The Unique Impact of Watching Television on Third Grade Reading Achievement for Language Minority Students

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 22. Media and Literacy

Abstract

This paper examines the differential effects of watching television on reading scores for a sub-sample of third grade language minority (LM) students compared to a general sample of third grade students, using ECLS-K data. Previous literature suggests that for early elementary school children time spent watching TV has an overall slight negative effect on achievement, but watching TV is a very context-laden activity that might have distinct effects for various populations. This paper explores the effects of watching TV on achievement for LM students, and finds evidence of a positive effect for watching television in some situations, suggesting the potential for TV to act as a lingual or cultural-learning facilitator, and positively affecting achievement. For the general sample, effects of watching TV are insignificant.

Author

• Gregory J. Mills, University of Connecticut