Stemming the tide of illiteracy
Editor's Column from Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Winter 2010-11 issue

At long last, instead of being one of the most retrograde examples of the failure of public education, Louisiana can boast having produced the single most effective family literacy program in the country. After two decades of field testing, development and implementation, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has published the long-term impact study of PRIME TIME on at-risk children's educational progress, titled Stemming the Tide of Intergenerational Illiteracy: A Ten-Year Impact Study of PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME®. This 10-year study shows the unprecedented and sustained impact eight to ten years after a child graduates from PRIME TIME in virtually every grade from third through high school.

It would have been impressive enough if PRIME TIME had enrolled half of a sample group of students and our half outperformed their peers. But think of how extraordinary it is that we engaged a disproportionate percentage of at-risk children, the bottom 25 percent, and THAT group outperformed the control group! Not only did our students outperform in the expected areas of language arts skills and reading, but across the board, including mathematics, physical science, life science, algebra, number and number relations, geometry, etc. In other words, PRIME TIME not only impacts reading, it impacts ALL dimensions of learning, or as we have maintained: "creates the precondition for all future learning!"

Preemptive solution to a problem
Originally, PRIME TIME was developed by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in 1991 to reach low-literacy families who are typically underserved or never served by humanities organizations, and for which most programming is predicated on literacy, because those institutional partners-universities, libraries, museums, public television and radio, historical and cultural agencies-all have literate constituencies. Following my directing the first statewide conference on literacy in 1990, after nearly five years of field testing, a turnkey family literacy program targeting at-risk families with 6-10 year old children was developed and launched statewide in 1995, and then nationally in 1998. Since 1991 PRIME TIME has enrolled more than 40,000 at-risk children and their parents/guardians in more than 1,000 programs in every parish in Louisiana and in 38 other states.

Its objective was to intervene and reverse the persistent statewide pattern of intergenerational illiteracy by transforming the family into a learning environment bonded around the act of reading together. However, in the course of nearly 20 years of implementation, PRIME TIME has accomplished something even greater-it changed lives and life trajectories of at-risk children. In so doing, it intended to significantly impact and improve student learning.

In short, PRIME TIME was created as a preemptive approach to addressing the problem of intergenerational illiteracy before it becomes an irreversible problem.

Effecting measurable results
The purpose of this "impact study" was to determine quantitatively the effects of PRIME TIME programs on student achievement. Using a longitudinal analysis, the study shows that participants engaged in the PRIME TIME program perform at a higher level on achievement tests than non-participants, and that the level of achievement is statistically significant on numerous grade-level variables as well as above the national norm. Furthermore, while PRIME TIME targets students and their families in the early elementary years, first through fourth grades, this study shows the continued impact on student performance of PRIME TIME participants one to eight years post-engagement, and through the Graduate Exit Exam (GEE).

There is statistical evidence, based on the analyses of the study, that students who participate in the PRIME TIME program during their early elementary years performed at a higher level on grade-level content areas of LEAP, iLEAP, and GEE. Students who participated had mean performance scores and sub-scores that were consistently higher in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and high school. This study revealed that student performance was consistently higher than national norms in grades 3 and 5 as measured by Norm Curve Equivalents in reading, language, and mathematics, and grade 6 in reading.

Because the human consequence is so great, PRIME TIME will continue to monitor closely its impact on the educational progress of its target audience of at-risk children and their parents/guardians. It is our hope that in the future we will prove sufficiently effective to become unnecessary.

—Michael Sartisky, Ph.D., Editor-In-Chief