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Bridging the Discontinuity in Adolescent Literacy? Mixed Evidence from a Middle Grades Intervention

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  • Shaun M. Dougherty

    (Neag School of Education University of Connecticut)

Abstract

Strong literacy skills are crucial to ensuring an individual's future educational and economic success. Existing evidence suggests the transition from elementary to middle school is a decisive period for literacy development. In this paper I investigate the impact of extended learning time in literacy instruction on subsequent cognitive outcomes. I capitalize on the existence of a natural experiment born out of a district's use of an exogenously- determined cutoff in Iowa Test scores in fifth grade to assign students to an additional literacy course in middle school. My findings suggest that exposure to this intervention generates strong negative impacts for black students, and noisy positive impacts for white, Latino, and Asian students. My findings suggest that additional literacy instruction in middle school can have markedly different effects on students, and program differentiation or augmentation may be necessary to prevent harm for students of average literacy ability in fifth grade. © 2015 Association for Education Finance and Policy

Suggested Citation

  • Shaun M. Dougherty, 2015. "Bridging the Discontinuity in Adolescent Literacy? Mixed Evidence from a Middle Grades Intervention," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(2), pages 157-192, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:10:y:2015:i:2:p:157-192
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    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00157
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Qiang Feng & Ming Li & Guangrong Ma, 2018. "Class Tracks And Education Outcomes: Evidence From A Chinese University," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(2), pages 255-262, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    literacy; education; economic; success; extended learning time; cognitive; fifth grade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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