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Transition from Maori to English:Maintenance of an effective school and community

literacy partnership.

Ted GlynnUniversity of Waikato

Mere BerymanPoutama Pounamu Education Research Centre

Kura LoaderTe Kura Kaupapa Maori o Waioweka

Tom CavanaghUniversity of Colorado

Paper presented at the British Education Research Association Annual Conference, University of Manchester, 17 September, 2004.

ABSTRACT

A previous study (Berryman & Glynn, 2003) (Berryman & Glynn, 2003)reported on a successful community initiated home and school programme for students in Maori medium education to improve their English language reading and writing prior to entering secondary school. Teachers, whanau (extended families) and community members in this small rural school were concerned that, over several years, children who were completing primary schooling as competent speakers, readers and writers in Maori were encountering difficulties in reading and writing in English on transition to secondary school. There was very little support provided to assist these students who faced major challenges arsing from the transition from primary to secondary school concurrent with the transition from learning in Maori medium to learning in English medium.

It seemed to the community that insufficient attention was paid to students’ Maori language achievement, and that they were characterised mainly in terms of their initial low achievement in English. The school and its community enlisted the assistance of the first two authors to develop a collaborative partnership to address the problem within the primary school. Maori staff, parents and community members were trained by the second author to implement an intensive 10-week English language home and school reading and writing tutoring programme, during their Year 8 students’ final term at primary school. Berryman & Glynn (2003) reported that whanau and community tutors implemented these programmes effectively, and that by the end of their final year at primary school Year 8 students were reading and comprehending English texts at age appropriate levels and had made major gains in the rate accuracy and quality of their of writing in English. Importantly these gains occurred at no loss to their progress in reading and writing in Mäori. The school and community continued to implement this programme with successive groups of Year 8 students for a further two years, taking full responsibility for all aspects of tutor training. Since the original study the authors’ responsibilities have been limited to monitoring the collection of reading and writing data. This paper presents reading and writing data from the school’s six Year 8 students in 2003 to assess the effectiveness of programme maintenance. However, the school also introduced an interactive CD-rom providing practice in building English vocabulary and comprehension. This CD-rom was made available for ten weeks, successively, for use by each of three pairs of Year 8 students, in addition to their participation in the reading and writing programme.

Data clearly replicated the positive effects of the home and school tutoring procedures on the reading and writing outcomes for these six students. However, there was little evidence of any additional effect of the CD-rom beyond the effects of the tutoring programmes. Results are discussed in terms of the power of engaging Maori whanau and communities to develop and implement educational partnerships in ways that draw on their cultural values and strengths, and which locate the power and control of the process within community and school rather than within the school alone Glynn & Berryman, 2003)(Glynn & Berryman, 2003)..

Today the resurgence of Māori language is occurring at all levels of the educational sector, from early childhood through to tertiary. From the early 1990s this movement has seen growth in Māori bilingual and immersion education, particularly in the urban areas where many Māori are now living (Keegan, 1996)(Keegan, 1996). The Ministry of Education’s shift in policy direction (Ministry of Education, 1988)(Ministry, 1998) enabled Māori language to be taught as the centre of the learning process and as the medium for delivery of the entire curriculum, rather than as a separate subject within it. The development of rumaki (classrooms/schools that teach through the medium of the Māori language) and kura kaupapa Māori (designed by Māori for Māori to uphold Māori values and beliefs), have focused on two objectives. These objectives are the promotion of higher levels of achievement for Māori students and the revitalisation and maintenance of the Māori language (Education Review Office, 1995)(Education Review Office, 1995). Although increasing numbers of students are now immersed in and learning through the medium of the Māori language, the intended language outcome is bilingualism. However a smooth transition from Māori to English learning sites is one of the challenges faced by many learners, whānau and teachers from these facilities.

Māori medium educators are concerned with the lack of consistent information and resources available to guide transition into English. These concerns include questions around when and how transition should occur so that neither language is compromised (Berryman & Glynn, 2003). Although transition can and does happen at many different year levels, one of the most challenging transition points for students can be from primary to secondary school. At present there is evidence to suggest that many teachers in Māori language settings are implementing one of three options. The first option is to do nothing that will interfere with the ongoing learning that is occurring through and in the Māori language. With this option teachers merely wait until the student enters English medium. Transition such as this means that the student is ill-prepared and at risk of being diagnosed as having language and literacy deficiencies in the new classroom target language. Failure to acknowledge the students’ prior experiences and competencies in the traditional language exacerbates the problem. Diagnoses such as this can result in feelings of failure and reluctance to engage in academic programmes. The second option is to teach English transition once students reach a specific age group. The third option is to teach English transition to all students within a specific class (year) group. Of concern also are the numbers of students removed on an ad hoc basis from Māori language settings by parents who are concerned that their children also need to learn English if they are to succeed with their education.

Due to the challenging nature of accurately assessing Māori language proficiency none of these options appears to take into consideration the identified level of language or literacy proficiency of these students. All options appear instead to assume that cohorts of students are all at similar levels of preparedness for transition to English. Further, while some of these options may use strategies from ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) settings, none of these options appears to fully use the bilingual language skills and knowledge of the students themselves or the language skills of members of their home community. The lack of evidence detailing effective transition practices, the lack of consistent transition application and/or methodology, the lack of active monitoring and evaluation of specific transition practices and the lack of informed sharing of information between home and school, concern many educators and school whānau.

Importance of the social and cultural context

While children are learning at school, they are participating in at least two major socialization settings: home and school. McNaughton and Glynn (1998)(McNaughton & Glynn, 1998) consider that a variety of different theoretical positions can be used to talk about the nature of the relationships between home and school. These include a behaviour analysis perspective (Wheldall & Glynn, 1989)(Wheldall & Glynn, 1989), a family resource and cultural capital approach (Nash, 1993), a developmental systems model (Tangaere, 1997)(Tangaere, 1997), a socio-historical perspective (McNaughton, 1995)(McNaughton, 1995; Smith, 1995; Smith, 1992), and a kaupapa Māori position (Smith, 1992; 1995). There is strong general agreement across these positions that family and school relationships are vital to children’s literacy achievement at school (Glynn, Berryman, & Glynn, 2000(Glynn, Berryman, & Glynn, 2000); McNaughton, 2002)(Glynn, 1985; McNaughton, 2002). Responsive, social contexts for learning (Glynn, 1985; 1987(Glynn, 1987) address the issue of imbalance of power that can arise when teachers from a powerful majority language and culture impose their beliefs and understandings and their world view on students from a less powerful language and culture (Bishop & Glynn, 1999(Bishop & Glynn, 1999). Research on the power of responsive, social contexts for learning suggests strongly that Māori immersion students might benefit from teachers employing in their classrooms a culturally-linked pedagogy that promotes the inclusion and engagement not only of students and peers but also of whānau and community members.

This paper describes the vital contribution made by whānau (immediate and extended family) in a rural kura kaupapa Maori (Maori language immersion school) to maintaining their children’s Māori language while at the same time improving their children’s transition to English language classrooms.

METHODThe second author was invited to a community meeting held at the kura. Community whānau members and kura staff were concerned that their Year 8 fluent Māori immersion students who had not been taught to read and write in English were being unduly challenged in Year 9 on entering the secondary school system. At Year 9, students from this kura were consistently failing to achieve at the same or higher academic levels as they had at kura, and many had been failing within the secondary system. Once the researcher had agreed to help, the parameters of the programme were collaboratively determined.

Research design

The original study extended over twelve months. It began at the beginning of term four with the group of Year 8 students and lasted for 10 weeks. In term one of the following year, the programme was introduced to the new group of Year 8 students (former Year 7s). After a further 10 weeks (one more term) it was introduced to the third group who were in Year 7 (former Year 6s). This multiple-baseline across subjects design allowed for built-in evaluation of the programme by means of a multiple baseline comparison across three groups of students with repeated-measurements taken across all students at one-term intervals from pre-programme to maintenance.

Participants

StudentsData were gathered from 21 students who were in Years 6, 7 and 8 classes during the time of the project. All students had been in a Māori language immersion programme for the majority of their schooling, most since early childhood. Only one had received any formal instruction in English.

Liaison teacherThe teacher of the Year 7 and Year 8 students was critical to the success of the programme. She agreed to liaise with the community and took responsibility for collaborating with the researcher in implementing all aspects of the programme delivery, evaluation and data collection. Her specific responsibilities were extensive and required a great deal of professional expertise and commitment. She took direct and full responsibility for the implementation of the reading and writing strategies with the programme students. She approached parents, and whānau members of these students through the board of trustees to explain the nature of the transition project as well as the nature of the training and support provided and the commitment required of the whānau and community tutors. She also monitored tutors’ weekly tutoring, assisted in the accessing of appropriate reading material and provided informal feedback on their progress. In addition, she regularly supplied the researcher with tapes of the tutors’ tutoring, and then shared with them the formal feedback provided by the researcher. Further, she ensured that the students, teachers and whānau members welcomed the researchers whenever they were at the school and ensured that training and assessment tasks could be efficiently carried out in a welcoming environment. The emphasis was on supporting the kura to continue their consultation and partnership with their community. Students’ literacy growth in both languages was seen as a process that was occurring simultaneously at home and at school through the careful coordination of activities and exchange of information between these two settings (McNaughton & Glynn, 1998(McNaughton & Glynn, 1998)).

Parents, whānau and community members Community members were trained as English reading tutors, one for each student. Many students also had a parent who learned to use the tutoring procedures at home, and some parents also become tutors in the school. People in this group included kaumātua, kuia, parents, grandparents, young men and young women. At least one of the tutors, a kuia, remained as a tutor with all three groups.

The writing responderThe second author trained a young person from outside the community in the writing strategies. Each week the ‘writing responder’ provided a written response to stories written by each of student and then returned the writing books to the liaison teacher.

Measurement and Evaluation

The effectiveness of the reading and writing programme was evaluated in terms of process (treatment integrity, or treatment implementation) as well as outcome measures taken within and between student groups. After the completion of the programme, collaborative storytelling was used to develop a shared understanding with participants of how their role in the programme had contributed to the success of the outcomes. This collaborative story is presented in detail elsewhere (Berryman & Glynn, 2003).

Process measures (treatment integrity)Following training, repeated measures of parent, whānau and community reading and writing tutoring were taken in order to establish the degree to which target programme strategies were being implemented.

Outcome measuresAlthough this programme concentrated on developing literacy in English, data were gathered on reading and writing in both English and Māori to assess whether potential gains in English might compromise ongoing progress in Maori. The Māori assessment data are presented and reported on elsewhere (Berryman & Glynn, 2003). Assessments took place after each English transition group had completed 10 weeks in programme. Once the assessments had been completed (usually within the week) the training was provided for tutors of the next group of students going into programme.

Reading assessment

Burt word recognition testThe Burt word recognition test (Burt, undated) was used as a guide for determining a safe reading level for the reading assessment of English texts. Students were asked to look carefully through the list and identify as many words as they could. They were also told that they could try words or pass over words and that they could stop if they thought it was getting too difficult. Once five words were either read incorrectly or passed over, the assessment was stopped.

Reading of TextsThe reading assessment procedures in English used the New Zealand School Journal reading levels identified using the Elley noun frequency count (Elley, 1975)(Elley, 1998). The following assessment procedures were used with each of the texts selected:

1. Preview of text. The researcher began the session with a brief discussion of the story relating it to the reader’s experience. Students were then given three minutes of uninterrupted time to read the story themselves.

2. Three-minute oral reading sample. This was a three-minute, audiotape sample of students’ oral reading from a text at their appropriate instructional level. Samples were then analyzed for accuracy and for correct and incorrect reading rates (number of correct and incorrect words per minute).

3. Oral comprehension. This was assessed in terms of a combined score on two tasks: (a) oral recall questions. Students were then asked three prepared, oral questions about the section that they had read. If the student did not succeed in answering any of the questions correctly the researcher chose another book at an easier level. If the student got at least one correct answer the assessment was continued with that book, and (b) oral cloze task. A section of the identical level text with target words blanked out was used for the cloze. The researcher read the story to the student who was asked to supply words that would fit in the gaps. Exact words (the exact word used in the text) and appropriate word substitutions (words that retained meaning within the text) were accepted.

Reading assessments continued until students reached the maximum book level at which they could still read at an instructional level. This was determined each time by any two of the following three criteria:

Reading accuracy level of 90% or higher;Correct reading rate of 21 words or more per minute; or Combined oral comprehension score of 41% or more.

Writing assessment

Collecting the writing samplesCollection of the English and Maori writing samples, was modeled on the English Standard 2 survey’s use of unassisted writing samples (Hamilton Education Board Resource Teachers of Reading, 1989).Students were free to write on any topic they liked However, six A3-size photographs and 10 prompt words per photograph were provided to help motivate students. The photographs showed familiar and positive interaction between adults and children in contemporary Māori settings. The researcher and liaison teacher also suggested further topics when individual students asked for assistance.

Up to 10 minutes were allowed for students to choose their topic and for a brief informal discussion. This did not involve any form of written planning. Next, students were instructed to begin their 10 minutes of writing, using pencil. The use of erasers was discouraged. At the end of 10 minutes pencils were collected and exchanged for pens. This enabled the researcher to identify for analysis writing completed in the first 10 minutes. Students were then allowed five minutes to edit their writing in any way they could, this time using the pen.

Analysis of writing assessment dataAnalysis of the ten-minute writing samples provided assessment data on accuracy, and on correct and incorrect writing rate. Information was also gathered to measure the increasing number of more difficult words that students were using in their writing. Word frequency levels from the Alphabetic Spelling List (Arvidson, 1977) were used to from two groups of words, levels 1 to 3 (group 1), and levels 4 to 7 (the top Arvidson level) and beyond. Raters, who were unaware of students’ names or the sequence in which the writing samples had been gathered, provided a holistic (1 to 5) ratings of audience impact and overall language quality for every writing sample.

Parent and whānau training in reading and writing procedures

Reading: Pause Prompt Praise plus preview and reviewThese reading tutoring procedures encouraged whānau and community tutors to preview the story with their student before the story was read and then to tutor their child using the Pause Prompt Praise procedures. Over the past 25 years these procedures have been well-researched and described in New Zealand (Glynn, McNaughton, Robinson, & Quinn, 1979); (McNaughton, Glynn, Robinson, & Quinn, 1981); (Glynn & McNaughton, 1985); (Medcalf & Glynn, 1987); in Australia (Houghton & Glynn, 1993)); and in the U.K. (Wheldall & Mettem, 1985). These procedures have been successfully used with reading when English has been the first language(Glynn et al., 2000; Glynn & Glynn, 1986) and when English has been the second language (Glynn & Glynn, 1986).

The procedures involve first pausing when a reader makes an error (to allow opportunity for reader self-correction without tutor help). Where the error is not self-corrected, tutors offer different types of prompts to assist the reader with the meaning of the word. The first type of prompt is the read-on or read-again prompt, which assists readers to pay closer attention to the context of the sentence, where the error

occurred. The second type of prompt provides the reader with information or clues about the meaning of the word. However, where the error indicates the reader has already understood the meaning of the word the tutor may use the third type of prompt using phonemic or visual information. Tutors were also trained to employ specific praise to reinforce readers' use of independent strategies such as self-corrections and corrections following tutor prompts. A more detailed account of the use of these procedures is provided by Glynn & McNaughton, (2002). Tutors were encouraged to conclude their tutoring sessions by reviewing the story read with their child.

Writing: Responsive written feedback

The first writing procedure, responsive written feedback (Jerram, Glynn, & Tuck, 1988), involved a young person from outside of the community, and unknown to the students, to write regular, weekly, brief and personalized responses to each student’s writing. The strategy was to respond in writing to the messages conveyed within the piece of writing and not to focus upon structure, error correction or evaluative comments. This person was encouraged to respond to what they were able to understand of the messages in the students’ stories rather than simply responding to errors. Writing was completed in the classroom was collected and mailed to the responder by the class teacher. The responder added her responsive written feedback and returned the responsive writing books ready for the next week’s writing time. Once students were in programme this procedure was carried out for at least 10 writing exchanges.

Writing: Structured brainstorming

The second writing procedure, a structured brainstorm (Whitehead, 1993), encouraged the teacher to talk in English with the students around a set writing topic and then to support them in generating lists of English words related to this topic. She then helped students to organize those lists into topics and themes, and then to write either a sentence or a paragraph about each topic or theme. Students were assisted to do this by using a ‘structured brainstorm sheet’. Regular and focused teacher and student ‘brainstorms’ of interesting words were an important aspect of the programme carried out at least once a fortnight.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS FROM THE ORIGINAL STUDY

Detailed data from the original study have been reported elsewhere, (Berryman & Glynn, 2003; Berryman & Glynn, 2004) and presented in accordance with the repeated-measures intra-subject multiple baseline research design employed in that study. These data demonstrated that as a result of the school and community literacy programme, the students within each of the three groups (Year 8, Year 7 and Year 6) achieved substantial positive English reading and writing gains. Overall, with few exceptions, the reading and writing gains achieved by each student group at each of the assessment points directly following their ten weeks in the target language programme were greater than gains at any other assessment points. The pattern of these gains was thus clearly associated within the multiple baseline design, such that the greatest increases for each of the three groups occurred at the point directly following that group’s participation in the programme. One table from the original study is re-produced here, by way of illustration, prior to reporting of data from the

follow-up (programme maintenance) study. Table 1 illustrates outcomes on three of the reading measures employed, book level, reading accuracy and reading comprehension.

Table 1

Pre- and post-programme changes in book level, accuracy and oral comprehension for students reading in English

(multiple-baseline research design format).

READING IN ENGLISH

MEASURE BOOK LEVEL

Year 8 Students (n=7)

24 28 29 29


20 21 24 29


22 22 23 29

MEASURE % ACCURACY


90 91 94 97


88 88 95 94


88 89 93 97

MEASURE ORAL COMPREHENSION


33 69 41 60


38 53 45 67


26 36 37 65

In the main, by the end of programme students from all three groups had met the criterion for reading stories at their appropriate chronological age or higher. Further, these data demonstrate that all students could read the most difficult texts in the Part 4 School Journals. These data, consistent with (Cummmins & Swain, 1986), compare very favourably with the level of achievement of students of similar age and class

levels working in English medium classes. What must also be remembered is that these students concurrently maintained similar high levels of reading proficiency in the Māori language (Berryman & Glynn, 2003). By the end of the study all students were reading stories at the Miro level. In the Kete Kōrero framework, these stories are placed at the fluent reading level. Data on changes in students’ writing samples establish considerable increases in the amount written across pre-programme, programme and post-programme assessment points. The greatest positive gains for all three groups of students occurred at assessments immediately post-programme. Both reading and writing data demonstrated that these increases in rate did not occur at the expense of accuracy.

Overall, the qualitative holistic ratings for audience impact and overall language quality of the writing samples again showed increases across pre-programme, programme and post-programme assessment points. The general pattern of changes in the holistic qualitative ratings of writing samples was similar to that for the quantitative (rate and accuracy) measures. However, the size of these increases is typically limited to one point on the seven-point scale, usually showing movement from 2.0 to 3.0, or from 3.0 to 4.0.

RESULTS FROM THE FOLLOW-UP STUDY

Since the completion of the original study, this school and community have continued to implement the literacy programme with successive groups of Year 8 students for a further two years, and have taken full responsibility for all aspects of tutor training. Since the original study the responsibilities of first two authors have been limited to monitoring the collection of reading and writing data. This section presents the outcomes of a statistical analysis of the reading and writing data from the six Year 8 students who attended the school in 2003, in order to assess the extent to which this s school was able to maintain the literacy programme on its own. These data were gathered at the same four assessment points, extending across the same time period and employing the same set of reading and writing measure as employed in the original study. Since, the programme as focussed only on the Year 8 students the follow-up study employed a simple pre- and post- intervention experimental design. .

However, the school also decided to introduce interactive CD-rom providing practice in building English vocabulary and comprehension. After the initial assessments of reading and writing, this CD-rom was made available for 10 weeks, successively, to each of three pairs of students. Students were encouraged to make use of this resource whenever the wished during school time, although no formal data were gathered on their actual use of the resource. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to look for possible impact of the use of the CD-rom, by visually analysing the data across the three student pairs within a repeated-measures multiple-baseline format. Figure 1 illustrates the research design employed, showing how access to the CD-rom was nested within the overall simple pre- post intervention design.

2003Assessment

(1)August

Assessment (2)

October

Assessment (3)

November

Assessment (4)

December

Pair 1

HeremaiaWetiriana

Pre- Programme

Programmeplus

Game

Programme Programme

Pair 2

MickeyJulie

Pre- Programme

Programme Programmeplus

GameProgramme

Pair 3

Te AtaahuaMoana

Pre- Programme

Programme Programme Programmeplus

Game

Figure 1: Research Design

Programme: Pause Prompt Praise and Responsive Written Feedback Game: Interactive CD-Rom

(reading vocabulary and comprehension)

Analysis of English Reading and Writing data

Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Paired samples t test analyses were performed since that data were gathered in a within subjects repeated measures research design format (Morgan, Griego, & Gloeckner, 2001)). Measures of English reading included: book level, reading accuracy, reading comprehension, incorrect reading rate, and vocabulary (word recognition scores. Measures of English writing included: total words written, quality (audience appeal, and overall language fluency) as well as writing accuracy.

ResultsEnglish Reading

Statistically significant results were found on the measures of book level, comprehension, incorrect rate and vocabulary.

Table 2: Book Level

MatchedScores 1st Score 2nd Score Paired Samples Results_______ _________ ___________ ____________________

M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 2 23.17 (3.55) 25.83 (2.04) 4.34 <.01

1 & 3 23.17 (3.55) 26.83 (2.04) 5.97 <.00

1 & 4 23.17 (3.55) 28.83 (0.98) 5.38 <.00

2 & 4 25.83 (2.04) 28.83 (0.98) 6.71 <.00

3 & 4 26.83 (2.04) 28.83 (0.98) 4.47 <.01

Table 2 displays significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 2, (b) score 1 and score 3 (c) score 1 and score (d) score 2 and score 4 and (e) score 3 and score 4. These results indicate that the literacy programme had a significant effect on students’ progress through book levels and that this effect continued and improved over time.

Table 3: Reading Comprehension


M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 4 42.83 (7.44) 64.67 (9.83) 4.03 <.01

2 & 4 52.17 (10.32) 64.67 (9.83) 3.80 <.01

3 & 4 40.33 (6.01) 64.67 (9.83) 4.22 <.01

Table 3 displays significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 4, (b) score 2 and score 4, and (c) score 3 and score 4. These results indicate the school and community literacy programme had a significant effect on students’ oral comprehension and that this effect, with the exception of the third score, continued and improved over time.

Table 4: Incorrect Rate


M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 2 4.17 1.60 2.50 1.05 2.50 <.05

3 & 4 4.67 2.25 3.00 1.79 2.71 <04

Table 4 displays significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 2, and (b) score 3 and score 4. These results indicate that the second scores were significantly lower than the first scores and the fourth scores were significantly lower than the third scores. This information suggests that the school and community literacy programme had an initial and continuing effect of reducing the rate of reading errors made by these students over time.

Table 5: Vocabulary Scores


M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 2 54.17 (97.68) 76.17 (19.92) 2.86 <.04

1 & 3 54.17 (7.68) 83.67 (17.73) 3.94 <00

1 & 4 54.17 (17.68) 89.67 (16.01) 5.39 <.00

2 & 3 76.17 (19.92) 83.67 (17.73 ) 4.50 <.01

2 & 4 76.17 (19.92) 89.67 (16.01) 5.97 <.00

3 & 4 83.67 (17.73) 89.67 (16.01) 5.64 <.00

Table 5 displays significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 2, (b) score 1 and score 3, (c) score 1 and score 4 (d) score 2 and score 3, (e) score 2 and score 4 and (f) score 3 and score 4. These results indicate that there was a significant difference between vocabulary Assessment 1 scores, prior to the literacy programme, and Assessment 2, 3 and 4 scores following the introduction of the programme. Table 5 also shows that there was a continued significant increase in vocabulary scores over time following the introduction of the school and community literacy programme.

English Writing

Statistically significant results were found on the qualitative ratings of audience appeal and overall language quality, and on the measure of writing accuracy.

Table 6: Writing - Audience Appeal


M SD M SD t p

1 & 3 3.50 (.55) 4.17 (.98) 3.16 <.03

1 & 4 3.50 (55) 4.50 (.55) 3.87 <.01

Table 6 identifies significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 3 and (b) score 1 and score 4. These results indicate that over time the school and community literacy programme had a significant effect on the quality ratings of audience appeal of student writing samples. Mean independent ratings of writing quality ad increased by a whole point on the five-point scale between the first and the final assessment.

Table 7: Writing – Overall Language quality


M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 3 3.33 (.52) 4.00 (.89) 3.16 <.03

1 & 4 3.33 (.52) 4.00 .89 3.16 <.03

2 & 3 3.33 .52 4.00 .89 3.16 <.03

2 & 4 3.33 .52 4.00 .89 3.16 . <03

Overall language Quality

Table 7 identifies significant differences between mean scores as follows: (a) score 1 and score 3, (b) score 1 and score 4, (c) score 2 and score 3 and (d) score 2 and score 4. There was a significant difference between the first score and the third and fourth scores following the introduction of the literacy programme. In addition, there was a significant increase from the second score to the third and fourth scores. These results indicate that the literacy programme had a significant effect on overall language quality, and that this effect continued to improve over time.

Table 8: Writing - accuracy


M (SD) M (SD) t p

1 & 4 81.00 8.46 85.83 9.11 5.11 <.00

Writing Accuracy

Table 8 identifies that there was a significant difference between the means for Score 1 mean and Score 4. The results indicated that the increases in ratings of the quality of students’ writing that occurred between assessment 1, prior to the literacy programme, and assessment 4, following the literacy programme, were accompanied by parallel gains in writing accuracy.

The effects of the interactive CD-rom

While the effects of the school and community literacy programme on these six year 8 students was evaluated by means of a series of intra-subject repeated-measures t tests, the possible effects of the CD-rom were assessed through a nested multiple-baseline design across three student pairs. For each pair of students, on all reading and writing outcome measures, mean scores were compared across the three assessment points during the community and school literacy programme. This enabled a comparison of scores obtained during the phase when each pair accessed the CD-rom in addition to the literacy programme with the scores obtained during the phases when they accessed the literacy programme alone. The resulting pattern of mean scores indicated no evidence in support for any additive effects of the CD-rom over and above those from the community and school literacy programme.

Summary of English Reading and Writing outcomes

Following the implementation of the school and community literacy programme for these six students in Maori immersion education, significant improvements were observed in their reading and writing at school. After approximately four months of participating in the school and community literacy programme, these students were reading English texts between two and three levels in advance of the levels they were reading at pre programme. They were reading these more advanced texts with increased comprehension, with fewer errors, and with a significantly increased word recognition vocabulary. Furthermore, the students were receiving significantly higher quality ratings for the audience appeal and for the overall language quality of their writing in English, and the accuracy of that writing was also significantly improved.

DISCUSSION

Data from the six Maori immersion students in this follow-up study clearly replicated the positive effects of the school and community literacy programme on the reading and writing outcomes for the 21 students in the original study. However, there was little evidence of any additional effect of the CD-rom beyond the effects of the tutoring programmes.

Results are discussed in terms of the power of engaging Maori whanau and communities to develop and implement educational partnerships in ways that draw on their cultural values and strengths, and which locate the power and control of the process within community and school rather than within the school alone..

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