Reading is the foundation for all other learning. American students perform well on international assessments of reading. However, national assessments of reading show that about 40 percent of America’s fourth graders still fail to attain the basic level of reading and 70 percent fall below the proficient level of reading. Too many of our children are struggling through school because they have not mastered essential and basic reading skills. Research demonstrates that if students cannot read well by the end of third grade, their chances for success are significantly diminished and they have a greater likelihood of dropping out or engaging in escalating delinquent behaviors. In response, the President announced the Administration’s commitment to mobilizing public and private resources to help all our children learn to read.
The America Reads Challenge asks all Americans to identify what role they can play professionally and personally to help all of our children learn to read well and independently by the end of third grade. While remaining sensitive to the unique learning needs of each child, we must work hard to instill in all children and in ourselves, high expectations for their reading skills.
Study after study finds that sustained individual attention and tutoring after school and over the summer, when combined with parental involvement and high-quality school instruction, can raise reading levels. Teachers, principals, and librarians play a key role by strengthening reading in school and extending learning through after-school, summer, and weekend programs. Parents and other concerned persons in local communities, including the private sector, are equally valuable as tutors, mentors, and reading partners. The first step is to engage parents, educators, and the broader public to address this reading challenge together.
Several strategies are essential for helping our children learn to read:
1. Create more after-school, weekend and summer learning opportunities to supplement quality classroom instruction in reading.
Even when students receive the very best instruction in-class, some will always need extra time and assistance to achieve the high levels of reading skills needed in school, in the workplace, and throughout life. The fundamental purpose of the America Reads Challenge is to enable parents and educators to complement and expand existing successful literacy efforts to help many more children increase their skills and achievement levels, and to give children who need additional help in reading extended learning time.
Research demonstrates that tutoring increases children’s reading achievement, confidence, and motivation, in addition to a sense of control over his or her reading ability. Tutors -- whether they are volunteers, peers, cross-age tutors, or professionals -- produce positive results.
The America Reads Challenge will build on, expand, and initiate thousands of local efforts to improve reading. It will also build on nationwide efforts such as the following:
2. Strengthen parental involvement and our nation’s investment in the early childhood years, so that our children develop readiness skills for learning to read by the time they enter school.
Parents are their children’s first and most important teachers beginning at birth. Every parent and caregiver can participate in simple daily activities with their babies and toddlers to teach them about language and to better them better to learn to read. Research shows that parents and caregivers can engage in exercises to foster development of the necessary skills in their child, and parents and caregivers can work together to ensure that each child has the proper foundation for reading skills. Many local parental and community efforts across the country exemplify how successful parent and caregiver programs can be developed; however, the need for involvement is far greater than the programs currently available can meet. The America Reads Challenge seeks to reinforce skill-building activities for children beginning at birth, and encourage programs that encourage and support parental involvement in these activities.
Early childhood researchers, along with the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Corporation for National Service, have developed a kit called Ready*Set*Read! that summarizes ideas for parents and caregivers to help their young children develop and improve their language skills. The kit containes an activities booklet, a calendar of suggested daily activities, and a growth chart that identifies language skills many children can perform during each growth period.
Furthermore, a number of Federal resources and programs that currently deliver services to families with young children, or involve parental education and skills training, can be strengthened in order to better assist families with early childhood development and early literacy skills. For example:
In addition, the proposed legislation emphasizes efforts that help parents, families, and caregivers who want to be active partners with their children as they make the transition into school, and throughout their education experience.
3. Bring best practices into the school and classroom.
Teacher Preparation: Teachers often report that they would like to be better prepared to teach reading in the classroom, and that they would like additional support and training from reading experts and professional development programs throughout their careers. The U.S. Department of Education is engaged in a number of efforts to increase teacher preparation and professional development across the core subject areas. In addition, the Eisenhower Professional Development program was awarded an additional $25 million in the 1998 budget to be used for professional development in reading. The proposed America Reads legislation includes funds to improve professional development in reading to ensure a high-quality in-school reading program.
Principal Leadership: In addition to teachers, school principals play a critical role in our efforts to meet our children’s educational needs. Many principals have expressed a desire for additional leadership training and development to better prepare them to work with communities to link reading efforts outside of school with in-class instruction. The U.S. Department of Education is working with principals from around the country to support efforts to expand leadership training for principals.
Strengthening of Title I: Title I is the largest in-school investment made by the U.S. Department of Education to improve reading instruction for children in high-poverty schools and neighborhoods. This year’s budget contained a significant increase in funds for Title I.
Highlight Successful Reading Programs: As a part of this effort to bring best practices into our schools, information about strong reading programs will have been identified through current research will be disseminated. Three groups of particular focus will be children in poverty served by Title I, children with disabilities served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and children who speak English as a second language.
4. Promote greater public awareness and local partnership building
The America Reads Challenge is encouraging states and communities to form literacy partnerships among schools, libraries, youth-serving groups, businesses, public and private agencies, and other community organizations, and to build on them where they already exist.
As part of this public awareness and coalition-building campaign, the White House launched the President’s Coalition for the America Reads Challenge. Any organization in the country can join the President’s Coalition. The only prerequisite for membership is a commitment to help reach the goal of ensuring that our children can read well and independently by the end of the third grade.
5. Support research and evaluation
The National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council’s two-year study on the prevention of reading difficulties in children, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, was completed in March 1998. The report of this study provides findings from reading research on how children learn to read and translates those findings into advice and guidance for parents, educators, publishers, and others. The NAS will also convey this information to targeted audiences through a variety of publications, conferences, and other outreach activities.
The America Reads Challenge will continue to support research and evaluation in critical areas related to reading and early childhood development. Dissemination of up-to-date research findings to a wide audience remains a priority. Research findings by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, for example, have been incorporated into materials used to help children with reading problems. Research on after-school tutoring and successful in-school instruction in reading for the U.S. Department of Education is being used in the America Reads Challenge.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE AMERICA READS CHALLENGE:
U.S. Department of Education
600 Independence Avenue, Room 6100
Washington, DC 20202
202-401-8888 (voice)
202-401-0596 (fax)
The U.S. Department of Education’s toll-free number for comments or ordering publications: 1-800-USA-LEARN (1-800-872-5327) or TDD 1-800-437-0833
The U.S. Department of Education America Reads Challenge Web site: www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/
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The President's America Reads Challenge