Report calls for improved literacy

17-member committee suggests ways to better teaching techniques

As the country's focus turns more to information and technology each day, literacy becomes increasingly important to manage in a high-tech world. For many, this ability to read has not yet been effectively attained.

After an intensive review of the process by which children learn to read, a 17-member national committee that includes two University professors has released a report titled "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children" that discusses their findings.

The National Research Council committee, brought together under the National Academy of Sciences, was given the task of determining the components necessary to facilitate literacy, said Education Prof. Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar.

Composed of experts from the fields of pediatrics, sociology, reading education, psychology and linguistics, the panel used its collective knowledge to attempt to develop a new understanding of what brings about success in learning to read.

Palincsar said the diverse composition of the council allowed the members to view the issue of literacy from different perspectives.

"If we don't pay attention to what we know, the implications would be too costly," Palincsar said.

Palincsar, along with Education Prof. Elizabeth Sulzby, sat on the committee.

The 390-page report released Wednesday "reveals the complexity of being an expert teacher of reading," in addition to providing "a rich knowledge base from which teacher education programs can plan their own programs of instruction," Palincsar said.

Sulzby said her time on the council was a learning experience.

"All of us came out of this effort realizing that we had grown ourselves in our own understanding," Sulzby said.

The committee found that the process of learning to read is composed of understanding phonetics, being able to "read for meaning" and fostering the development of reading fluency.

Educators must "assure that all children entering the first grade are provided with (these) three aspects of reading," Sulzby said.

The lack of any of those components leads to difficulty in future learning, Sulzby said.

This three-part approach to learning brings together old ideas of learning through phonetics and new ideas concentrating on comprehension.

"Good teachers have always included these aspects," Sulzby said.

She added that despite the intuitive nature of the findings, for some teachers, the study will improve many teachers' approach to reading by providing a "research basis to the communication between teachers," Sulzby said.

The study stresses that educators must not only know what fosters reading success among children, but they must also equip themselves to institute these standards.

Teachers need support in developing the expertise necessary to apply the standards called for by the council, Sulzby said.

Being able to understand reading difficulties is a skill that must be incorporated into state certification standards for elementary educators, the study found. The study also addresses the need for schools to have access to specialists to help students with reading problems.

Other issues touched upon by the council include how to better meet the reading needs of children who are learning English as a second language, as well as those of children without a pre-school education.

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