News Article Archive
Schools Turn to Comics As Trial Balloon: Novel Md. Program uses genre to encourage reluctant readers
The Washington Post
By Ylan Q. Mui
December 13, 2004
3 Teachers Write Book on Reading
The Arizona Republic
December 13, 2004
Struggling Readers Progress
The Detroit News
By Janet Sugameli
December 13, 2004
A Family Tradition: Literacy
The Kansas City Star
By John Mark Eberhart
December 12, 2004
State Tests Often Trail U.S. Results
USA Today
By Greg Toppo
December 15, 2004
Extracurricular Reading Catches On
The Plain Dealer
By Angela Townsend
December 19, 2004
Entrepreneurs’ Literacy Program Takes Off in D.C. Schools
Education Week
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
January 5, 2005
“It would have been easier to write a check. But Nina Zolt wasn’t convinced that simply providing money for disadvantaged students in the District of Columbia would have the desired effect on their reading skills, or spark an appreciation of reading. Lacking knowledge in the field, the former entertainment lawyer set out to school herself in learning theory and instruction, as well as the workings of the bureaucracy in the 65,000-student district, for insight into how best to proceed.”
Teens Unlikely to Meet Reading Goal, RAND Report Warns
Education Week
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
January 5, 2005
“As researchers and policymakers turn attention and resources to boosting adolescent literacy, an analysis of students’ performance on state and national tests holds out scant hope that schools will come close to meeting federal goals for reading achievement over the next decade.”
Mesa Kids Learn to Put Reading First
The Arizona Republic
By JJ Hensley
January 18, 2005
“Student scores on reading assessments have improved dramatically at one of the first Mesa elementary schools to implement the federally funded Reading First program. Less than 25 percent of 148 first-graders met the benchmark on a national reading test at Lowell Elementary School last year, and nearly half the students needed intensive instruction. This year, about half the students met the benchmark as second-graders. Administrators and teachers in the state's largest school district credit much of the improvement to Reading First.”
Non-profit Delivers Books to Nine Schools
The Mercury News
By Joannie Sevilla
January 27, 2005
“Excited preschool students at Almaden Elementary School in San Jose gathered around on a Thursday this month to welcome an addition to the classroom wrapped with a big red ribbon and bow: a new maple bookcase with five shelves filled with a collection of hardcover English and Spanish children's books.
Approximately 30 titles including ``Dem Bones'' and ``Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?'' beckoned to students as they waited patiently on the floor to open their gift.”
Book on Gambling Stays in Schools
The Oregonian
By Anitha Reddy
January 28, 2005
“Although not a literary gem, a New York Times bestseller about Las Vegas gamblers has educational value and should not be banned, a Beaverton School District committee decided after reviewing a parent's complaint. District students should be allowed to choose the book "Bringing Down the House" to fulfill independent reading assignments, according to a committee that reviewed a mother's complaint that the book promoted gambling and prostitution.”
Phoenix School District Finds Reading Program Successful
The Arizona Republic
January 31, 2005
“Hundreds of Phoenix-area students drop out of high school, due mainly to their inability to read. Quality high school reading programs are rare; even harder to find are effective and affordable interventions for struggling teenage readers. The Phoenix Union High School District has discovered a way to help reverse this dismal statistic by enrolling certain students in the READ 180 program of the Scholastic Book Co. This program addresses individual needs through instructional software, high-interest literature and direct instruction in reading skills.”
Books Spur New Friendships
The Des Moines Register
By Renda Lutz
February 10, 2005
“’ "Amelia Bedelia’ and other books read to the residents of Calvin Community by schoolchildren last week led to discussions about World War II and French painters.
’It was so awesome,’ third-grader Grace Harper of Clive said of the opportunity. The 28 third-grade classes in the West Des Moines school district each visit one of 15 retirement communities in the metro area to read to senior citizens as a part of the district's Read To Me program. Last week, Clive Elementary School students visited the west-side complex, 4210 Hickman Road.”
National Reading Panel Member Says Federal School Mandate Based on Flawed Work
The Missoulian
By Rob Chaney
February 16, 2005
“The scientific research backing federal reading education guidelines has little science and even less research behind it, according to an educator who served on the national panel assigned to find the best reading methods. The government right now is pushing a one-size-fits-all program, and if you're getting federal funds, you better do it,’ said Joanne Yatvin, who spent 20 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent of a small school district in Oregon. ‘But these programs that are being mandated are hurting our ability to teach children.’”
New Libraries Make the City’s Schools Come Alive
The New York Times
By Michael Winerip
February 23, 2005
“After school, Helen Feldman, the librarian at Public School 105 in Far Rockaway, Queens, was doing a quick errand, hurrying past one of the many public housing projects in the neighborhood. The police were canvassing the projects, looking for leads on a dead child who had washed up on Rockaway Beach, when a boy shouted from a barred third-floor window.”
Green Eggs and Books
The Mercury News
By Luis Zaragoza
March 3, 2005
“They did so like green eggs and ham. But a wacky breakfast wasn't the only collision of the literal and the fantastical in Cynthia Kummer's first-grade classroom on Wednesday. The Cat in the Hat swung by for a song. Kids spent the day snacking and lounging in pajamas while grown-ups, plopped on kid-size chairs, read aloud from Dr. Seuss' `Horton Hears a Who!’ The surreal scene in Kummer's class at Briarwood Elementary in Santa Clara was typical of ’Read Across America’ observances held throughout the nation. The annual event promotes love of reading and is keyed to the anniversary of Theodor ‘Dr. Seuss' Geisel's birth.”
Young Students Make Gains In Reading: Minorities still lag in Montgomery
The Washington Post
By Ylan Q. Mui
March 8, 2005
“More than 70 percent of Montgomery County students in kindergarten through second grade are reading at their grade level, with black and Hispanic children making the biggest strides, according to data released yesterday by school officials. The number of black students in second grade who passed local and national reading tests jumped to 61 percent last year, up 22 percentage points over two years. Among Hispanic children, that rate rose to 54 percent, an increase of 26 percentage points. Students who are poor, speak limited English or have disabilities also recorded double-digit increases.”
Newton closes book on elementary school librarians
The Boston Herald
By Jack Meyers
March 8, 2005
“Half of the 14 full-time librarians in Newton's elementary schools are getting axed - casualties of a budget crunch taking a toll on the upscale suburb. ‘We're just in shock and disbelief,' one Newton school staffer said yesterday afternoon after hearing about the librarians' layoffs. `Cutting the librarians is so short-sighted, so devastating.' In a citywide faculty meeting yesterday afternoon and at a school committee meeting last night, Newton School Superintendent Jeff Young unveiled a series of cutbacks and belt-tightening measures aimed at keeping the system within its budget. He did not return a phone call yesterday afternoon.”
Educators Differ on Why Boys Lag in Reading
The Washington Post
By Valeria Strauss
March 15, 2005
“Jerilynn Hoffman couldn't get her young son to read much until she found a book that wasn't her cup of tea but definitely was his: ‘The Day My Butt Went Psycho.’ Sharon Grover had a different problem: Her son loved books early in elementary school but mysteriously lost interest at about third grade, declaring: ‘My mother is a librarian, but I hate to read.’ He did, however, start reading again for pleasure -- in his twenties.”
54.5% Pass Reading Test for 3rd Grade on 1st Try
The Plain Dealer
By Scott Stephens
December 7, 2004
“The bad news is that just slightly more than half of the state's third-graders can read at grade level. The good news is that they will get two more shots at the new reading exam, the results of which were released Monday by the Ohio Department of Education.”
Schools Turn to Comics As Trial Balloon: Novel Md. Program uses genre to encourage reluctant readers
The Washington Post
By Ylan Q. Mui
December 13, 2004
“There once was a time when comic books were at the bottom of the literary food chain. Children read them under the bedcovers with a flashlight, and parents and teachers decried their reliance on one-syllable exclamations: BAM! POW! WHAM! But that was before a comic book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, before the term "graphic novel" came into vogue as a synonym and before video games became parents' new archenemy.”
3 Teachers Write Book on Reading
The Arizona Republic
December 13, 2004
“Three reading specialists from the Peoria Unified School District received a special delivery last
month. After collaborating for almost five years, Marshall Ranch first-grade teacher Bev Wirt, Sun Valley Program for Accelerated Literacy (PAL) teacher Kathleen Wesley and Canyon PAL teacher Carol Bryan opened copies of their first book, published by the International Reading Association. The book is called Discovering What Works for Struggling Readers: Journeys of Exploration With Primary-Grade Students.”
Struggling Readers Progress
The Detroit News
By Janet Sugameli
December 13, 2004
“Carol Ernst suspected her son Ryan was having trouble with early reading skills when he was in kindergarten. He didn't want to sit down to read with her and had difficulty sounding out words. In first grade, he was placed in Walled Lake's Reading Recovery program, designed to work with struggling readers on a one-on-one basis. It changed Ryan's life and his behavior. Reading became less threatening. "Now, as a second-grader, he loves to read to me," Ernst said. "He can read independently, and he can read at grade level. All the skills he learned with Reading Recovery he uses every day."
State Tests Often Trail U.S. Results
USA Today
By Greg Toppo
December 15, 2004
“The basic reading skills of public school students look good as measured by state achievement tests — more than half of elementary school students in 34 states passed state tests in 2002 and 2003. But compare those scores with a nationally representative test and they paint a different picture. In a study by the RAND Corp., a leading think tank, released today by the Carnegie Corp. of New York, researchers compared state reading scores with those on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and found that, in many states, pass rates for fourth- and fifth-graders have little correlation with national standards.”
Extracurricular Reading Catches On
The Plain Dealer
By Angela Townsend
December 19, 2004
“Allante Davis began a recent school day with his nose buried in the pages of ‘Freaky Friday.’ The book, about a teenage girl who switches bodies with her mother, is not classic literature. But it captured the imagination of the 13-year-old, who already had seen a movie by the same name. ’I wanted to compare the two,’ he said. And that delights teachers and administrators at Richmond Heights Middle School, where all 320 students devote 15 minutes out of each morning to reading printed material of their choosing books, magazines, newspapers or even comics.’”
Schools Use Novel Approach to Promote Reading, Writing
The Baltimore Sun
By Athima Chansancha
January 4, 2005
“Chalk it up to Spidey-sense, but after the recent box-office success of superhero Spider-Man, Maryland's superintendent of schools has adopted a novel approach to motivate reluctant readers: using comic books and graphic novels to enhance reading lessons.”
Visitor counts for this page.
 Education Home Page |
