WASHINGTON -- There are zero-book children, 1,000-book children, the summer slide, Early Readers, Reading First, Striving Readers and programs, methods and studies with names and acronyms that won't quit. It's all part of the effort to teach U.S. children to read.
With state and local funding for education being squeezed, however, school administrators and classroom teachers are hoping that a bill introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that would provide nearly $12 billion for literacy programs over five years will inject some much-needed cash into what most consider the cornerstone of learning.
"The need for federal funds is critical," said Patti Banks, superintendent of the University Place School District outside Tacoma.
Murray's legislation also would overhaul a federal literacy effort that was rocked by allegations of mismanagement, favoritism and conflicts of interest involving officials at the Department of Education during the Bush administration.
The department's inspector general issued a scathing report in 2006 that concluded that those who were running the literacy programs failed to maintain "management integrity and accountability."
About one in seven adults in the U.S. can't read newspapers, gas bills or this sentence, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy released earlier this year.
About 40 percent of students have trouble learning to read. Some are immigrants and can barely speak English. Some have dyslexia or other reading disabilities. Some have rough home lives. Others, new research shows, simply have trouble learning long vowels.
Reading has been a special focus in the Kennewick School District for years. The school board in 1995 set the goal of having 90 percent of third-graders reading at or above grade level. That was accomplished for the first time in 2006.
District students spend focused time each day working on literacy skills. At Cascade Elementary School, third-graders in Jamie Whitmire's class work on reading between two and 2 1/2 hours a day. They do classroom lessons and also are divided into small groups based on their reading levels.
Literacy education is important because strong reading skills help students in every other subject, Whitmire said.
"If you incorporate reading into every subject, you can engage (students') minds. Regardless of whether they like reading, they're going to learn something," she said.
Murray's bill would provide funding for students in elementary school, but it also addresses the growing concern among literacy educators for students in middle and high school.
Educators often see a slip in reading test scores among middle school students whose earlier literacy problems were thought to be solved. There aren't as many teachers and as much one-on-one instruction available for older students.
"I think it's the critical silent issue in education," Murray said. "Where we have not focused are in the upper grades."
Ten percent of the funding in Murray's bill would be aimed at programs for children from birth to age 5, 40 percent for students in kindergarten to fifth grade and 40 percent for students in grades six through 12. The other 10 percent would be discretionary.
The funding would be directed at school districts and the states, and could provide for more literacy coaches, expanded staff training and the creation of state literacy plans.
Though the bill was introduced as a freestanding measure in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Murray expects that her measure will be folded into the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law early next year.