A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

FOR RELEASE
Contact: Julie Green
(202) 401-3026
March 18, 1998

 STATEMENT BY U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION RICHARD W. RILEY
regarding National Research Council Report on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children

 The Council's findings send the nation's parents and educators a clear signal that we need to move beyond the contentious reading debate in some communities and focus on how children learn to read. I hope this report will help end the reading wars and focus America's schools on what works in teaching reading.

This report is not just another in a series of studies on reading. We as adults must engage, motivate and be willing to nurture real improvements in the way we teach our children to read. Teachers, administrators, parents and communities must take the serious steps needed to help children learn to read.

The study clearly defines the key elements all children need in order to become good readers. Specifically, kids need to learn letters and sounds and how to read for meaning. They also need opportunities to practice reading with many types of books. While some children need more intensive and systematic individualized instruction than others, all children need these three essential elements in order to read well and independently by the end of third grade. Effective teaching and extra resources can make it possible for many at-risk children, to become successful readers.

When we talk to our children we are actually giving them the building blocks for learning to read. This report confirms that to lay the foundation for reading successfully, families, care givers and early childhood educators can help our youngest children develop strong language skills by talking to them, singing nursery rhymes and reading to them beginning at birth. Each of us can apply this report in our daily lives by making a commitment to read to a child thirty minutes each day.

The report emphasizes that well-trained teachers are the other key to helping our children become successful readers. It details the need for a corps of well-trained teachers who participate in ongoing training based on research, and reading specialists in every school.

I am pleased that this report provides research-based support for the Administration's key education proposals to help master the basics, especially reading:

• The Class Size Reduction initiative that will provide smaller classes in grades 1, 2 and 3, and more qualified teachers to give students more competent instruction; and,

• The America Reads Challenge, which supports school and community efforts to extend learning time to allow children to practice and further develop reading skills by the end of the third grade.

We are committed to ensuring that these important findings get into the hands of teachers, parents and care givers across America to help to improve reading for all children.

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