Education Week - September 21, 2022 - 5

city-specific [education] policies, so
it's just really difficult to ascertain
what is it that makes cities different, "
Hovanetz said.
Later this fall, NAEP plans to release
test results from its main reading and
math assessments in grades 4 and 8.
These results will show national data,
but also break out scores by state and
for city districts that are part of the
Trial Urban District Assessment, or
TUDA. They could show some of the
patterns in more detail.
Nevertheless, claims that specific
policy decisions in one state or district
caused lower or higher scores often
rest on a shaky foundation. NAEP
data can show where scores are going
up or down, but the test can't say why.
In general, it's hard to link certain
pandemic policies to these overall results,
said West, of NAGB. That hasn't
stopped commentators from offering
theories based on other research.
For example, studies show a link
between remote instruction and the
widening of achievement gaps. But
the pandemic also brought mental
health challenges for children, parents
lost their jobs, and many kids had
family members die from the virus. " I
don't think these data can tell us much
about which of these pathways were
most important, " West said.
Hastily stood-up virtual learning
programs, illness, parental job loss:
" There's lots of reasons to think all of
those things matter, " Reardon agreed.
5. Where do schools go from
here?
In a statement following the data's
release, U.S. Secretary of Education
Miguel Cardona said that the longterm
trend results should " serve as a
further call to action " for states and
districts to use COVID-relief funding
" quickly, effectively, and on strategies
we know work. " School systems have
to use the funds by the end of 2024.
District leaders say that they need
more time-that extending the deadline
for spending these funds would
allow them to continue providing academic
recovery support for longer.
In a recent survey from AASA, the
School Superintendents' Association,
many district leaders said that the
2024 deadline would require them
to cut staff and end academic enrichment
programs like summer learning
that could have otherwise continued.
Hovanetz, of ExcelinEd, believes
schools may need to retool their central
instructional approach. She noted again
that NAEP scores had been flat even before
the pandemic. " Whatever you're
going to be doing now shouldn't be a
quick fix remedy, it should be a change
in the core of how you're doing things. "
Even school districts that are trying
to make these kinds of changes have
struggled.
For instance, some systems have
embraced the idea of accelerated
learning-helping students access
grade-level work by backfilling missed
content and skills as needed, rather
than going back to remediate entire
grades worth of work. But leaders say
adopting this approach in a school system
that hasn't used it before requires
teacher training and planning time to
make it successful.
WHAT THE
RESEARCH SAYS
Can a TV Show Really Help Kids Develop Reading Skills?
What a New Study Says
By Sarah Schwartz
For decades, television shows have helped
young children practice their ABCs and 1-2-3s.
From " The Electric Company " to " Sesame
Street " to " Between the Lions, " research
has shown that educational programs can
effectively teach kids the foundations of literacy
and numeracy, like recognizing letters and
sounds and how numbers represent quantity.
Now, a new study finds that educational
television can teach young children more
complex reading skills, too-skills that could
help set them up for greater success in a
school setting.
The paper, from researchers at SRI Education
and the Education Development Center,
examines one TV program's effectiveness at
teaching children about informational text. The
term refers to nonfiction books and articles,
but also a host of other sources with distinct
purposes and text features-like reference
books, recipes, or lectures.
The particular show studied in the paper, a
program on PBS called " Molly of Denali, " was
designed to teach children how to understand
and use these kinds of informational texts.
And the researchers found that it was
effective: 1st graders who were assigned
to watch the show and play related digital
games were better able to use informational
text to answer questions and solve what the
researchers call " real-world problems " than
students in a control group.
Building information literacy early can help
lay the foundation for work that students do in
school-but also, for skills they'll eventually use
throughout their life, said Shelley Pasnik, a senior
vice president at the Education Development
Center, and a co-author on the study.
" When students do not have a good
foundation in informational text, they are less
likely to succeed academically and also to be
able to engage in these very practical ways-to
know how a caption conveys information, or
map reading, " she said. " Just all the ways that
one might navigate in life-that's missed. "
The study also suggests the potential for
educational media to teach beyond foundational
skills, as many school systems have turned
to shows, games, and apps as lifelines during
COVID-related school disruptions.
Why reading informational text requires
different skills than fiction
Over the past decade, schools faced pressure
to ramp up the amount of informational text
included in the curriculum-a trend that
can be traced back to the introduction of the
Common Core State Standards in 2010.
The shared standards, at one point adopted
by 46 states and the District of Columbia,
called for elementary students to read an
even mix of fiction and informational texts
across subjects, and for high schoolers to read
70 percent nonfiction. As Education Week
reported in 2012, the Common Core's authors
shaped this recommendation in response to
concerns from employers and universities
that students didn't have the skills or
knowledge to analyze arguments or parse
complex information.
More recently, informational text has
become a key component of what has come
to be known as the " science of reading. "
In response to research showing that
students can understand text better when
they have background knowledge about
the subject, some advocates have pushed
for knowledge-building curricula: English/
language arts programs that aim to help
students develop a deep understanding of
certain topics-like ancient cultures, the systems
of the body, or the Civil Rights Movement-while
also teaching literacy skills.
But reading a nonfiction book, or looking up
information in reference material, is different
from reading a narrative story. Informational
text has different features, like topic headings,
indices, and graphs. The language can also be
more technical and subject-specific. Students
have to be taught how to navigate these
features and how to gain information from
them, said Pasnik.
That's what the TV show in the study, " Molly
of Denali, " aims to do. The program is about
Molly, a 10-year-old Alaskan Native girl, who
goes on adventures and tries to solve problems
in her community. Along the way, she uses
different kinds of informational text, like field
guides, maps, and informational websites.
The show, developed under a federal Ready
to Learn grant, is designed to meet learning
goals that are aligned to the Common Core
State Standards.
In the two studies described in this paper,
263 1st grade children from low-income
families were randomly assigned to one of two
groups. In the treatment group, parents were
given a tablet loaded with " Molly of Denali "
episodes and educational games. They were
told to have their children use these materials
at least one hour per week.
Parents in the control group were also
given an internet-enabled tablet, but instead
were told to have their children use it for
" educational purposes " for at least one hour
per week. (On these tablets, access to " Molly of
Denali " was blocked.)
After nine weeks, students were assessed
on their ability to use informational text to
answer questions or solve problems. Students
in the group that watched " Molly of Denali "
outperformed students in the control group.
The difference was equivalent to the amount
of reading skill a typical 1st grade student
develops over three months, said Pasnik.
These effects held regardless of students'
gender, parent income, parent education, or
ethnicity, though older 1st graders benefitted
less from the intervention than younger 1st
graders. The second study replicated these
same conditions with a broader geographic
sample, and saw the same findings.
Children varied in how much they used the
tablets at home, and how often they watched
the show and played the games. The researchers
found a correlation between time spent on the
videos, specifically, and achievement scores
on the assessment: Students in the treatment
group that spent more time watching the show
had higher post-test scores.
Districts should develop a 'curatorial list' of
educational media, expert says
The study doesn't examine what, exactly,
made " Molly of Denali " effective. But there
are general best practices for educational
media, Pasnik said.
To start with, a show needs to have characters
and a plot that are actually engaging for
children-a story built on " imagination and
authenticity, " Pasnik said. In the case of " Molly
of Denali, " the story is also culturally rich: Molly
is Native Alaskan, and her heritage and traditions
are woven throughout the show. (More than 60
Alaska Native, First Nations, and Indigenous
consultants worked on its production.)
Then, the learning needs to be integrated into
that story. It shouldn't feel like the action stops
for a lesson. Educational media producers call
this " learning on the plot line, " said Pasnik.
Schools and districts can use this kind of
high-quality educational media to support
classwork, Pasnik said-something that many
school systems attempted as they searched for
solutions during remote learning.
In spring 2020 and into the 2020-21 school
year, many states and some school districts
partnered with local public media stations to
expand children's programming time slots
throughout the day. A few created their own
shows: New York City schools developed Let's
Learn NYC!-supplemental lessons in math,
literacy, science, and social studies for kids
in grades pre-K-2 that air on public television.
The state of Tennessee did something similar
with Teaching Tennessee, its video series for
students in grades pre-K-3.
Going forward, districts that want to
encourage teachers or parents to continue using
public television or other educational media
would benefit from providing a " curatorial list "
or investing in curators, Pasnik said.
" There are highly regarded programs, many
with research backing, " she said. " Who has
the time to review them, vet them, figure out
what's possible?
" It's not unlike what media specialists and
librarians have done, " she added. " But it could
happen on a bigger scale. "
From remote learning for young children to playground infection risks, schooling under the pandemic is raising a lot of questions for teachers and education leaders.
This new research column aims to help readers understand what the research says-and doesn't say-about our new context for learning. If you have a question,
please send it to ssparks@educationweek.org.
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