Rationale: Reading instruction
A major impediment to serving the needs of children who struggle with reading is current teacher preparation practices. Many teachers lack basic knowledge and understanding of reading development and the nature of reading difficulties. Education schools must commit to fostering the development of the necessary knowledge and skills at the preservice level so that teachers enter the classroom with expertise in this critical area.
America's failure to teach reading to so many children disproportionately affects children who are poor as well as children of color. "Only" 23 percent of White children scored below basic on the 2007 fourth grade NAEP assessment in reading, compared to 54 percent of African American children, 51 percent of Hispanic children and 50 percent of all children living in poverty.
This unacceptable rate of failure has been deemed a public health crisis by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At 44 different sites with an annual research budget of $60 million, NIH has been studying how children learn how to read for nearly 40 years, with research focusing on nearly 60,000 children and adults.
This massive undertaking has led to a number of breakthroughs that can dramatically reduce the number of children destined to become functionally illiterate or barely literate adults. By routinely applying in the classroom the lessons learned from these scientific findings, most reading failure could be avoided. We have learned that for 90 to 95 percent of poor readers, prevention and early intervention programs that combine instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics and reading comprehension strategies, provided by well trained teachers, can increase reading skills to average reading levels.
Illinois does not require that teacher preparation programs for elementary teacher candidates address effective reading instruction. The state has neither coursework requirements nor standards related to this critical area. Illinois does require that all teacher candidates meet a set of language arts standards; however, these standards do not explicitly require that teachers receive training in the five essential components of reading instruction.
