Iowa State's School of Education director addresses emphasis on literacy education

AMES, Iowa -- National and state education reform efforts are emphasizing scientifically based early reading instruction, and research points to the need for those foundational skills.

A 2011 longitudinal study of nearly 4,000 students commissioned by The Annie E. Casey Foundation found that those who don't read proficiently by the third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers. And the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed in 2011 that only 34 percent of fourth graders read at a "proficient" level, while the remaining students read at either the "basic" level (33 percent) or below (33 percent).

Ralph Reynolds, director of Iowa State University's School of Education, applauds the greater commitment to literacy/reading education, including here in Iowa. The past president of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Reynolds says there are some general guidelines educators can follow to strengthen literacy in most students.

"Generally it has to be explicit, systematic phonics instruction in the early grades, along with systemic comprehension instruction," said Reynolds, who specializes in reading comprehension research. "And there needs to be quick diagnosis and feedback concerning reading problems. The key statistic is that if children do not read at least at grade level by the end of third grade, they have a difficult time catching up afterward. And so our goal -- similar to Gov. Branstad's goal -- is to make sure they're reading by the end of third grade. In order to accomplish that, you sometimes have to take a child who is struggling, give them particular interventions and get them back into classes as quickly as possible."

Early intervention key to literacy plan

When it comes to any literacy plan, Reynolds agrees that early intervention is the key.

"The foundational skills for learning to read are normally acquired in the first four school grades (K-3) -- particularly the idea of automaticity, which means that children need to be able to identify words quickly and accurately; thus preserving limited cognitive capacity for the more difficult task of comprehension," he said. "We strive to teach children these foundational skills as quickly as possible."

Reynolds emphasizes that parents can also play an important role in strengthening their child's reading skills outside the classroom. But that's not always as easy as it sounds.

"Yes, education happens in the home, but it is not uniform for all children, particularly those who are linguistically and culturally diverse and come from poor families," he said. "My colleague Marilyn Adams published research suggesting, along with many others, that a child from a middle class family has about 2,000 hours of literacy experience before coming to school, while a child from a poor family, or a linguistically diverse family, might have much less than that.

"Given this data, early elementary school teachers face the very difficult task of teaching children who enter school with hugely different literacy and reading experiences," he continued. "Successfully addressing all of those individual student needs and experience levels in the limited time allotted is a daunting task, even for the most knowledgeable and experienced teachers. That is why elementary teacher preparation programs across the country must continue to emphasize educating the highest quality elementary teachers of literacy and reading as possible."

Strategy for more effective teachers

Educators and lawmakers sometimes differ on the best strategy to prepare teachers to be more effective in the classroom. Reynolds says the concept of the "model teacher" is a bit of a moving target today, but it's moving within certain defined boundaries.

"It's not the impossible task you might think," he said. "You have to create goals and areas of expertise and skill that teachers can represent in the classroom."

And because of ISU's emphasis on science and technology, Reynolds says there will always be a special focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in teacher preparation at the School of Education to go along with the emphasis on literacy/reading.

"In my short time here, I think these are two areas in which the School of Education can be recognized," he said. "Our proximal goal is that the Iowa State teacher preparation programs will graduate elementary school teachers who are instructional experts in all areas, but who possess areas of special expertise in the teaching of literacy/reading and science, math and technology to K-3 children."