Parental, administrative support breeds academic success
“Obviously well-educated parents tend to buy lots of books, tend to engage in activities with their kids tend to read to them, do literacy tasks and numeracy tasks,” adds Dr. Martin.
“Those kids, when they begin school, are able to do these things. They know what a book is, they can do their ABC’s, they can read, even when they start. And of course, that’s a huge, huge boost to their achievement in school. They never lose that advantage, they start school with an advantage and they never lose it. So we were digging into how that advantage comes about. What the mechanism of this is. It all starts at home and this isn’t news, but the amount of data that we have on how it works I think is new.”
The release notes that more than half of the 3thirty-four participating countries were able to get 90 percent or more of fourth grade students to a basic level of proficiency in reading, math, and science (though the United States was not included in this study, 98 percent of fourth graders reached basic proficiency in reading in 2011, 96 percent in math and science) while five countries saw 35 percent of their students reach a high level of achievement in those subject areas.
“For many years we’ve known that kids from homes of educated parents, with lots of reading materials will do better in school in the fourth grade,” says Dr. Martin. “But we have really good data at TIMSS and PIRLS, reports from parents, about not only on the materials they have in the home but the literacy activities they engage their children with — numerous activities — and their estimate of just how competent the kids were in being able to read and write, and do basic things when they began primary school. And then from an assessment result we have what they can do in the fourth grade.”
The study also underscored the across the board advantages of being a better reader.
“The effect of concentrating on these literacy activities also enhanced student achievement in mathematics and science,” says Dr. Mullis. “We found that as the amount of reading increased, the students who weren’t very good readers had more and more difficulty with the math and science items. Reading is crucial to success in school. It’s the glue that’s holding it together. ”
