G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

1. EVIDENCE-BASED READING INSTRUCTION:The Critical Role of Scientific Research in Teaching Children, Empowering Teachers, and Moving Beyond the “Either-Or Box” G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health Lyonr@mail.nih.gov

2. READING FAILURE: AN 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. READING PROFICIENCY IN 2004 • HOW ARE WE DOING IN THE UNITED STATES? • DO MORE STUDENTS HAVE GREATER DIFFICULTIES LEARNING TO READ TODAY THAN: 10 YEARS AGO? 20 YEARS AGO? 30 YEARS AGO?

4. Long Term Trends in Reading Achievement From the National Assessment of Educational Progress

5. 27 63 58 60 26 Right now, all over the United States, we are leaving too many children behind in reading And, a large share of those children come from poor and minority homes Percent of Students Performing Below Basic Level - 37% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 White Black Hispanic Poor Non-poor

6. “Current difficulties in reading largely originate from rising demands for literacy, not from declining absolute levels of literacy” Report of the National Research Council

7. MAJOR SOURCES OF READING FAILURE • Socioeconomic Factors – Poverty • Biological Factors – Genetics and Neurobiology • Instructional Factors - Predominate

8. 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

9. Some Myths About Interventions for Struggling Readers • Learning to Read is a Natural Process • Children who Struggle to Learn To Read in the Early Grades Will “Catch Up” If You give Them Time • Children are Either Auditory or Visual Learners and Should Be Taught to Read Accordingly • Theories of “Multiple Intelligences” or “Learning Styles” Can Help Us Adapt Our Reading Instruction to the Needs of Different Children • Quality Time With an Enthusiastic Volunteer Tutor Can Solve Most Children’s Reading Difficulties

10. BUT, RISING NEEDS FOR HIGH LEVELS OF LITERACY… • Demand That We Break the Mold of Past Performance!!! • We Must Do Better Than Has Ever Been Done Before!!! • THIS WIL NOT BE EASY!!!!!!!!

11. What makes us think we can do better? • We now have substantial converging scientific evidence about: • How children learn to read • Why some children have difficulty • How to prevent and remediate reading difficulties • Federal funding for the prevention and remediation of reading failure has increased significantly

12. What makes us think we can do better? • There is an emphasis on accountability: • We use assessments to tell us how well students are reading • We use assessment data to inform instruction • We have many examples of schools that beat the odds in reading achievement when valid assessments and evidence-based instruction are provided

13. What makes us think we can do better? • We are shifting from grounding educational practices and policies in political and philosophical contexts to basing instruction on the attitudes and values of science • We are relying on scientific criteria for the evaluation of knowledge claims: • Peer Reviewed Publication • Replication (Convergence) • Scientific Consensus

14. Scientific Research • A process of rigorous reasoning based on interactions among theories methods, and findings; • Builds on understanding derived from the objective testing of models or theories; • Accumulation of scientific knowledge is laborious, plodding, and indirect; • Scientific knowledge is developed and honed through critique contested findings, replication, and convergence; • Scientific knowledge is developed through sustained efforts; • Scientific inquiry must be guided by fundamental principles.

15. Reading Research is Not an Either-Or Proposition • THE SCIENTIFIC QUALITY OF A STUDY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHETHER IT EMPLOYS QUANTITATIVE OR QUALITATIVE DESIGNS AND METHODS • A QUALITY RESEARCH PROGRAM REFLECTS A DIMENSION OF INQUIRY FROM DESCRIPTION THROUGH CONFIRMATION

16. Reading Research is Not an Either-Or Proposition • Designs and methods are selected to permit direct investigation of the question • The trustworthiness of any study is predicated on: • The appropriateness of the design and methods to address the specific questions • The scientific rigor with which the design and method are applied

17. Reading Research is Not an Either-Or Proposition The Majority of NICHD Supported Studies Include BOTH Quantitative and Qualitative Designs and Methods

18. An Examination of the Social and Cultural Influences on Adolescent Literacy Development Elizabeth Birr Moje Jacquelynne Eccles Pamela Davis-Kean Helen Watt Paul Richardson University of Michigan

19. Surveys Interviews Diary Studies Observation Assessments Interviews Observation Motivations & Expectancies Literacy Skills in Context Examination of Social and Cultural Influences on Adolescent Literacy Development Out-of-School Engagements Transfer Across Contexts Observation Interviews Textual Analyses Assessments Observation Interviews Experimental Tasks

20. Summary of Scientific Criteria A study is deemed to be “scientific” when: • There are a clear set of testable questions underlying the design; • The methods are appropriate to answer the questions and falsify competing hypotheses and answers; • The study is explicitly linked to theory and previous research; • The data are analyzed systematically and with the appropriate tools; • The data are made available for review and criticism.

21. HOW WAS THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OBTAINED AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS? A Commitment to Focus on Four Research Questions: • How Do Children Learn to Read? • Why Do Some Children Have Difficulties Learning To Read? • How Can Reading Failure Be Prevented? • How Can Persistent Reading Difficulties be Remediated?

22. THE NICHD SCIENTIFIC INVESTMENT in READING – K-6 • 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: 22 • Current Prevention/Intervention Trials 12 • Schools Currently Participating: 266 • Classrooms Currently Participating: 985 • Classroom Teachers Participating: 1,012 • Annual Research Budget: $ 60 Million

23. NICHD Reading Research Program Univ of Massachusetts Rayner Loyola Univ/Chicago Morrison Syracuse Univ Blachman University of Washington Berninger Boy’s Town Smith Children’s Hospital/ Harvard LDRC Waber Tufts Wolf Mayo Clinic Kalusic Toronto Lovett SUNY Albany Vellutino Emerson Coll Aram San Luis Ebispo Lindamood/Bell Univ of Southern California Manis/Seidenberg UC Irvine Filipek Univ of California --San Diego, Salk Institute Bellugi Beth Israel Galaburda Yale Univ Shaywitz Haskins Labs Fowler/Liberman Johns Hopkins Denckla D.C./Houston Foorman/Moats Georgetown Univ Eden Bowman Gray Wood Georgia State R. Morris Univ of Georgia Hynd U of Florida Alexander/Conway U of Houston Francis Colorado LDRC Defries Yale Methodology Fletcher Florida State Torgesen/Wagner Univ of Texas Med Ctr Foorman/Fletcher Univ of Missouri Geary Southern Illinois U Moltese NICHD Sites Univ of Arkansas-Med Ctr Dykman

24. The NICHD/OSERS/OVAE Scientific Investment Grades 7-12Adolescent Literacy Network Funded in 2004, will study >12,700 students across five projects Elizabeth Birr Moje: University of Michigan – Social and Cultural Influences on Adolescent Development and Literacy Bennett Shaywitz: Yale University – Adolescent Literacy: Classification, Mechanism, and Outcomes James McPartland: Johns Hopkins University – Supporting Teachers to Close Adolescent Literacy Gaps Laurie Cutting: Kennedy Krieger Institute – Cognitive and Neural Process in Reading Comprehension Hollis Scarborough: Haskins Labs – Adolescent Reading Programs : Behavioral and Neural Effects

25. The NICHD/IES Scientific Investment:English Language Learners • 80 Research Sites in 12 States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico • Children Studied: ~ 9,000 • Scientific Investment: ~ $32 Million Dollars over five years Dr. David Francis: University of Houston Dr. Diane August: Center for Applied Linguistics Dr. Carol Hammer: Pennsylvania State University Dr. Mark Innocenti: Utah State University Dr. Kim Lindsey: University of Southern California Dr. Alexandra Gottarda: Grand Valley State University

26. The NICHD/NIFL/OVAEScientific InvestmentAdult Literacy Network • 80 Research Sites in 16 States • Adults to be screened: 73,000 Adults to be studied: > 3,800 • Scientific Investment: > $18.5 Million Dollars over five years • Daphne Greenberg: Georgia State University, Research on Reading Instruction for Low Literate Adults • Susan Levy: University of Illinois, Testing Impact of Health Literacy in Adult Literacy and Integrated Family Approach Programs • Daryl Mellard: University of Kansas – Lawrence, Improving Literacy Instruction for Adults • John Sabatini: Educational Testing Services, Relative Effectiveness of Reading Programs for Adults • Frank Wood: Wake Forest University of the Health Sciences, Young Adult Literacy Problems: Prevalence and Treatment • Richard Venezky: University of Delaware, Building a Knowledge Base for Teaching Adult Decoding

27. The NICHD/OSEP/HHS Scientific Investment: Early Childhood and School Readiness • WHICH EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS OR PROGRAM COMPONENTS ALONG WITH INTERACTIONS WITH ADULTS AND PEERS ARE EFFECTIVE FOR PROMOTING EARLY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT: • FOR WHICH CHILDREN • UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS

28. The NICHD/OSEP/HHSScientific Investment:Early Childhood andSchool Readiness Network Annual Research Budget: $7.5 Million Dr. Karen Berman: Penn State U. Dr. John Fantuzzo: U. Pennsylvania Dr. Carollee Howes: UCLA Dr. Janis Kupersmidt: UNC-Chapel Hill Dr. Samuel Odom: Indiana U. Dr. Robert Pianta: U. of Virginia Dr. Cybelle Raver: U. of Chicago Dr. Susan Sheridan: U. of Nebraska

29. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN TO READ? • Critical Language and Literacy Interactions from Birth Onward • Phonemic Awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Reading Comprehension Strategies

30. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN TO READ? EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY INTERACTIONS

31. Language

32. Hart and Risley (1995) conducted a longitudinal study of children and families from three groups: • Professional families • Working-class families • Families on welfare

33. Interactions Hart & Risley compared the mean number of interactions initiated per hour in each of the three groups.

34. Interactions Hart & Risley also compared the mean number of minutes of interaction per hour in the three groups.

35. Differences in exposure to words over the course of one year Children in Professional Families -- 11 million Children in Working-Class Families -- 6 million Children in Welfare Families -- 3 million

36. Cumulative Language Experiences

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

38. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN TO READ ? PHONEMIC AWARENESS

39. What is Phonological Awareness?

40. Phonological awareness involves the understanding that spoken words are composed of segments of sound smaller than a syllable. It also involves the ability to notice, think about, or manipulate the individual sounds in words.

41. Why is phonological awareness important in learning to read?

42. It helps children understand the alphabetic principle Children must understand that the words in their oral language are composed of small segments of sound in order to comprehend the way that language is represented by print. Without at least emergent levels of phonemic awareness, the rationale for learning individual letter sounds, and “sounding out” words is not understandable.

43. Growth in “phonics” ability of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge (Torgesen & Mathes, 2000) Low Average Reading Grade Level Grade level corresponding to age

44. Growth in word reading ability of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge(Torgesen & Mathes, 2000) Low Average Reading grade level 1 2 3 4 5 Grade level corresponding to age

45. Growth in reading comprehension of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge(Torgesen & Mathes, 2000) Low Average Reading Grade Level Same verbal ability – very different Reading Comprehension Grade level corresponding to age

46. Mean Effect Sizes Produced by Phonemic Awareness Instruction on Reading Outcomes (Ehri, 2004) Characteristics Effect Size Of Reading Outcomes Phonemic Awareness .86* Word Reading .46* Pseudo Word Reading .52* Spelling .59* Comprehension .34* Math .15

47. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN TO READ? PHONICS (PHONEMIC DECODING )

48. 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

49. Connecticut Longitudinal Study (Shaywitz et al.) • The next slide shows correlations over time between the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Passage Comprehension Scores and WRMT Decoding composite (Letter Word and Word Attack) scores • The CLS sample is an epidemiologic sample from Connecticut, largely white, middle to upper income children (Shaywitz, et al., 1990) with very low attrition (over 90% retention through Grade 9)