GROUP-CENTERED PREVENTION
Follow us!
  • Home
  • About
  • Teaching Reading
  • Reading Blog
  • Books
  • Reading News

Reading Failure is a Mental Health Problem

3/16/2017

0 Comments

 
Reading failure is not just a school problem.  It is also a mental health problem; research shows that reading failure can lead to depressive symptoms (Maughan et al. 2003).  Reading failure has also been linked to bullying, violence, and crime.  The Department of Education states that 85% of juveniles (teens) going through the juvenile court system are “functionally illiterate” because they cannot read or read very poorly.  The Department of Education also found that 70% of adult inmates in American prisons are unable to read above the fourth-grade level.  In the same study, the Department of Education states that 21% of the general adult population can only read at or below fifth-grade level (National Center for Adult Literacy, 2007).  The Nation’s Report Card (2009), which has been tracking reading failure for the past 23 years stated that 90% of students who dropped out of school, dropped out because they were failing in reading.  The National Center for Educational Statistics (2016) stated that 40% of graduating high school seniors in 2015 that received diplomas and participated in graduation ceremonies were not prepared for college because of poor reading ability.  The Nation’s Report Card (2015) posted that only 36% of fourth grade students, 34% of eighth grade students, and only 37% of 12th grade students scored  as proficient or above in reading on recent reading tests.  Students are labeled as proficient when they can read at or above grade level. 
 
The need for an effective method for teaching reading is well substantiated.  The National Reading Panel (2000) evaluated over 100,000 reading studies and concluded that the “whole language” method that we are using in public school is the wrong way to teach children to read.  Even blended methods and so called Reading Recovery have been proven not to work (Yoncheva et al. 2015).  We are still using these ineffective methods 17 years later; even though there are several effective research-proven methods that actually work.  Why won’t the schools change?
​
0 Comments

After-School Programs: Do They Work?

3/16/2017

0 Comments

 
About 8 million students in the United States attend a supervised program after they leave school (Durlak et al., 2010).  These after-school programs range from homework assistance, to organized recreational games, to specific academically-oriented skills-training, and to prevention activities.  The United States government spends approximately $1 billion annually to support after-school programs (US Department of Education, 2009).  Research substantiates that children can receive both academic and psychological benefits from such group prevention programs.  Yet, most after-school programs do not lead to academic success, help improve student grades, or prevent students from failing. 

To improve program quality, it is important to move beyond after-school programs that serve as child care facilities or recreation centers, or that measure success only by attendance figures.  Attendance neither assures success nor measures a program's quality.  Engagement, not attendance, leads to successful outcomes and program quality.  Engagement incorporates both the motivation to get involved as well as active interaction and cognitive involvement.  Research does not show that simply offering a wide variety of activities increases program quality.  Staff training has also not led to improvement in program quality, even when training hours were increased.  Evidence-based programs also do not guarantee program quality either, since poor implementation can obstruct the benefits of an evidence-based program. 

For more information on how to develop after-school programs that do improve academic performance, see my book:
Picture
0 Comments

    Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph.D.

    Elaine is a program designer with many years of experience helping at-risk children learn to read. She earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Counseling) from the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

    if you teach a child to read, you can change the world.

    Copyright 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Elaine Clanton Harpine 

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.