Using Television as a Teaching Tool for Children

Do educational television programming and outreach help prepare children for school? Mathematica conducted a five-year evaluation of the Ready To Learn television service, a public broadcasting initiative to enhance children’s readiness for school through development of educational television programs and online resources. At the time of our evaluation, more than 140 Ready To Learn stations operated throughout the country. Participating stations broadcast at least six and a half hours of children’s television programs every weekday, provided about 9,500 workshops for parents and early childhood educators demonstrating how to use television as a learning tool, and distributed educational materials. Ready To Learn targeted families with limited English proficiency, low literacy skills, those that live in rural areas, and children with disabilities.

Mathematica's evaluation examined how the workshops affected participants' behavior and the school readiness of children in their care. Working with 20 Ready To Learn stations, researchers randomly assigned half of the educators and parents to participate in a Ready To Learn workshop and half to be in a control group that did not. The study included a survey of over 2,300 parents and early childhood educators at the time the workshop was conducted and again three and six months later. At the six-month interview, preschool children in both groups participated in assessments of their readiness for school.

The final impact report reviews the content and quality of 85 observed workshops and the characteristics of the parents and educators in the study. It also examines the impacts of attending a Ready To Learn workshop on parents, early childhood educators, and the children in their care, measured six months after workshop participation. Researchers found that a few outcomes were affected by workshop participation—adults watching a PBS program with their children across the three-and six-month follow-up periods, Learning Triangle behaviors (for example, viewing a television program, reading a related book, and doing a related activity with children), and visiting PBS websites. Overall, reported impacts of the workshops were modest, and the impacts on adult behaviors did not translate into impacts on the children of parents in the study.

Earlier reports detail the study's lessons for stations, partnerships, and outreach. The first report noted that outreach was diverse. It also suggested that more cross-station communication, as well as more coordination and leadership at the national level, could help strengthen the program further. The second report found that it is important for stations to be committed to the program and work to reduce coordinator turnover. It also noted that workshops should focus on outcomes and be of sufficient duration to produce meaningful change.

The final phase of the evaluation included three non-experimental tasks designed to provide additional information to guide the next phase of outreach program development. First, we reviewed the literature on adult learning and the most effective approaches to changing parent and educator behavior targeted at young children. Second, we analyzed data from the impact evaluation, to document associations between workshop characteristics and outcomes. Third, we analyzed the association between television viewing rules and behaviors and child outcomes.

The Ready To Learn initiative was launched in 1995 by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

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