COMPARISONS OF BEGINNING LITERACY PROGRAMS - ALTERNATIVE PATHS TO THESAME LEARNING OUTCOME

University-based researchers consulted with first-grade teachers in a comparison of Integrated Reading-Writing (IR-W) and DISTAR programs in comparable urban schools with students ''at risk'' for literacy probl ems. Students in the two programs made comparable relative gains in ac hievement outcomes in word recognition from the beginning to the end o f first grade. Level of orthographic and phonological awareness at the end of the first grade, but not instructional program, predicted leve l of reading achievement at the end of first grade. However, differenc es in processes underlying end-of-year achievement outcome were observ ed. Children in Integrated Reading-Writing tended to acquire orthograp hic-phonological connections at the whole word and subword levels, whe reas children in DISTAR tended to acquire only subword connections. No differences were noted in developmental level of composition between the two instructional programs at the middle or end of first grade whe n coded compositions were available. The results are consistent with t he notion that there is more than one way to learn to read and write.