Educators and researchers have been waging a reading war for the past century. American schools have waged a war on literacy instruction that seesaws from phonology to whole language and, most recently, back to phonology. After reading scores have stagnated in the United States for more than 25 years, policymakers have entered the fray. Over the past decade, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new “science of reading” laws that require schools to use curricula and instructional techniques deemed “evidence-based.”
These reading programs include direct instruction in reading skills such as phonology and finding the main idea of a paragraph, and efforts to accelerate learning tend to double down on the same skill-building exercises. But research increasingly points to another important aspect of literacy: the role of student knowledge. For example, previous research by both of us found that young children's knowledge of their social and physical worlds strongly predicted their academic success in elementary school. And advocates of knowledge-based education often cite so-called “baseball studies” in which students who read passages about baseball understand and summarize the story much better than students who do not. technology.
The knowledge-building reading curriculum is rooted in these insights and uses materials and activities based on a series of integrated science and social studies topics, texts, and vocabulary. However, the potential value of this approach often lags behind in state and local efforts to strengthen reading instruction, and the benefits to students from combining an evidence-based curriculum with systematic efforts to build student knowledge have not yet been rigorously evaluated. It is not properly documented.
We conduct the first experimental study on this topic based on a randomized kindergarten enrollment lottery in nine Colorado charter schools using an interdisciplinary knowledge-based curriculum called Core Knowledge. To assess the long-term impact of knowledge-building curriculum experiences on student learning, we compare third- through sixth-grade statewide test scores between kindergarten lottery winners who attended a core knowledge charter school and lottery winners who failed to enroll.
We found that winning the enrollment lottery and enrolling in a Core Knowledge charter school increased long-term reading achievement in grades 3 through 6 by 16 percentage points compared to similar applicants who did not win the enrollment lottery. The size of this increase is roughly equal to the difference between the average achievement of American 13-year-olds in the 2016 International Study of Reading Progress and that of top-scoring countries such as Singapore and Finland. Our results are also notable in that they contrast with other studies of reading interventions that typically find small, short-term effects.
Students and teachers in many public elementary schools spend up to two hours each day teaching reading. Although the component skills of literacy are critical to student development and learning, our findings point to a missed opportunity to accelerate literacy by simultaneously building knowledge. Skill building and knowledge accumulation are separate but complementary cognitive processes. While the adage “skill begets skill” may be true, a more complete description of cognitive development might be “skill begets skill, knowledge begets knowledge, and skill and knowledge combined beget both.” . .”
Kindergarten Lottery for the “Core Knowledge” Charter
The Core Knowledge Curriculum was created in the 1980s by ED Hirsch, Jr., a researcher and advocate of knowledge-building education. The content and activities follow a planned sequence of knowledge and skills that students must accumulate and master in all academic subjects and arts areas during grades K-8. This “knowledge-based schooling” approach is rooted in the belief that a common foundation of shared knowledge is the foundation not only of individual students’ reading skills, but also of our ability to communicate as a society and promote equality of opportunity. Currently, approximately 1,700 schools across the United States use this curriculum, including more than 50 schools in Colorado.
To evaluate the impact of the Core Knowledge Curriculum on student achievement, we examined nine overpopulated Colorado schools that all used this curriculum, had been open for at least four years, and conducted random enrollment draws to enroll kindergarten students in one or both schools. Take a look at charter schools. School years 2009-10 and 2010-11. Our study included 14 separate lotteries involving 2,310 students, nearly all of whom were from high- or middle-income families.
These families typically have a variety of educational options under Colorado's open enrollment laws, including private schools, other charter schools, and public schools outside of their district. About one in five students in our sample applied to multiple charter lotteries. Usually there were two people instead of one. About 41% had won the lottery at least once, and 47% of winners were enrolled in that school. In total, 475 lottery winners attended Core Knowledge Charters, while 1,356 students attended other schools without winning the lottery. In analyzing the effectiveness of attending the Core Knowledge Charter, we take into account the fact that not all lottery winners actually register.
Consumption and Family Choice
We analyze the performance of lottery applicants based on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARRC) 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade reading and math tests and the 5th grade science PARRC tests. These scores allow you to compare the performance of students who have experienced a knowledge-building curriculum over up to seven years of school with those who have not.
However, approximately 36% of students in our sample did not complete all scheduled PARCC tests by sixth grade, and the dropout rate for students who did not win the enrollment lottery was 5 percentage points higher than for lottery winners. Detailed student data shows three main factors are at play: First, some students stop participating in Colorado's PARCC testing because they move out of state, transfer to another school, or are homeschooled. There is no test score data for the second group of students because they are exempt as language learners or special education students. Third, other students fall out of the expected kindergarten cohort later in life due to delayed kindergarten entry (“redshirting”) or skipping or repeating a grade.
To ensure that this attrition did not skew the results, we excluded from the analysis the four lotteries with the highest attrition rate differences between lottery winners and losers, as well as the youngest applicants who were more likely to be redshirted by their parents. Lottery results. We also adjust results for a student's gender, race or ethnicity, and whether he or she is eligible for free or reduced-price meals to ensure that demographic differences between lottery winners and losers do not introduce bias.