A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Washington

Team Report

We used the NRC Report as the research basis for five three-day Summer Reading Institutes entitled, Every Child a Reader: Building the Capacity to Make It Happen. They were held across Washington State during the months of July and August 1998. Each of the three days included information to support school district teams in creating the reading improvement plan that must be in place by December 15, 1998, to comply with the Washington State Accountability Plan.

The goals of the Summer Reading Institutes included the following:

1. To use research and district reading achievement data for good reading instructional decisions.
2. To examine instruction that meets the needs of all students.
3. To align resources for high impact decisions regarding curriculum, instruction, assessment and material use.
4. To begin the design of a school-wide reading accountability plan to ensure that every child is a reader K-12.

We did a research summary specific to Washington State?s Reading Essential Learnings and received permission to reprint Accomplishments in Reading (pages 80-83). In addition, we are using "Teacher Preparation Needed to Provide Opportunities for Children to Become Readers" as we revise the pre-service course requirements for teacher certification.

A Washington Success Story

Davis High School teachers in Yakirna, Washington were concerned with the lack of student preparation in the area of reading. Davis High School chose an immersion type of program. Ninety-five ninth graders with the lowest reading scores were placed in the immersion program. Their average reading level was 5.0 grade level. The target students were in the program for three of their six class periods of about 170 hours during the trimester. For example, with Davis? rotating 100-minute block schedule, the students would attend the immersion class three different periods on Monday and then all day on Tuesday and Thursday or all day on Wednesday and Friday. The students worked closely with the teachers in a very intense, structured program emphasizing silent reading for pleasure at school and at home, student oral reading for literacy and accuracy, content area reading, word attack, vocabulary development, corrected writing, and teacher modeling.

Eighty-four students completed the program with an average reading grade level of 5.81, gaining an average of 1.81 years. Some student scores indicated no gain while the scores of others indicated gains as much as 7 years.

For further information, contact:

Larry Scholl, Teacher
Davis High School
Yakima, Washington
(509) 573-2500 Work
(509) 966-0801 Home
(509) 966-6601 Fax

State Commitment Form

State: Washington
Team Leader: Barbara Lawson
Phone Number: 360-664-0916

As a result of attending this Summit, what two things does your state team commit to doing in the next six months toward enhanced literacy for children and their families?

1. Disseminate information from this summit through reading presentations at state meetings, conferences and through monthly articles for newsletters from the state to organizations. This includes a 5, 3 day 1999 Summer Reading Institutes for district teams.
2. Review certification/endorsement requirements; testify and advocate with the state board.
3. Work with businesses such as McDonalds and the Seattle Seahawks to promote family literacy.
4. Share reading research synthesis.

1. Consultant information/training provided for community/parents from the research report.
2. Federal government develop PSA's to be delivered by actors, musicians, artist; sports figures on the advantages of reading. Include Spanish speaking and other foreign language channels.

[Virginia]

[West Virginia]