[EDLING:906] Reading Skills a Crucial Factor

[Francis M Hult]

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

EXTRA CREDIT

August 1, 2005

Reading Skills a Crucial Factor

The following editorial appeared in today’s Baton Rouge [LA] Advocate:

"The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board recently created some new jobs 
to help boost reading skills among the system's students. The board 
authorized the new position of reading director. Additionally, 55 teachers 
will earn supplements to serve as part-time reading coaches.

Only time will tell if these measures prove the correct way to help 
improve reading skills among Baton Rouge's public school students. But the 
School Board's emphasis on reading as a priority in public schools is 
welcome. Fewer than half the students in the school system read on grade 
level. 

Reading is the gateway to most other learning. If students cannot read 
well, they stand a very small chance of excelling in other subjects. 

The importance of reading was underscored by a recent visit to New Orleans 
by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who was in 
the Crescent City to address a conference on the federal Reading First 
program. 

Reading First is a three-year-old federal effort to boost reading among 
children in kindergarten through third grade. The program and its 
preschool companion, Early Reading First, have given states and school 
systems $4.3 billion since 2002 to promote ‘scientifically proven’ reading 
instruction.

Spellings told her New Orleans audience that nationwide, reading test 
scores are up -- a trend that she attributed to the success of local and 
federal initiatives. 

We hope that steady improvements in reading skills also will become a 
reality in Baton Rouge's public schools. 

There's nothing more important in helping children succeed in the 
classroom."

*****

NCLB Extra Credit provides a regular look at the No Child Left Behind Act, 
President Bush's landmark education reform initiative passed with 
bipartisan support in Congress. For more information, contact the U.S. 
Department of Education at (202) 401-1576.