Teacher outreach efforts and reading achievement in kindergarten

To estimate the overall relationship between teachers' outreach efforts and the reading achievement of diverse kindergartners over the school year, multilevel modeling techniques were applied using a large sample of kindergarten students. The results showed that in schools with greater outreach efforts by teachers, there were sharper gains in the reading scores of students with low initial reading ability and students who frequently read outside of school. Minority students with low initial reading ability did not show much gain in schools where teachers engaged more in outreach. These findings demonstrate that teacher outreach efforts, student minority status, and reading outside of school were related to kindergartners' gains in reading skills, and distinguished the reading skills students carry with them to elementary school. Implications and methodological issues for future study are also addressed.