Is reading important in reading-readiness programs? A randomized field trial with teachers as program implementers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness and feasi bility of phonological awareness training, with and without a beginning dec oding component. Thirty-three teachers in 8 urban schools were assigned ran domly within their schools to 3 groups: control, phonological awareness tra ining, and phonological awareness training with beginning decoding instruct ion and practice. Following training, teachers in the 2 treatment groups co nducted the treatments for about 20 weeks. In each teacher's class, pre- an d posttreatment data were collected on 12-14 children (N = 404); 312 childr en were tested again the following fall. At the end of kindergarten, the 2 treatment groups performed comparably and outperformed controls on the phon ological awareness measures. On alphabetic (reading and spelling) tasks, ho wever, the group participating in phonological awareness training with begi nning decoding instruction did better than the other 2 groups. In the fall of the next year, many of these between-group differences remained but were less impressive. Implications are discussed for bridging research and prac tice.