Every Child Reading

Every Child Reading: An Action Plan of the LEARNING FIRST ALLIANCE
Learning First Alliance 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 335 Washington, DC 20036 www.learningfirst.org June 1998 Foreword This action paper was adopted by the Learning First Alliance, an organization of 12 leading national education associations. It has been informed by many distinguished experts in reading. We are pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Robert Slavin, Johns Hopkins University, as we as advice provided by Marilyn Adams, BBN Corporation; Isabel Beck, University of Pittsburgh; Reid Lyon, National Institutes of Health; Louisa Moats, D.C. Public Schools/NICHD Early Interventions Project; Jean Osborn, Educational Consultant; Olatokunbo S. Fashola, Johns Hopkins University; David Pearson, Michigan State University; Joseph Conaty, Office of Educational Research and Information, U.S. Department of Education; and John Pikulski, International Reading Association. Although many individuals have offered suggestions that have been incorporated herein, this paper should not necessarily be considered representative of the views of any individual who assisted in the writing or provided advice and comment. Executive Summar Read ng failure is the overwhelming reason that children are retained, assigned to specia education, or given long-term remedial services. Our goal is to ensure that all children learn to read well. If we started today, we could ensure that virtually every healthy child born in the 21s century would be reading well by age nine, and that every child now in elementary school would graduate from high school a reader. Although overall reading performance has been more or less unchanged since 1972, 40 percent o all nine-year-olds score below the basic level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). There is a continuing gap between white students and African-American and Hispanic students. While 69 percent of African-American and 64 percent of Hispanic students...