Title

Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of the ‘Time to Read’ Public Mentoring Scheme Among 9-10 Year Olds

Research Team

Professor Paul Connolly, Dr Susan Kehoe, Dr Sarah Miller (PI), Dr Oscar Odena

Timescale

March 2008 – October 2008

Funder

Business in the Community (Northern Ireland)

Aims and Objectives

The Time to Read programme is a voluntary mentoring initiative that is run by Business in the Community (Northern Ireland).  Volunteers from businesses spend one hour every week in primary schools to mentor 2 pupils.  The mentoring is carried out on a one to one basis with children who are considered by their teacher to be reluctant readers and underachieving.  Children start on the programme when they are in P5 (9-10 year olds) and can continue with it until they leave primary school.

This current evaluation seeks to answer the following questions:

1. Does the Time to Read mentoring programme have the effect of increasing pupils’ self esteem, reading ability, aspirations for the future and enjoyment of education?

2. Does the Time to Read programme impact differently on children with high and low self-esteem?

3. Is there an effect of duration of participation in the Time to Read programme on the outcomes (i.e. self esteem, cognitive skills, aspirations for the future and enjoyment of education)?

Methodology

A randomised controlled trial was used to determine whether there is evidence that the mentoring programme improves outcomes for children in P5 who are reluctant readers or underachieving. Fifty schools from across Northern Ireland took part in the evaluation. Eligible pupils within each school were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (to receive the Time to Read programme) or the control group.

In September 2006 all consenting P5 pupils in the 50 participating schools were screened for eligibility for inclusion in the evaluation.  Eligible pupils were identified according to the following criteria: a) pupils were deemed eligible if they scored below average on the test of reading ability (i.e. below the 50^th centile but not below the 10^th centile); and b) pupils were deemed ineligible if they had an SEN statement.

Of all the eligible P5 pupils identified (n=843), on average eight pupils per school were randomly allocated to the intervention group (n=385) to receive the Time to Read programme for the duration of P5 and P6.  The remaining eligible children made up the control group (n=458). The study consisted of a repeated measures design. All pupils in the intervention and control groups were tested on the outcome measures every four months between October 2006 and June 2008.

To ensure that the programme was being delivered consistently and with fidelity each mentor was required to maintain a record of every mentoring session.  In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholders to establish whether the programme was being implemented in a standardised way and to explore some of the obstacles that exist in relation to extending the implementation of the programme across Northern Ireland.

Outputs

The final report is available on the CEE website: Main Report