The Role of Out—of—School Factors in the Literacy Problem

Waldfogel, J. (2012). The role of out-of-school factors in the literacy problem. The Future of Children, 22(2), 39-54.

Background

The researcher reported the existence of weak reading and literacy skills in children even before they enter school. The author asked if the differences may be attributed to out-of school factors such as family and surrounding communities in the United States.

Aims

This study investigated how out-of-school factors contributed to early literacy gaps and the widening of later literacy gaps experienced by children of low socioeconomic status, black and Hispanic children, and children of immigrants in the US.

Sample

The sample population consisted of children from a large, nationally representative study that followed children born in 2001 to school entry.

Method

The researcher reviewed some available studies that identified out-of-school factors related to literacy among children. The data was used to explore the relative importance of parental income, education and parenting on literacy skills.

Findings

The studies in this review emphasized the importance of developing literacy in early childhood and the key role parents play in promoting early literacy. The findings showed that children from families of higher socioeconomic status were more likely than their less advantaged peers to attend summer camps, thus benefiting from these learning and enrichment activities.

On average, it was found that black parents were less communicative with their children and had few reading materials in their homes. On the other hand, for immigrant children, although language was found to be a source of early literacy problems, many of these children were able to improve their literacy skills upon starting school. The improvement in scores was attributed to positive parenting with immigrant parents reporting increased communication and spending more time reading to their children after school.

Implications

The writer believes that out-of-school factors contribute greatly to literacy disparities. This, however, does not relieve schools of the responsibility of helping to close the gaps. Rather, the findings on out-of-school sources of literacy problems should enable practitioners and policy makers to better identify at-risk children and address the problems in the early stages.

Original article retrieved from Proquest.