READING
EARLY READING
There is an unusual degree of consensus regarding the goals of early reading instruction, as well as a fairly solid research base both on the contributors to success in achieving those goals and on assessments to predict reading difficulties. The targets of early reading instruction are therefore fairly clear.
Still, many children in U.S. schools are not learning to read well and, in many classrooms,
gap between the knowledge base on the contributors to success in early reading and the knowledge base on effective instruction and teacher knowledge requirements. The goal must be to move from principles of good literacy instruction to the practices and programs that will support it. We propose three initiatives for early reading:
development and testing of instructional approaches to narrowing the gap in early reading preparedness, with emphasis on programs to enrich oral language skills for children at ages 3, 4, and 5 and for native and nonnative English speakers;
the development and testing of models of integrated reading instruction for early elementary grades; and
research on the knowledge requirements for teachers of early reading, coupled with the development and evaluation of teacher education programs and tools and the development and validity testing of assessment measures to evaluate their effectiveness.