education 3 changes of Education Officer

responsible for project 3 changes of Project Leader 90% change of staff in specialist early

intervention team 5 changes of Council Leader 4 major political upheavals in Council.

Social impact: what would Social impact: what would be the effects of be the effects of improving literacy?improving literacy?

higher self-esteem

lower disruption in schools

better school ethos

better staff morale

economic savings lower crime a more skilled

workforce a stronger

economy

And finally…And finally…What does it mean to the What does it mean to the individual?individual? ‘I love it because it makes me learn by

reading better. It’s just getting easy. I love doing it every day’ (Sophie, P6, Our Lady of Loretto)

‘I love to read and spell. My teachers have taught me so well that I have been warped into the thought of becoming a writer myself’ (Aimee, P6, Dalreoch)

‘Our learning has really encouraged me to read a lot. With all of our teachers helping us I think we can all accomplish anything’ (Gary, P6, Dalreoch)

The ultimate aim: The ultimate aim: changing children’s liveschanging children’s lives

‘When all this started I couldn’t read. I was a failure. Now I have a cupboardful of books at home. My favourite authors are Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling.

NOW I AM A SUCCESS.’

Kathleen (S2, Braidfield High School)

Research reports Research reports available:available:[email protected]

Phase 1 Report (the main report) – only available to order in hard copy

Final Report: ‘Achieving the Vision’ – a full summary of the entire 10-year study, available free electronically

Other enquiries: [email protected]