Results from a Longitudinal Early Literacy Intervention Study: Expected and Unexpected Outcomes.

Abstract

Findings are presented from a two-year longitudinal study involving the Quick60 Foundation programme for beginning readers. This programme is a 32 week whole-class literacy curriculum that systematically and explicitly teaches key early literacy skills. End of Year 2 literacy performances of students receiving this programme during their first year of schooling were compared with students who received “regular” literacy instruction. Participants were in low decile Auckland schools, with large numbers of Maˉori and Pasifika students. At the end of Year 2, Quick60 students outperformed comparison students on reading book level, word knowledge, and reading accuracy; results for reading comprehension were not statistically significant but in the expected direction for Quick60 students. Surprisingly, students from home backgrounds rated by teachers as “normal” did not perform considerably better than students from “difficult” backgrounds. The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of explicit, code-orientated literacy instruction from the outset of schooling.