Longfellow School Literacy Project: A Five-Year Study of Outcomes from a Whole Language Program in the Primary Grades.

A two-part study evaluated the effectiveness of Longfellow School's primary-grade whole-language literacy project. Part 1 of the study began in the academic year 1984-85 with children in standard English and bilingual classes in grade K-3. Over a 5-year period, a total of 1,021 individual assessments were carried out on 336 students. Data consisted of samples of students' work, classroom observations, and teacher interviews. Part 2 of the study collected additional follow-up data on two cohorts, conducted 13 child studies, analyzed summary data, described the context of learning at the school, and critiqued the instruments used. Results from both parts indicated that: (1) all children in standard classes remaining in the program learned to read and write competently by the time they were in the upper elementary grades; (2) children learned in uneven increments, not according to grade level expectations; (3) children in bilingual classes began school with less knowledge of the conventions of print than those in standard classes but made equivalent gains between kindergarten and first grade; (4) sources of literacy learning varied; (5) questions of morale and self-respect were central to learning; (6) teachers represented a continuum of beliefs and practices; (7) children were exposed to literature on a daily basis; and (8) all teachers changed their beliefs and practices to some extent. (Numerous unnumbered charts, graphs, and tables of data are included; a history of the project, further information about the instruments, and copies of texts used for the oral reading samples are attached.) (RS)