Preventing
Reading Difficulties In
Young Children
"THE MAJORITY OF READING PROBLEMS faced by today's adolescents & adults could have been avoided or resolved in the early years of childhood," according to a report released March 18, 1998 by the National Research Council (NRC).
The report, "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children," calls for widespread reforms "to ensure that all children are equipped with the skills & instruction they need to learn to read."
Responding to the report, Secretary Riley said that "The Council's findings send the nation's parents & educators a clear signal that we need to move beyond the contentious reading debate in some communities & focus on how children learn to read." The Secretary went on to say that...
"The study clearly defines the key elements all children need in order to become good readers. Specifically, kids need to learn letters & sounds & how to read for meaning. They also need opportunities to practice reading with many types of books. While some children need more intensive & systematic individualized instruction than others, all children need these 3 essential elements in order to read well & independently by the end of 3rd grade. Effective teaching & extra resources can make it possible for many 'at-risk' children to become successful leaders."
An image version of the prepublication copy of the nearly 400-page report, is at:
The NRC press release is available at:
The Secretary's full statement is available at:
For the readers convenience we have marked up the Executive Summary in HTML and placed it on the ED Department WWW server.
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