What is Hartford Haskins Literacy Initiative?
- A pilot project to improve reading by Hartford children in kindergarten, first and second grades.
- Based on a research-based model developed by Haskins Laboratories, a private, nonprofit research institute headquartered in New Haven, CT.
- The program, which puts the primary focus on speech, language and reading, has been used successfully in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
- Funded by Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, in a three-year $844,000 grant awarded in August 2006 through its Brighter Futures Initiative, and Hartford Public Schools.
- Involves 60 teachers and 800 children at five schools: Dr. Ramon E. Betances Elementary School, John C. Clark, Jr. Elementary School, Rawson Elementary School, Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School, and Wish Elementary School.
Why is it needed?
- Students who are not proficient in reading in first grade, have a one in eight chance of ever catching up.
- A third grader’s reading proficiency is the best predictor of whether he/she will graduate from high school.
- Based on 2007 testing, only 13 percent of Hartford’s third graders scored at or above the goal for state reading tests.
- Nationally, teachers in the early grades are not fully prepared to teach reading. The average teacher only gets two undergraduate courses in reading.
What is different about Haskins?
- The teachers receive support and training from Haskins literacy specialists (or mentors) through weekly in-classroom coaching and mentoring.
- The students learn reading through all aspects of instruction - phonics, oral language, vocabulary, writing, spelling, and comprehension.
- Each child has an individualized plan; teachers use continuous observation and assessment to gauge how each student is learning, and can adjust groups and materials to focus on concepts that need attention.
What are the results?
- Students in all three grades made significant gains from fall to spring in both years.[1]
- Kindergarten students improved at a significantly faster rate from fall to spring than the average kindergarten student across the United States (including urban and suburban schools).[1]
- Kindergarten students’ reading proficiency test scores rose from slightly below average to slightly above average.[1]
- Students of teachers at all grade levels participating in Hartford Haskins Literacy Initiative outperformed students whose teachers had not participated.[2]
- More than 75 percent of the second-grade students scored as proficient or above proficient on the state reading test.[3]
- They were 33 percent more likely to score as proficient or above proficient than students not participating in Hartford Haskins Literacy Initiative.
- Even though the focus for the first year of any teacher’s involvement with the Haskins approach is on phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency, participating students have shown significant gains in reading comprehension, thereby demonstrating the link between the ability to read words and understand text.
[1] These results reflect Fall/Spring comparisons on the research-based assessment tool, the GRADE (Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation).
[2] These results are derived from Connecticut’s statewide reading assessment tool, the DRA2.
[3] These results are from the following schools in which Haskins provided professional development and coaching for second grade teachers: Betances, Clark, Rawson, and Webster.
Download the report...
 Achieving Proficiency: Progress of Children in Hartford Haskins Literacy Initiative (2009)
For more information...
Richard Sussman, director of Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Brighter Futures Initiative, 860-548-1888 x1029, rsussman@hfpg.org
Margie Gillis, project director, Haskins Literacy Initiative, 203-865-6163 x253, gillis@haskins.yale.edu; www.haskins.yale.edu.
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