We have been reading with great interest your coverage of the recent State of Illinois Summit Meeting on Reading, the reporting of state report cards for reading and President Clinton’s call to focus on literacy.
As 30-year veteran teachers who have written books that stress the necessity of balanced instruction as an important part of the curriculum, we would like to highlight some facts about reading instruction in Illinois that need to be addressed:
– In the last five years there has been almost a 50 percent turnover in experienced teachers in some districts due to state early-retirement programs.
– State Title 1 remedial funds are now allocated without special reading priorities.
– Some funds are being used to replace trained reading specialists with untrained aides.
– Staff development emphases for the state have been on math and technology.
– The addition of foreign language and technology requirements to the curriculum are often at the expense of instructional time in reading and the other language arts.
– There have been excessive state and local demands for the development of complex assessment devices of limited usefulness that take valuable teaching time and deplete teacher energy.
– Special-needs students have been placed in regular classrooms, often without adequate support for teachers.
– Illinois requires only one course in reading and language for teacher preparation–minimal compared to other states. No children’s literature course is required.
While some of these shifts are desirable, the overall weight of these changes makes interpretation of the reading progress of children in Illinois schools a complicated issue. At some point we all have to face that we get what we pay for, we learn what we spend time on and that, with limited resources, we need to prioritize what it is we can expect schools, and teachers, to accomplish. We hope to see a greater depth of coverage on these important issues in the future.
