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How Georgia is implementing the research findings in the National Research Council Report, "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children."
Georgia has implemented a statewide reading program called Reading First. The Georgia legislature provided nine million dollars in funding for the Reading First program for the 1998-99 school year.
Reading First combines individual reading assessment for every student in grades K-3 and instruction in explicit direct systematic phonics and literature. One-third of the elementary students in Georgia are participating in this project for the 1998-99 school year. The Georgia Department of Education, under the leadership of State Superintendent Linda Schrenko, produced a four-hour training video in order to implement Reading First throughout the state of Georgia.
In order to produce the Reading First training videos mentioned above, the reading staff at the Georgia Department of Education wanted to focus on one high school student that had reading problems. Sherry Watts, a seventeen-year-old student, was selected for the video. As the video was produced, Sherry was taught to read in front of cameras. Sherry was reading on a second-grade level when the video filming started. After the three months of filming was completed, Sherry ends the video reading on a seventh grade level. She makes this statement, "I wanted to be a better reader, but I just didn?t know how to help myself. I have learned to read much better because of this program. It has made a difference in my life."
Dr. Cindy Cupp
Georgia Department of Education
Curriculum and Reading Division
1758 Twin Towers East
Atlanta, GA 30334-5040
(404) 656-0478
(404) 657-5992 Fax
E-mail: cmcupp@doe.k12.ga.us
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