A Follow-Up Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation
of the Effects of Business in the Community's Time to Read
Mentoring Programme (January
2011)
A report by Sarah Miller, Paul Connolly and Lisa Maguire,
commissioned by the Centre for Effective Education, Queen's
University Belfast
The research reported here follows from the 2009 Ten Year Review of
'Time to Read', a programme involving employee volunteers going on
a regular basis into Northern Ireland primary schools to hear
children read. That study showed that 'Time to Read' has a
positive effect in terms of increasing the children's future
aspirations but was unable to find quantitative evidence of
improving other tested outcomes: children's self-esteem, their
enjoyment of education or their reading skills. Applying a
different methodology, this 2011 study, based on a randomised
controlled trial involving 512 children from 50 schools across
Northern Ireland, gives clear evidence that the 'Time to Read'
programme is effective in improving a number of 'foundational'
reading outcomes for children in the intervention group, compared
here to the control group:
- 6 percentile point improvement in decoding skills;
- 9 percentile point improvement in reading rate;
- 6 percentile point improvement in reading fluency.
These results apply regardless of gender, socio-economic status
and previous reading abilities.
The evaluation was unable to show any significant of the
programme on 'higher' reading skills, particularly comprehension,
although it is noted that comprehension development is dependent on
foundational skills such as decoding.
No evidence was found of any differences between the
intervention group and control group in relation to the three
non-reading outcomes tested: enjoyment of reading, confidence and
aspirations for the future. Regarding future aspirations, a similar
positive effect to that found in the original study was affirmed,
if not at a statistically significant, and raising aspiration is
thus recommended for consideration as a secondary outcome, having
much potential to improve attainment in later life. However, the
trial did show that pupil enjoyment and reading fluency increase
with greater programme intensity, and the authors recommend
maintaining two 30-minute sessions of contact time per week as a
minimum. Reading skills and enjoyment of reading were shown in this
evaluation to be unrelated, but further research is called for to
test the hypothesis that increased skills could lead to greater
enjoyment.
The authors conclude that their findings are consistent with a
number of internationally-conducted systematic reviews of other
mentoring programmes, and make a significant contribution to this
evidence base as one of the largest trials of volunteer mentoring
using such a robust methodology.