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Why
Literacy Training is Needed
Because
teacher expertise is the most important factor in student
achievement, quality professional development is critical.
In What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future,
the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future
cites the study comparing high-achieving and low-achieving
elementary schools with similar student characteristics, which
found that differences in teacher qualifications accounted
for 90% of the variation in student achievement in reading
and mathematics.
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After
having The Lonely Firefly read out loud,
Camden kindergartners wrote about fireflies.
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It is our experience that helping teachers use effective practices,
supporting their professional development, providing them with
great books, and showing teachers and administrators how to
use assessments and benchmarks to inform instruction are all
activities that have enormous impact.
Helping children achieve reading success in the early grades
is critical, as those who are not independent
readers by the end of
third grade rarely catch up later. Research by Dr. Connie Juel,
a reading expert at the University of Virginia, found that only
10% of students who read poorly at the end of first grade ever
read proficiently in later grades (Connie
Juel, 1994).
Although this statistic probably reflects more what
resources we bring to bear on helping children learn to read
past first grade than upon the individual child, it is still
an alarm bell for educators.
Without intervention, illiteracy may even begin earlier in life.
Vocabulary, the building block of literacy, is essential to
success in learning to read and write. However, by age four,
the average child of a welfare family might have heard 13 million
fewer words of cumulative experience than the average child
in a working class family (Betty
Hart, 1995).
According to the National Research Council's Committee
on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, "language
development during the preschool years, in particular the development
of a rich vocabulary...constitutes an...important domain of
preparation for formal reading instruction (Catherine
Snow)."
The Council further states that failure to develop an adequate
vocabulary, understanding of print concepts, or phonological
awareness during the preschool years constitutes risk for reading
difficulties (Catherine
Snow).
Not only do children from low-income families have smaller vocabularies
than children from professional families, they also add words
more slowly to their repertoire. Consequently, there is an ever-widening
gap between disadvantaged children and those who are more prosperous,
and that gap is unlikely to narrow with increasing years of
experience (Catherine
Snow).
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The
Library Corner at a Children's Literacy Initiative
model kindergarten classroom. Book covers are facing
outward and children's writing is on display above
the book racks.
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Literacy
is strongly linked to success in school and, consequently,
success in life. Americans are faced with disheartening statistics:
85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court and 75 percent
of unemployed adults are illiterate (Marilyn
Jager Adams, 1990).
National statistics show that students who have
been retained are 14.1 percent more likely to drop out than
other students (U.S.
Department of Congress, 1995).
The economic consequences of leaving high school
without a diploma are severe. Dropouts are more likely to
be unemployed than high school graduates (9 percent unemployment
rate vs. the 1995 national average of 4.3 percent), and they
earn less money when they eventually secure work (U.S.
Department of Education, 1996).
Moreover, the same data shows that young women who drop out
of high school are more likely to become pregnant at younger
ages, and more likely to be single parents (M.
McMillen and P. Kaufman).
As a result, high school dropouts are more likely
to receive public assistance than graduates who did not go
on to college (U.S.
Department of Education, 1996).
The new, time-restricted welfare regulations are
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creating a new urgency for literacy training of high school
dropouts. But to break the cycle of poverty, our youngest
students must also be placed on a sure path to literacy.
By helping teachers and parents focus on literacy during critical
years of child development, Children's Literacy Initiative
can help students prepare to read earlier and better, thus
reducing the need for remediation. With these skills, students
will have a better chance of gaining employment and improving
the quality of life in their neighborhoods.
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Children's Literacy Initiative Mission Statement
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Children’s Literacy Initiative works with teachers to transform instruction so that all children can become powerful readers and writers.
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Juel,
Connie. Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School.
New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994.
Hart, Betty and Todd R. Risley. Meaningful Differences
in the Everyday Experience
of Young American Children.
Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995. p. 164.
Snow, Catherine, et.al. Preventing Reading Difficulties
in Young Children. p. 170
Ibid. p. 320.
Ibid. p. 198.
Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning
About Print.
Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1990.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current
Population Survey,
October 1995, unpublished data.
U.S. Department of Education. Condition of Education 1996
(Indicators 32 and 43).
McMillen, M. and P. Kaufman. Dropout Rates in the United
States: 1994. U.S.
Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, NCES 96-863.
U.S. Department of Education. Condition of Education 1996
(Indicator 36).
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