A new report shows that a program designed to improve the reading skills of children from disadvantaged backgrounds is achieving strong results and is a cost-effective way of addressing Australia’s reading challenges.

A major study of 742 participants in The Smith Family’s student2student reading program has revealed that 93 per cent improved their reading with two-thirds boosting their reading age by more than six months.

Student2student matches children from Years 3 to 8, with a reading age up to two years behind their chronological age, with trained reading buddies who are at least two years older.

Student2student runs over an 18 week period with the pair connecting over the phone two to three times a week, for at least 20 minutes at a time. The student reads to their buddy over the phone from books provided by The Smith Family which are appropriate to their reading level.

The Smith Family’s Head of Research and Advocacy, Anne Hampshire, said the impressive results were the same whatever the participant’s background.

“It’s clear from these results that student2student is improving the reading of children from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Ms Hampshire.

“Whether you look at student2student participants as a broad group or specifically from Indigenous or non-English speaking backgrounds – the results are the same: at least nine-out-of-10 in every group improved their reading over the course of the program.

“That is an extremely impressive result.

“The secret of student2student’s success is that it addresses the two crucial factors in becoming a better reader: practice and motivation.

“The more you read, the more you enjoy it and the more likely you are to keep reading.

“Eight-out-of-10 participants in student2student agreed they were reading more at the end of the program, their participation helped with their studies and overall made them feel better about school.

“Poor readers – those most likely to benefit from regular practice – are, understandably, unmotivated to read. Children with poor reading fluency develop negative ideas of their reading skills as early as their second year of school.

“Student2student allows for regular reading practice in a supportive learning environment. As the student improves they become more motivated to read, particularly with encouragement from their reading buddy.

“More motivated readers also tend to choose more challenging reading materials and persevere when reading is difficult.

“The one-on-one nature of student2student contributes to increasing the student’s engagement as well as maintaining their attention to the text for longer periods.

“And because it’s on the phone, the student and their reading buddy can be in different communities. Geography and transport aren’t issues.”
Australia has a significant problem with reading and literacy:

• One in five Australian children in their first year at school do not have most of the basic literacy skills necessary for school.
• At least one in ten students of low socio-economic backgrounds in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 do not meet the minimum reading standard on NAPLAN.
• Australia’s average reading score for Year 4 students is significantly lower than the average score for 21 other countries, including England and the United States.
• More than 40 percent of adult Australians have literacy skills below the minimum skill level required to cope with the demands of modern society.

“It’s estimated that poor literacy costs Australia $18.35 billion – or around 2 per cent of GDP,” said Ms Hampshire.

“In comparison it costs a little over $1100 for a young person to participate in student2student which covers program co-ordination, recruitment of volunteers and the cost of books.

“Student2student is cost effective because it takes an early intervention approach to the problem.

“One of the challenges Australia faces in closing the gap in educational performance between children and young people in disadvantaged areas and their more privileged peers is ‘picking some winners’ – finding programs that are backed by evidence to work and scaling them up nationally.

“There are hundreds of individual programs and pilots aimed at addressing educational disadvantage across Australia – all well-intentioned – but which ones actually work?

“Student2student is by any measure a success. It’s achieving terrific results and addressing one of the key gaps in education performance between disadvantaged and advantaged kids – reading skills. Even better it’s doing so in an affordable way.

“We believe student2student is a model that could be used to assist thousands of young people with poor reading skills across the country – a move that would not only benefit individuals but the entire community,” said Ms Hampshire.

Read the full report here

View the infographic

Media contact: Paul Andrews 0409 665 495

The reach and success of the Smith Family’s student2student program would not be possible without the valuable support of our partner, Optus.

In 2010, Optus and The Smith Family established a partnership to trial a mobile phone version of the program in selected rural and regional communities. Optus provides the mobile phones and phone credit to run the program. Mobile phones are now an integral part of the program. Additionally, students who successfully completed the program were given the mobile phone and $100 of phone credit from Optus. Over the next year, Optus and The Smith Family aim to reach 500 disadvantaged students across Australia through the mobile student2student.

A new report shows that a program designed to improve the reading skills of children from disadvantaged backgrounds is achieving strong results and is a cost-effective way of addressing Australia’s reading challenges.

A major study of 742 participants in The Smith Family’s student2student reading program has revealed that 93 per cent improved their reading with two-thirds boosting their reading age by more than six months.

Student2student matches children from Years 3 to 8, with a reading age up to two years behind their chronological age, with trained reading buddies who are at least two years older.

Student2student runs over an 18 week period with the pair connecting over the phone two to three times a week, for at least 20 minutes at a time. The student reads to their buddy over the phone from books provided by The Smith Family which are appropriate to their reading level.

The Smith Family’s Head of Research and Advocacy, Anne Hampshire, said the impressive results were the same whatever the participant’s background.

“It’s clear from these results that student2student is improving the reading of children from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Ms Hampshire.

“Whether you look at student2student participants as a broad group or specifically from Indigenous or non-English speaking backgrounds – the results are the same: at least nine-out-of-10 in every group improved their reading over the course of the program.

“That is an extremely impressive result.

“The secret of student2student’s success is that it addresses the two crucial factors in becoming a better reader: practice and motivation.

“The more you read, the more you enjoy it and the more likely you are to keep reading.

“Eight-out-of-10 participants in student2student agreed they were reading more at the end of the program, their participation helped with their studies and overall made them feel better about school.

“Poor readers – those most likely to benefit from regular practice – are, understandably, unmotivated to read. Children with poor reading fluency develop negative ideas of their reading skills as early as their second year of school.

“Student2student allows for regular reading practice in a supportive learning environment. As the student improves they become more motivated to read, particularly with encouragement from their reading buddy.

“More motivated readers also tend to choose more challenging reading materials and persevere when reading is difficult.

“The one-on-one nature of student2student contributes to increasing the student’s engagement as well as maintaining their attention to the text for longer periods.

“And because it’s on the phone, the student and their reading buddy can be in different communities. Geography and transport aren’t issues.”
Australia has a significant problem with reading and literacy:

• One in five Australian children in their first year at school do not have most of the basic literacy skills necessary for school.
• At least one in ten students of low socio-economic backgrounds in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 do not meet the minimum reading standard on NAPLAN.
• Australia’s average reading score for Year 4 students is significantly lower than the average score for 21 other countries, including England and the United States.
• More than 40 percent of adult Australians have literacy skills below the minimum skill level required to cope with the demands of modern society.

“It’s estimated that poor literacy costs Australia $18.35 billion – or around 2 per cent of GDP,” said Ms Hampshire.

“In comparison it costs a little over $1100 for a young person to participate in student2student which covers program co-ordination, recruitment of volunteers and the cost of books.

“Student2student is cost effective because it takes an early intervention approach to the problem.

“One of the challenges Australia faces in closing the gap in educational performance between children and young people in disadvantaged areas and their more privileged peers is ‘picking some winners’ – finding programs that are backed by evidence to work and scaling them up nationally.

“There are hundreds of individual programs and pilots aimed at addressing educational disadvantage across Australia – all well-intentioned – but which ones actually work?

“Student2student is by any measure a success. It’s achieving terrific results and addressing one of the key gaps in education performance between disadvantaged and advantaged kids – reading skills. Even better it’s doing so in an affordable way.

“We believe student2student is a model that could be used to assist thousands of young people with poor reading skills across the country – a move that would not only benefit individuals but the entire community,” said Ms Hampshire.

Read the full report here

View the infographic

Media contact: Paul Andrews 0409 665 495

The reach and success of the Smith Family’s student2student program would not be possible without the valuable support of our partner, Optus.

In 2010, Optus and The Smith Family established a partnership to trial a mobile phone version of the program in selected rural and regional communities. Optus provides the mobile phones and phone credit to run the program. Mobile phones are now an integral part of the program. Additionally, students who successfully completed the program were given the mobile phone and $100 of phone credit from Optus. Over the next year, Optus and The Smith Family aim to reach 500 disadvantaged students across Australia through the mobile student2student.