Reading Summit Home Page
Washington, DC
September 18, 1998
At just such an event last year, I met a student who I want to tell you about -- a 5th-grader named Jonathan whom President Clinton and I met at a school in Maryland.
Jonathan was asked to read a paragraph of his favorite book to the President -- the book was "Eben Tyne, Powdermonkey." It's about a young boy who loaded gunpowder onto battleships in the Civil War. Boys who had that job were called "powdermonkeys." Jonathan read his paragraph, and the President responded by talking about how much he loves to read history.
Jonathan sort of hesitated before handing the book to the President and saying, "If you'd like to finish it by yourself, you can. But it's due back at the Crofton library on the 27th of September."
Unfortunately, there aren't enough Jonathans across America who can read well and are so engaged with books. We are here today at our first national summit on reading because more than four in ten of our fourth graders failed to read as well as we would like in a national assessment. Nothing less than the future of this country depends on our ability to engage these struggling students.
The one certainty we know these children will face in the future is change. It is the commitment of this Administration -- and it is our responsibility as a society -- to see to it that every child possesses the skills they will need to navigate these rapidly changing times.
As we take on that task, we should heed the words of the great scientist Louis Pasteur, who said: "Change is chance, which favors the mind that is prepared." We have come together today to talk about the exercise that best prepares the mind -- reading. It is the most basic of basic skills.
Two years ago, I challenged America to become a nation of readers and launched a national crusade to make sure that every child in this country is reading well and independently by the end of the third grade if not earlier. I am so pleased that so many states and school districts have adopted this challenge. To keep us focused I am announcing today that I will issue an annual report on reading every year. The first report will be released later this year.
Today, I want to go another step and challenge you to help us in five specific areas that deserve our special attention.
My first challenge is to parents. Far too many parents still haven't gotten the message on the benefits of reading to and with their young children. We know that children who get an early start are most likely to succeed in school and to continue their education the longest. Yet preschool enrollment covers just half of all American children. And once children get to school, they too often have teachers who are unprepared to overcome their reading challenges.
Parents and grandparents need to read to young children 30 minutes a day. They can give their children an interest in reading by getting them a library card at an early age, and providing regular opportunities to use it. These steps are as simple as they seem, and yet too many children miss out on them.
That's why I am hopeful that each participant here and each state team here today will go back home with fresh ideas to make the case more emphatically to American families. Simply put, we all need to be on a crusade to help parents slow down their lives and help their children grow. Reading with their children 30 minutes a day would revolutionize education.
We've all heard the phrase "Home is where the heart is." I want to ask your help to paraphrase that saying to deliver a message to every parent: When it comes to reading, "Home is where a good start is."
A second challenge is to once and for all end the reading wars. The National Academy of Sciences reading study released earlier this year gave us important insights about how children learn to read. You will hear more about that outstanding study during this conference and throughout this morning's sessions. The study shows us that we don't have to make false choices and end up shouting at each other over how to teach reading. There is a common ground for common action to make America a nation of readers.
For example, the elements of different instructional techniques are important -- including phonics and whole language -- depending on a child's individual needs.
Further, I want to point out one conclusion offered in the study. This statement speaks not only to parents, but to all of us involved in the promotion of literacy: "Most of the reading problems faced by today's adolescents and adults are the result of problems that might have been avoided or resolved in their early childhood years."
If you apply that statement to the children of today and tomorrow, it means most of the obstacles they will face in learning to read can be resolved -- community by community, school by school and state by state. That's exciting.
A third action step or challenge is to put a special focus on building new links and collaborations between schools and agencies that provide early childhood services. Consider all the people who work with children before they reach a kindergarten class -- parents, Head Start professionals, child care providers, public pre-school programs, church-sponsored pre-schools, and so on -- with virtually no linkages. We often have no consensus on what these programs should do to lay the first building blocks for literacy.
Everyone in this room should make it a priority to build stronger ties between these sorts of agencies and organizations in your communities and states. Their participation can offer greater focus to the role of literacy in pre-K programs and this will pay dividends not only in pre-schools but also in elementary and secondary schools.
A fourth challenge --we need to do much, much more to help children with learning disabilities, African-American children and limited English proficient (LEP) children to read well. Eighty percent of children with learning disabilities have reading problems, but the majority can become good readers if they get help in the earliest grades. This is why we want to reduce class size as well.
If these children don't get help early, too often they are tracked into special education. We can do better.
And I am very concerned, as all of you are, when 69% of African-American fourth graders and 64% of Hispanic children failed to read at grade level. Let's set the goal of cutting those numbers in half in the next five years. To my way of thinking, learning to read and getting a first class education has to be seen as a new civil right.
A fifth challenge: we must place greater emphasis on the preparation of teachers to teach reading well. I urge our schools of education to require that every prospective early elementary teacher have a solid foundation in the latest research and strategies to effectively teach children to read well. That is not the case in too many colleges today.
Furthermore, school districts, professional associations, and colleges must do a much better job of professional development of the current teaching force. Current professional development programs with their emphasis on "seat time" really need to be a thing of the past. We need high quality professional development programs and incentives for teachers to develop their skills, knowledge and instructional strategies to help all children read well.
We know that the first three to four years of schooling is all about learning to read, and thereafter students read to learn. We must do whatever it takes to strengthen those elementary school years -- from better curriculum and materials to access to useful technology. After-school and summer tutoring must be made available to every child who needs extra help.
And we must engage the whole community to improve reading, including volunteering to help as reading partners and tutors.
We also need to show the will and commitment to improve literacy for all American children through our public policies and expenditures. When I think about that political reality, I am reminded of one of my favorite lines by Plato. He said: "That which is honored in a country is that which will be cultivated there."
The Clinton-Gore Administration has made the cultivation of literacy for all children a top priority. We have made this evident through increased investment in federal programs that focus on reading. We have consistently sought greater funding for Title I, bilingual programs, the America Reads Challenge, and the commitment of College Work-Study positions for tutoring.
These investments represent a significant portion of the more than two billion dollars in education initiatives proposed by President Clinton that the Congress has before them right now. In addition, we are asking Congress to help you in your state reduce the class size in the early grades by helping to pay for the hiring and training of 100,000 high quality teachers.
And we have proposed $22 billion of interest free bonds to help your communities in your states modernize schools.
If Congress approves every one of these investments, they will help show children that our nation is making education a priority as we approach a new Century.
We have less than a month to go before Congress adjourns for the year. I remain hopeful that Congress will set aside partisanship and help us build partnerships for literacy. Congress should pass a strong literacy bill now, before they recess for the elections. The teachers, the tutors and most of all the students know we can't lose another year while Congress dilly dallies.
In closing, you will soon hear from Dr. Snow who will eloquently describe the Academy Study. But before that, I want you to consider another doctor's comments -- Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss writes in "I Can Read with My Eyes Shut"
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The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go |
Thank you.
Richard W. Riley
U.S. Secretary of Education
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