Comments By Dr. Pfeifer on Reading

Children who can not read have tremendous challenges laid before them to succeed in school and in the world of work.

I strongly believe that community members in every walk of life in Ketchikan desire that every child succeeds. By working together we can ensure that every child in Ketchikan has the educational opportunities they will need. These educational opportunities are vital as they will lay an important part of the foundation upon which our children will be able to build successful lives.

In achieving this goal, I believe that all of our children should be able to read at grade level by the end of second grade. It is reported nationally that 40% of America's children do not read well and that 25% read so poorly that they enter the fourth grade reading at the first- and second-grade reading levels. Are the children of Ketchikan any exception? (Source of Statistics: National Assessment of Educational Progress, NEAP 1996, Trends in Academic Progress, 104; America's Reading Challenge, U.S. Department of Education, Region X, Office of Public Affairs, 1/15/97).

As we all are aware, the educational system uses reading as one of its primary delivery methods. Children get new information from reading blackboards, books, newspapers, and computer screens. When children cannot read or are not reading at grade level, they lose many learning opportunities, and ultimately could fall at risk of failing or dropping out of school. It is alarming that Ketchikan continues to have one of the highest drop out rates in the state. (Alaska Report Card to the Public, 95/96, 96/97, 97/98).

I would ask every citizen in Ketchikan to consider how it would be possible to address the educational needs of children in a fourth-grade classroom in learning science or history when 25% or more of the class may likely be reading below a second-grade level.

By the year 2000, 85% of employment will require skilled or professional levels of training. Children who read poorly or who can not read will be at a severe disadvantage as adults in finding and maintaining employment. (Source of Statistics:U.S. Bureau of Labor, as qtd. In Final Report: Governor's Council on School-to-Work Transition (Olympia, WA:State of Washington, March 1995.)

On an even more astounding level, Commissioner Pugh, of the Alaska Department of Corrections, while visiting Ketchikan related that the number one common denominator of those being incarcerated was that they could not read. She made the point that we can educate these children for a lot less money than it takes to put them in jail.

The time is now. We can make a difference in a child's life. It would be an honor for me to receive your vote on October 5th. If you choose to elect me as your School Board member, I will proudly work diligently to represent all of the children, families, and the community of Ketchikan. I will pledge to continue to put forth every effort in advocating for the very best educational opportunities for all of our children.

"The reading door is closed to 25% of our children and almost closed for another 15%. Imagine opening it!" ( Source of quote: The 90% Reading Goal, by Fielding, Kerr, and Rosier, 7 , The New Foundation Press 1998.)

Washington State Governor Gary Locke (D) stated the following in his Inaugural Address on January 15, 1997, "We must hold both schools and students accountable for learning, not just for following all the rules or sitting through the required number of classes. We will not break our promise to raise academic standards. Every third grader must read at the third-grade level, and every high school graduate must master basic academic skills and knowledge."

Governor George W. Bush (R), stated the following in his State of the State Address in Texas on January 28, 1997, "You cannot succeed if you cannot read. All Texas children must learn the one skill that can make all the difference in their lives: reading. That is why I set the clearest and most profound goal I have for Texas: that every child, each and every child, should learn to read at grade level by the third grade and continue reading at grade level or better throughout his or her public school career."

G. Reid Lyon states, "We have learned that for 90% to 95% of poor readers, prevention and early intervention programs that combine instruction in phoneme awareness, phonics, fluency development, and reading comprehension strategies, provided by well trained teachers, can increase reading skills to average reading levels. However, we have also learned that if we delay intervention until nine years of age (the time that most children with reading difficulties receive services), approximately 75% of the children will continue to have reading difficulties learning to read throughout high school. To be clear, while older children and adults can be taught to read, the time and expense of doing so is enormous." (G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D., Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) National Institute of Health (NIH), Statement before the committee of Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, Washington D.C., Tuesday, April 28, 1998, reproduced in Appendix B.)

"More than eight of ten children with severe word reading problems at the end of first grade performed below the average range at the beginning of third grade."(J.K. Torgesen, R.K. Wagner, and C.A. Rashotte, "Prevention and Remediation of Severe Reading Disabilities: Keeping the End in Mind," Scientific Studies of Reading 1 (1997): 217-34.)

"Children who fall behind in first grade have a one in eight chance of ever catching up to grade level without extraordinary efforts." (C. Juel, Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994): 120.)

"Eighty-eight percent of children who were deficient in word recognition skills in the first grade were poor readers in fourth grade." (C. Juel, Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of 54 Children from First Through Fourth Grades," Journal of Educational Psychology 80, no. 4 (1988): 437-47.)

"Seventy-four percent of children who are poor readers in the third grade remain poor readers in the ninth grade." (D. J. Francis, S.E. Shaywitz, K.K. Stuebing, B.A. Shaywitz, and J.M. Fletcher, "Developmental Lag versus Deficit Models of Reading Disability: A Longitudinal, Individual Growth Curves Analysis," Journal of Educational Psychology 88, no. 1 (1996): 3-17.)

The following statement is taken verbatim from "The 90% Reading Goal," by Lynn Fielding:
"[Parents watching their own child struggle rarely can identify reading as the problem. The test scores, coupled with reassurances that "he'll catch up" and "kids learn at different rates," mask the truly desperate nature of the problem. After all, "someone has to be in the 20th percentile," and second grade/ sixth month is only "a little behind." So parents who would move heaven and earth to help their child, don't hire a tutor, don't read daily with their child, and don't seek other assistance.]"

"At third grade, we can predict 75% of those who will graduate and 70% of those who will drop out of high school primarily from their high and low reading and language skills."
(See Dee Norman Lloyd, "Prediction of School Failure from Third Grade Data, "Educational and Psychological Measurement 38 (1978): 1193-1200:)

".....as the last of the primary grades, the third grade is the point at which basic reading skills have been taught (and hopefully learned), as well as the grade in which it has been estimated that 50% of future achievement patterns have been set." (Predictive factors other than reading include IQ, retention, and GPA.)

"Seventy-five percent of first graders who had been in the bottom 10th percentile in phonological skills in kindergarten [in one year] moved to national averages in decoding with 20 minutes a day of one-on-one tutoring and practice in reading and writing." (J. K. Torgeson, R.K. Wagener, and C.A. Rashotte, "Preventing and Remediating Severe Reading Disabilities: Keeping the End in Mind,"Scientific Studies of Reading 1 (1997): 217-34.)

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