TextNow Transition Programme: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary
Author: Maxwell, Bronwen
Date: 2014-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Recreational Reading,Reading Programs,Coaching (Performance),Elementary School Students,Summer Programs,Secondary School Students,Randomized Controlled Trials,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Student Characteristics,Comparative Analysis,Gender Differences,Socioeconomic Status,Academic Achievement,Attendance,Reading Comprehension,Reading Tests,Scores,Statistical Analysis,Focus Groups,Interviews,Intervention,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Pretests Posttests,Surveys

The &quot;TextNow&quot; Transition Programme, developed by national charity Unitas, is a reading for pleasure literacy programme with one to one sessions with a volunteer coach occurring 20 minutes a day each weekday. This occurs at two time points: in Year Six, the final year of primary school for five weeks in the second half of the summer term; and at the beginning of Year 7, the first year of secondary school, for ten weeks. The role of the coach is to support the three &quot;TextNow&quot; core principals of 'choose, enjoy and understand'. Coaches are usually: teachers; teaching assistants; non-teaching staff such as technicians or administrative staff; parents; university students; community volunteers; or older year group pupils (usually Years 10-13). A TextNow programme coordinator in each school recruits and supports the coaches and manages the administration of the programme. Coordinators are usually teachers, teaching assistants or school librarians. Schools are free to timetable the sessions whenever suits them best, for example through withdrawal from lessons, during registration or tutor periods, or in breaks, at lunchtime or after school. The programme also includes access to My Choice!, an online resource that has news, quizzes and competitions to engage young people in activities to do with reading, as well as giving them access to a book store. Participants are given credits to choose books from MyChoice! for summer holiday reading at the beginning of the project. They are able to earn further credits for their attendance and engagement with the coaching sessions during the five-week programme in Year 6 and the ten-week programme in Year 7: these can be used to 'buy' books for reading at home and to build their own personal library. This trial is the first time that the TextNow Transition Programme has been delivered. It was adapted from the Unitas TextNow programme that targets young people in their middle teenage years. TextNow was originally designed to meet the needs of young people in the youth justice system that were not in education, training or employment (NEET) and struggling with poor reading skills. Gradually TextNow was made available to the education sector, initially focusing on alternative education providers, but increasingly being used in mainstream secondary schools from 2010, when it was provided as a ten-week programme. Key conclusions include: (1) The trial has not provided any evidence that the TextNow Transition Programme improved reading comprehension or attitudes towards reading for pleasure over the transition from primary to secondary school; (2) On average, pupils who participated in the programme made slightly less progress than similar pupils who did not. However, this finding was not statistically significant, meaning that it could have occurred by chance; (3) The programme was found to have a differential effect for pupils eligible for free school meals compared to their peers. A small positive (but not significant) effect was found for pupils eligible for free school meals, while a negative (and statistically significant) effect was detected for pupils not eligible for free school meals. It is unclear why this differential effect was found; (4) Higher attendance at the 20-minute daily coaching sessions was found to have a positive impact on reading comprehension. However, this was only found to be statistically significant for attendance at sessions in secondary schools. Attendance of the coaching sessions was not found to have an impact on the secondary outcomes (liking reading and motivation to read); and (5) The programme appeared to be more effective when coaches were highly trained, enthusiastic and committed, and when secondary schools worked closely with feeder primaries to coordinate all elements of the programme. The evaluation results indicated that the Unitas TextNow Transition programme was having no significant effects on pupil outcomes i.e., either their reading ability or attitudes towards reading for pleasure.