Schools target poor readers August 17, 2001 BY CURTIS LAWRENCE STAFF REPORTER All students in Chicago's public schools will be required to have a minimum of two hours of daily reading instruction, reading specialists will be deployed at low-performing schools, and millions of dollars will be spent on books for primary classrooms, schools CEO Arne Duncan said Thursday, offering the first glimpse of his strategy to boost academic performance. "We all know that unless our students learn to read and read well, they are doomed to a life of failure," Duncan said, echoing concerns voiced by Mayor Daley in the waning days of former CEO Paul Vallas' administration. "If a child does not learn to read by the time he or she graduates to the fourth grade, it is unlikely that the student will ever become a competent reader.'' Duncan and his chief education officer, Barbara Eason-Watkins, outlined the strategy at Dixon Elementary School in Chatham, where 56 percent of the students are reading at or above the national average on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills taken last May. "For many schools this is not new, but it has not been systemwide," Duncan said of the emphasis on reading. "In some schools, it has not been a priority.'' Some schools spend less than one hour a day on reading, he said. Duncan's strategy calls for a Common Literacy Instructional Framework for all of the district's 431,000 students. At the core of the initiative is a mandatory requirement that a minimum of two hours a day be devoted exclusively to English and reading instruction. "All research, as well as our collective common sense, indicates that in order to help students improve their reading abilities, we must spend more time on this subject matter," Duncan said. In addition, the district's 128 low-performing schools will be staffed with "an elite corps" of specialists to help drive reading improvement strategies at the schools. One reading specialist will be assigned to each of the schools by the end of the school year, Duncan said. Primary classrooms throughout the district will receive a total of more than $6 million in books and reading materials. "This is going to take no new money," Duncan said. "We have all the resources in house to do this." He said funding will come from realigning funds from "unfocused and duplicative" programs. Julie Woestehoff, executive director of the advocacy group Parents United for Responsible Education, said the plan has potential. "This sounds promising to me, and it's partly because in the past, they focused much too much on test preparation for the Iowa Test,'' Woestehoff said. The test, which is taken by students in third through eighth grades, measures skills in reading and math. It is an important factor in determining whether students should graduate or be promoted to the next grade. Duncan said test scores should not be the only criteria on which student performance is based. But he said he still will stress improving test scores and will announce plans to raise benchmarks next week. Woestehoff said she also was encouraged by the assignment of reading specialists, but added, "I'd like to know where they are coming from, and I'd like to be sure they have the credentials that would justify them telling other teachers how to read." DUNCAN'S PLAN * All 431,000 Chicago public school students will receive a minimum of two hours of reading and English instruction. * The district's 128 low-performing schools will be staffed with an "elite corps" of reading specialists. The specialists will begin work two weeks before the start of the school year and work two weeks after school ends. * The administration will spend $6 million to put new books and reading materials in primary classrooms. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
