Every Child Reading: A Professional Development Guide

A Companion to Every Child Reading: An Action Plan

November 2000

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Foreword

This guide to professional development has been adopted by the Learning First Alliance, an organization of 12 leading national education associations. It has been informed by many distinguished experts in the fields of reading and professional development. We are pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Louisa C. Moats, Project Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Early Interventions Project, Washington, as well as the advice provided by Marilyn Jager Adams, Research Associate, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; Julie Anderson, English Specialist, Oregon Department of Education; Isabel Beck, Professor of Education and Senior Scientist, School of Education, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh; Joseph Conaty, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Director, Special Initiatives Unit, U.S. Department of Education; Alice R. Furry, Director, Reading Lions Center, Sacramento County Office of Education; Sally Hampton, Noyce Fellow, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Phyllis C. Hunter, Consultant for Texas Statewide Reading Initiatives, Texas Education Agency; Michael L. Kamil, Professor, Psychological Studies in Education, School of Education, Stanford University; Diane Levin, Education Policy Advisor to the Chief Deputy Superintendent, Accountability and Administration, California Department of Education; Renee Murray, Special Project Branch Manager, Kentucky Department of Education; Jean Osborn, Educational Consultant, Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Cathy M. Roller, Director of Research and Policy, International Reading Association; and Robert E. Slavin, Codirector, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins University.

Although many individuals have offered suggestions that have been incorporated herein, this guide does not necessarily represent the views of any individual who assisted in the writing or provided advice and comment.

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Preface

In 1998, the Learning First Alliance published Every Child Reading: An Action Plan, which set as a goal that virtually every healthy child born in the 21st century be reading well by age 9. Noting that the task of reforming reading instruction is enormous, the action plan called on educators and policymakers to take the following steps:

• Base educational decisions on evidence, not ideology.
• Promote adoption of texts based on the evidence of what works.
• Provide adequate professional development.
• Promote whole-school adoption of effective methods.
• Involve parents in support of their children's reading.
• Provide early childhood experiences that promote literacy.
• Improve preservice education and instruction.
• Provide additional staff for tutoring and class-size reduction.
• Improve early identification and intervention.
• Introduce accountability measures for the early grades.
• Intensify reading research.

Although each of these elements is crucial, none is more central to reading success for all children than ensuring that all students are taught to read by teachers who have been well prepared to understand and apply the research base. Recognizing that the members of the Learning First Alliance are uniquely able to recommend and put into practice research-based guidance on professional development for elementary school teachers, the Action Plan called on Alliance members to recommend suggested criteria for high quality inservice professional development. This guide responds to that call by providing professional development guidelines on reading for teachers of the early elementary years.

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Purpose

National, state, and local interest in the quality of our schools and the achievement of all students is as high as it has ever been. Educational leaders all over the United States have embraced higher standards for students, accountability for schools, and improvement of teacher quality. Central in the discussion of school improvement is the belief, supported by research, that almost all students can learn to read and that much reading failure is preventable. The Learning First Alliance's 1998 action plan on early reading instruction, Every Child Reading: An Action Plan, aligns with several other reviews that rest on decades of reading research.1 Every Child Reading: An Action Plan, the authoritative 1998 research synthesis Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children from the National Academy of Sciences, and, more recently, the Report of the National Reading Panel, identify scientifically validated practices that enable all but 2 percent to 5 percent of children to read, even in populations where the incidence of failure is often far higher.

Nevertheless, the new understandings of how children learn to read, why some fail, and how best to teach have yet to be applied on a widespread, consistent basis. Teachers may be educated, licensed, and employed without knowledge of the most important tools for fighting illiteracy. They may be asked to instruct all students in early reading without the essential information, program resources, or contextual supports necessary to achieve such a goal. As Every Child Reading: An Action Plan concluded, substantial changes in the preparation and professional development of all those who are responsible for student outcomes-teachers, administrators, and specialists-is necessary.

For the teaching of literacy to succeed for almost all students, even those who are challenging to teach, educators must apply our best understanding of effective professional development, such as the principles and practices recommended by the National Staff Development Council and the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching.*2 Single workshops unconnected to an overall plan of schoolwide improvement are ineffective. Likewise, the superficial treatment of complex information should be replaced by study, practice, implementation, and evaluation of instruction supported by research. Sustained and continuous professional growth toward effective literacy instruction is every educator's and every school's responsibility.

The purpose of this document is to assist planners of professional development for reading and language arts education to set goals, select or design viable programs, and allocate resources wisely. The components of effective reading instruction are clearly stated in a series of consensus reports, in addition to Every Child Reading: An Action Plan.3 Much is also known about adult learning and teacher education in general.4 Although research documenting the best ways to build teacher expertise is limited, there is significant evidence that professional development in reading can have positive effects on teaching and produce significantly higher student achievement.†5 While more information is needed on the optimal design of professional development in reading, there is sufficient basis for putting forward guidelines for the content, context, and methodology of professional development in reading instruction, even as we call for research on what works best.

There is particular need for additional research to identify the most effective approaches for teaching reading to English language learners. With that caution in mind, however, the teacher knowledge and skills outlined in these guidelines are a necessary-although not sufficient-foundation for reading teachers of children who speak languages other than English. Reading teachers of English language learners also need additional professional development in the process and strategies of second language acquisition as well as in reading comprehension instruction and vocabulary and syntactic development. These teachers should also be given training in specific instructional strategies that are most beneficial for different populations of students, including very young English language learners who have not yet learned to read, older children with limited formal schooling who struggle to read in any language, and older students who read proficiently in their native language. But, while these issues are very important and merit significant attention, they are beyond the scope of this guide.

Although this guide is only a starting point for professional development, we envision school, district, and state personnel using these guidelines to commit the time and resources necessary to build lasting expertise. Under the Reading Excellence Act, for example, quality professional development is a top priority. Programs will be evaluated according to whether or not they produce changes in student performance. Pressed by many states' new achievement standards, teachers must know how to accomplish genuine and lasting student gains. For universities and institutes that provide teachers with professional development in reading, clear expectations that include demonstrable gains in student achievement must be the focus.*

The following sections contain recommendations agreed to by the members of the Learning First Alliance that incorporate their experience, the research evidence on professional development, and the consensus on instructional practices most likely to improve reading achievement in the earliest school years.

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