Tlingit Elder to argue culture is why Baby Raven Reads gains last

A Tlingit Elder and scholar will argue in Juneau on Thursday that culture is why reading gains from Sealaska Heritage Institute's Baby Raven Reads program last, when gains from many early literacy programs fade.

It's known as the "fade-out" effect: children's reading skills often slip after they leave early literacy programs, and Daaḵw ḵuwdéin Patrick M. Anderson doesn't think more robust curricula will fix it, according to SHI's announcement. He says that pattern doesn't apply to Baby Raven Reads.

The program serves Alaska Native children up to age 5 and their families with monthly literacy kits, free books rooted in Alaska Native cultures and places, and family events. SHI has also made materials in Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Shm'algyack (Tsimshian).

Anderson's research holds that the program restores the conditions a child's developing brain is built to learn in. A trusted adult who reads to the child and responds builds a sense of belonging and encourages the continuity of Alaska Native languages and traditional stories.

"Regulation and relationship come first; durable literacy is what consolidates on top of them," he said in the announcement. Culture, he said, "is the ground the learning stands on and the reason the gains hold."

Some early evidence comes from a McKinley Research Group report released by SHI in 2021. It found the share of Juneau's Alaska Native students consistently showing phonetic knowledge when they started kindergarten rose from 25% in 2014-15, before Baby Raven Reads began, to 45% in 2019-20. The report called the program "a likely contributor." It measured children only at kindergarten entry, so it doesn't show whether those gains held in later grades.

Anderson, of the Shangukeidí clan from Xéitl Hít in Dry Bay, is a former attorney and independent scholar with four decades of executive leadership in Alaska Native health, education and governance.

His talk, "Why Baby Raven Reads Endures," is at noon Thursday in Shuka Hít, the clan house at SHI in downtown Juneau, and will stream on SHI's YouTube channel. It's part of SHI's Native American Heritage Month lecture series.