Statistics in US literacy for k-12

1. 1
Let’s look at some statistics
Schools in the US have experienced a
283% increase in students receiving
services under the special education
designation of specific learning disability
in the last 30 years.
Gresham, 2002

2. 2
Reschly, CEC Annual Convention, New Orleans, 4-17-04

3. 3
Although there are 2.8 million children in U.S.
schools who are currently eligible for special
education services under learning disability
designation, countless of these children do not
have true learning disabilities.
We have simply let them fail for enough years
until they perform like a student with a true LD.

4. 4
Prevention and Early
Intervention in
general education
is the key to solving our
literacy crisis!

5. 5
 Traditional model forces children to fail
for several years before they are eligible
for SPED services, usually 3rd or 4th
grade
 75% of students receiving reading
remediation after 3rd grade never read at
grade level
 “Wait to Fail” modelCarnine D. (2003, March). IDEA: focusing on improving results for children with disabilities. Testimony in
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce, United
States House of Representatives.

6. 6
The consequences of not learning to read
are far reaching…

7. 7
Evidence shows that children who do not read
by third grade often fail to catch up and are
more likely to drop out of school, take drugs, or
go to prison. So many nonreaders wind up in
jail that Arizona officials have found they can
use the rate of illiteracy to help calculate future
prison needs.
Stephen D. Krashen

8. 8
20 percent
of all graduating
high school seniors can be
classified as being functionally illiterate
National Right to Read Foundation

9. 9
The educational careers of 25 to 40 percent
of American children are imperiled
because they don't read well enough,
quickly enough, or easily enough.
Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children of the
National Research Council, 1998

10. 10
It is estimated that more than $2 billion is
spent each year on students who repeat a
grade because they have reading
problems.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

11. 11
More than 20 percent of adults read at or
below a fifth-grade level - far below the
level needed to earn a living wage.
National Institute for Literacy, Fast Facts on Literacy, 2001

12. 12
Approximately 50 percent of the nation's
unemployed youth age 16-21 are
functional illiterate, with virtually no
prospects of obtaining good jobs.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

13. 13
44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well
enough to read a simple story to a child.
National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) NCED,
U.S. Department of Education

14. 14
60 percent of America's prison inmates are
illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders
have reading problems.
U.S. Department of Education

15. 15
Children who have not developed some
basic literacy skills by the time they enter
school are 3 - 4 times more likely to drop
out in later years.
National Adult Literacy Survey, (1002) NCES,
U.S. Department of Education

16. 16
Nearly half of America's adults are poor
readers, or "functionally illiterate." They
can't carry out simply tasks like balancing
check books, reading drug labels or writing
essays for a job.
National Adult Literacy Survery of 1993

17. 17
15% of all 4th graders read no faster than
74 words per minute, a pace at which it
would be difficult to keep track of ideas as
they are developing within the sentence
and across the page.
Pinnell, et. al. 1995

18. 18
44% of American 4th grade students
cannot read fluently, even when they read
grade-level stories aloud under supportive
testing conditions.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

19. 19
To participate fully in society and the
workplace in 2020, citizens will need
powerful literacy abilities that until now
have been achieved by only a small
percentage of the population.
National Council on Teachers of English Standards
for the English Language Arts

20. 20
Don’t get too
discouraged…
There is HOPE!

21. 21
 It is our responsibility as educators to
make sure all students receive an
excellent education and that they can
access every single opportunity so they
learn how to read.
But is this really possible?
YES!

22. 22
 By the 4th grade, 2 hours of specialized daily
instruction is required to make the same gain
that would have resulted from only 30
minutes of daily instruction if begun when
the child was in Kindergarten.
National Institute of Health, 1999

23. 23
A combination of effective classroom instruction
and targeted small-group instruction can
remediate up to 98% of students performing
below the 30th percentile in early reading skills.
Foorman, 2003

24. 24
Reading difficulties are themost
researched, best understood and most
effectively corrected learning difficulties if
identified early and addressed swiftly.

25. 25
 The earlier we intervene the better.
 We must prevent problems at the general
education level. We also must work
together as a seamless system not of
general + special education, but of
simply of EDUCATION.

26. 26
 The key is in identifying the right students,
early enough, and in a way that informs how
we serve them..
 One way to identify them is through
schoolwide prevention programs like
Response to Intervention (RTI)
 After you identify them how do you know
how to serve students who are struggling with
reading?

27. 27
 Response to a Congressional mandate to
help parents, teachers and policy makers
identify the key skills and methods
central to reading achievement.
The National Reading Panel

28. 28
Panel’s Responsibilities
 Review research in reading instruction
 Identify methods that consistently relate
to reading success

29. Early Phonics Interventions

30. 30
Purpose for Phonics Instruction
 The purpose of phonics instruction is not
that children learn to sound out words.
 The purpose is that they learn to
recognize words, quickly and
automatically, so that they can turn their
attention to comprehension of text.
Steven Stahl, 1992

31. 31
Why Teach Phonics?
 Phonics helps all learners
 Good readers spell better with phonics
instruction
 Struggling readers learn to read better
and faster with explicit, systematic
phonics instruction
National Reading Panel, 2000
American Psychological Society, 2001

32. 32
Relationship between DIBELS, Phonics &
the Big 5
 The Big 5 of Early Literacy:
 Phonemic Awareness
 Phonics
 Fluency
 Vocabulary
 Comprehension
 DIBELS measures the Big 5
 Nonsense Word Fluency is the
DIBELS measure of phonics.

33. 33
National Reading Panel
5 Big Ideas
DIBELS measures
Letter Naming
(Risk Indicator)
Phonemic Awareness Initial Sound Fluency
PhonemeSegmentation Fluency
Phonics NonsenseWord Fluency
Vocabulary Word Use Fluency
Fluency Oral Read. Fluency
(All DIBELS measures)
Comprehension Retell Fluency

34. 34
34
NWF assesses a student’s phonics ability
in these beginning 1st grade areas:
 Recalling consonant sounds
 Recalling short vowel sounds
 Applying knowledge of the cvc
and vc patterns to decode
 Blending (recoding) phonemes into
words.

35. 35
NOTE:
 If a student’s NWF score is in the at-risk
category, then PSF should be checked
using progress monitoring materials.
 If a student is at-risk in both NWF and
PSF, then instruction in phonological
awareness should be provided.

36. 36
DIBELS Stair steps
3rd Grade
Reading level -110 WCM
2nd Grade Fluency
Reading Level - 90 WCM
1st Grade Fluency
Reading Level - 40 WCM
Phonics
Letter Naming
Phonemic
Awareness

37. Characteristics of
Good Phonics Lessons

38. 38
 General characteristics of effective
instruction:
 Active – students engaged
 Social – interactive
 Reflective – students making sense of
what they learned

39. 39
39
Specific Characteristics of Good Phonics
Lessons
 Differentiated
 Systematic
 Sequential
 Cumulative
 Explicit
 Applied to text
 Active vocal response
 At your table,
discuss each of
these terms.

40. 40
Definitions
 Differentiated – varying the emphasis of
instruction according to the needs of the
students
 Systematic – methodical, orderly, regular,
organized, efficient, logical
 Sequential -
 Pre planned skill sequence
 Progresses from easier to more difficult

41. 41
 Cumulative – builds on previous lessons and
experiences
 Explicit –
 Teacher explains and models
 Guided practice
 Corrective feedback
 Extended practice on skills as needed by
individuals
 Check for understanding
 “I do, we do, you do”

42. 42
 Applied to text - students practice
reading the skill taught in isolated
words, word lists and decodable
books
 Active vocal response - students talk
and interact with the instructor; the
lesson is not quietly completing
worksheets alone

43. 43
Materials Publisher Cost Comments
Phonics for
Reading
Curriculum
Associates
$14.95 –
manual
$34.95 set of 5
student
workbooks
Skill level: grades 1, 2 and 3.
Designed for 2nd graders and
older needing beginning phonics
skills; Anita Archer author
Road to the
Code
Paul Brooks $49.95 Combines phonological
awareness and phonics
activities; K-1 level for
kindergarten and first graders
needing intervention
Rewards Sopris West
www.sopriswest.
com
$59 manual
$49 set of 10
student
workbooks
Follows Phonics for Reading;
developed for 4th –12th graders
reading on 2.5 – 3.0 level,
Anita Archer author
Phonics interventions to consider

44. 44
Materials Publisher Cost Comments
Sound Partners Sopris West
www.sopris
west.com
$196.49 materials
$110.95 set of
decodable readers
$12.95 Sound Cards
K/2 level; includes both
phonological awareness
and phonics; scripted
Neuhaus Haus
Education
Center Materials
Neuhaus
www.neuha
us.org
$30 Reading Readiness
manual, K/1
$130 Language
Enrichment Manual,
grades K-5
Excellent activities
developed for “at risk”
learners; explicit, direct
instruction
Systematic
Sequential
Phonics They
Use
Carson-
Dellosa
$24.99 140 lessons; beginning
phonics skills go through
lesson 29; Making or
Building Words format;
Pat Cunningham author

45. 45
Important Websites
1. Intervention Central
http://www.interventioncentral.org/
2. FloridaCenter for Reading Research
http://www.fcrr.org/
3. Vaughn-GrossCenter for Reading and
LanguageArts
http://www.texasreading.org/utcrla/
4. Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.org/
5. What WorksClearinghouse
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/