Kaine urges reading initiatives through 12th grade

WASHINGTON — Reading may be an elementary skill, but mastery of the written word should be pursued throughout a student's career, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday as he released a study on adolescent literacy.

The report from the Southern Regional Education Board, of which Kaine is chairman, calls reading woes on the middle and high school levels an epidemic. The report calls for immediate action but leaves specific plans up to the 16 states in the coalition.

"We've kind of had an assumption about reading that you're going to master the basics by the fourth grade," Kaine said. "That's clearly not working."

The report calls for across-the-board reading initiatives that would instill a reading component in most core classes through 12th grade. But instead of relying on reading specialists, as is done in elementary school, this program would call on subject teachers to increase their focus on reading skills. A particular emphasis would be placed on comprehension.

"It's absolutely revolutionary," said Del. Kristen J. Amundson, D-Fairfax. "I can't tell you how deeply ingrained it is that reading is a once-and-done deal. It's like a vaccine. Give it and you're done and you can check it off. Everybody was wrong."

While she's looking for solutions in the statehouse, State Board of Education President Mark E. Emblidge and Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright are looking for answers they can enact on a policy level.

"For so long, people thought it was a decoding thing," Emblidge said. "If you could decode writing, you could understand. But now we know it's not decoding, it's comprehension. You have to be able to understand what you're reading."

The answer, he said, could be as simple as reminding teachers not to assume their students are familiar with the vocabulary.

"We've just got to bring it back to the basics," he said.

Wright said she would like to implement a middle school literacy-assessment program similar to the math-readiness testing that's being done.

"We don't have that type of middle school intervention for reading," she said. "But it's absolutely doable. We know how to do this."

Kaine said it is imperative that improvement be made because research shows that the worse students read, the more likely they are to drop out of school.

"This is important in terms of developing our work force," he said. "As our education attainment has increased, so has the economy of our states."

Zachary Reid writes for the Richmond Times-Dispatch