Educators: Reading Scores Spell Trouble Report Shows Reading, Comprehension For Most 4th-Graders Substandard

Many Idaho fourth-graders can’t read and lawmakers are frantically searching for a remedy.

A report, authorized last fall by the Legislature, showed that 60 percent of Idaho fourth-graders can’t read and comprehend books at their grade level.

The statewide reading committee, which conducted the study of 1,000 fourth-graders, presented the dramatic findings Wednesday to members of a joint legislative education committee.

“It is my conclusion that if we do not teach a child to read, and read well, and do it very, very early, we can predict that child will drop out,” Robert Barr of Boise State University told the lawmakers. “They will live out their life in Idaho unemployed, underemployed or unemployable.”

Barr and other members of the reading committee, including Idaho Schools Superintendent Anne Fox, asked legislators to improve reading education by putting state money toward teacher training and programs for disadvantaged students.

Migrant students and those who speak limited English had the worst reading and comprehension skills, the study showed.

Fox wants lawmakers to approve about $2 million for teacher education programs that would train teachers to teach reading - a skill that many education degrees overlook, she said.

The report showed that teachers thought only 29 percent of their students were reading below grade level.

Even with an education degree, Mary Ruch, a Coeur d’Alene teacher and reading committee member, lacked the skills to effectively teach students to read.

“I thought I was a really darn good reading teacher,” said the technology facilitator for Bryan and Sorensen elementary schools.

It wasn’t until Ruch returned to the University of Idaho for a master’s degree with a reading emphasis that she realized her teaching skills were leaving students behind.

“It was OK to leave kids behind because I thought next year’s teacher would pick them up,” Ruch said. “The thing I like about this is we are making every teacher responsible.”

Ruch said Coeur d’ Alene schools don’t fit the study’s characteristics. The district frequently tests students’ reading ability and shares the information with parents. Schools also participate in the federally funded Reading Recovery Program, which gives first-graders with reading problems one-one-one attention each day. Coeur d’ Alene was the first district in Idaho to start the program in 1989.

“We have the ability to remediate right away,” Ruch said.

However, Ruch stressed teachers can never have too much education when it comes to teaching children to read.

Committee members asked the Legislature for $30,000 to keep the reading committee until it finalizes its work.

Reducing class size, increasing prevention programs such as Head Start and all-day kindergarten are other components needed to fix Idaho’s reading problem, the committee said.

Not all solutions to the state’s reading dilemma require money, Fox said. For example, she wants schools to restructure their teaching methods, such as placing the best teachers in kindergarten and first-grade classes.

Parental involvement is another critical area. From birth, parents should prepare their children for school, a fact unknown to many parents, Fox said.

“Parents have to teach about 2,000 hours of reading instruction before their kids enter kindergarten,” she said.

Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’ Alene, said lawmakers must take immediate action.

“There’s nothing we can do as a Legislature that’s more effective for the future,” Riggs said, drawing applause from the committee.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT Superintendent Anne Fox wants lawmakers to approve about $2 million for teacher education programs that would train teachers to teach reading.