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Teacher's pet inspires students at Ft. Pierce school Students having a ruff time reading have a new helper, and rather than eat their homework she's here to help with it. Abigail the golden retriever has been hitting the books hard to provide a good example for the kids at Dan McCarty Middle School in Fort Pierce. Abigail already knows how to read eight distinct terms, and her word power is proving to special needs students that anything is possible. "That’s my hope - that the kids will become more motivated, more interested in reading because having this dog that can...

FLYING squads of specialist teachers will swoop into 300 Queensland schools next year under a plan to boost literacy and numeracy results. The so-called Turnaround Teams will be deployed to low-performing schools to identify why their results are below average and develop strategies to improve literacy and numeracy levels. ``Some schools may have problems with truancy or behaviour management, others may need extra help with early childhood learning or teaching science for instance,'' Premier Anna Bligh said today. The teams are part of the State Government's three-year bid to turn around poor results in Queensland schools and will cost $9...

Lost In Cyberspace by: Deborah Lambert, May 21, 2009 Surprise, surprise. Spending thousands of hours on the Internet apparently leaves children poorly prepared to face the challenges of adult life, according to The London Telegraph. In fact, British child psychiatrists recently claimed that “teenagers were spending up to 16 hours a day playing games online with ‘potentially severe consequences’ for their education and social opportunities.” Speaking at an educational conference in Manchester recently, John Gibson, head of the Independent Schools Association, said that compared with today’s activities, the ways that children spent their time in the 50s and 60s like...

"No matter how much money is spent, literacy rates plunge and SAT scores fall. General knowledge throughout the society becomes more scant. Our better students can’t compete against better foreign students. The depressing statistics are all around us. Everyone admits the public schools are doing a lousy job. The question is, why can't we do more to improve them?"

The recent announcement by the New York Times that it might close down the venerable Boston Globe, unless the paper can cut costs and begin to make money, came as a shock to many Bostonians. The Times bought the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion because it assumed that in an area with Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College and other schools of higher learning, they would have lots of readers and make lots of money. But this much-touted Athens of America, which prides itself on its intellectual history, has become, like the rest of America, a victim of...

Professor Joe Elliott, from Durham University, believes many parents with children who have difficulty in literacy lessons push for them to be diagnosed with dyslexia so they can get the extra support they need. Prof Elliott says this leads to children being falsely labelled and ignores the fact there are simply many children who struggle to read and should be given help at an early age. The academic, a director of research at the university's School of Education, said: "Many of the messages that I have received from parents have pointed out that the system has forced them to use...

Books left on the shelf: A fifth of pupils only read blogs and magazines By LAURA CLARK 04th April 2009 The National Literacy Trust is backing an initiative to encourage reading - using footballers as role models One in five youngsters never picks up books outside school, a poll has found. Instead, websites and blogs have become children's reading matter of choice. Pupils ranked social networking sites, blogs, general websites and magazines above books in a major survey of their reading habits. A quarter did not believe that being a proficient reader would help them achieve success in future. A...

In a letter recently submitted to Education Week CITATION Ste09 \l 1033 (Stephen Krashen, 2009) Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, draws attention to the Reading First final impact study which showed that children following an intensive decoding-based curriculum do well on tests of decoding but not on measures of reading comprehension when compared with regular students. He reminds readers that the National Reading Panel, the foundation for Reading First, came up with similar results. From these two studies, Dr. Krashen draws the following conclusion. A high level of proficiency in decoding is not...

The First Lady has excited the fashion world, but like Diana she would rather champion the less fortunate than be a mere clotheshorse. Michelle Obama’s flair for fashion has captivated Washington and set the hearts of glossy magazine editors aflutter. She has already eclipsed Carla Bruni, the super-model chanteuse and wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive French president. Not since Diana, Princess of Wales, has there been such a glamorous role model at the apex of society. In her white, one-shouldered chiffon gown, she boogied to Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours and slow-danced with her husband at a...

At 23 percent, California leads the nation in residents 16 and older at the lowest level of literacy. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy, released this month, is calculated by the U.S. Department of Education from 2003 data. Its estimate for California: 6 million of its 26 million adults can, at best, read and understand only “short, commonplace prose text.” At worst, they cannot read and comprehend any information written in English. Behind this eight-point increase in below-basic literacy since the last assessment in 1992 is primarily immigration. One in eight U.S. residents is an immigrant, the highest percentage in...

A solution for the reading gap between black and white children was discovered four decades ago. So, why aren't we taking advantage of it?One does not expect to see New York's school Chancellor Joel Klein on the same stage as Reverend Al Sharpton. Klein is infamous for his emphasis on test scores and shutting down schools that fail to measure up. Not so long ago, Sharpton was in the barricades with Russell Simmons protesting mayor Michael Bloomberg and Klein's plan to cut New York City's education budget. Yet these days the two are teaming up for the Education Equality Project,...

About 14 percent of U.S. adults won't be reading this article. Well, okay, most people won't read it, given all the words that are published these days to help us understand and navigate the increasingly complex world. But about 1 in 7 can't read it. They're illiterate. Statistics released by the U.S. Education Department this week show that some 32 million U.S. adults lack basic prose literacy skill. That means they can't read a newspaper or the instruction on a bottle of pills. The figures are for 2003, the latest year available. State and county results are available here. "The...

About five years ago, San Juan High School teacher Shirley Bowers realized that half her students had no idea what she was writing on the board. "I had a student remark that he couldn't read my notes," Bowers said. His fellow classmates fessed up, too. Bauer's notes were hard to read. They were in cursive. Over the past decade, teachers and secondary students across the country have reported a trend that their parents and grandparents could scarcely imagine: The millennial generation is increasingly cursive illiterate. The digital age has pushed to the periphery a penmanship skill used for generations. The...

Only 17% of 8th Graders Can Read at Grade Level in Chicago Schools Overseen by Obama Education Secretary-Designee Chicago Schools Chief Arne Duncan smiles as President-elect Barack Obama announces his selection to be Education Secretary, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, at the Dodge Renaissance Academy in Chicago.(CNSNews.com) – In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools – the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001. President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Duncan to become secretary of education in the upcoming administration. Duncan, hailed by Obama as a reformer,...

The Bell Curve, an excellent book more maligned than read, pointed out a trend seldom noticed. The authors called it “cognitive stratification,” not a phrase Byron would have chosen but serviceable enough. It means the concentration of the intelligent. In 1850 people of high intelligence were dispersed through the population. If the child of a cowboy had an IQ of 160, he would probably remain in the geographical region with cowboys. He might be more successful than most, and might choose as friends the quicker wits thereabouts. Yet he would be part of the community. A cowboy could be intelligent,...

How’s this for noche buena? Mother, father and sister carry packed food in plastic containers and then alternate between walking and taking public transportation, seemingly off to a special mission. Just outside a building, they prop up a table with a few chairs. They set the dishes they have brought. Brother, a call center agent, is in the graveyard shift; there are no holidays in his job. But when he sees his family outside, waving at him, he puts down his headset, turns away from his computer and walks out the door of his office for a little break. Of...

One highlight of the Bush Administration has been that the first lady, Laura Bush has made literacy a pivotal part of her work with the American people. There are a lot of areas of interest that a first lady can use her power and influence to draw attention to but will Michelle Obama also make literacy an important part of her agenda? With literacy rates on the decline, and educational facilities being last on the list of priorities for many government agencies, Michelle Obama has unique opportunity to use her influence to turn the state of literacy around in the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2008 – One hundred Iraqi women became the first class of graduates of an adult literacy course near here that officials say is a sign of more good things to come from the partnership between Iraq and the United States. The first female graduates of an adult literacy course at the Sharquia Secondary School for Girls take pictures and celebrate before a graduation ceremony at the Baghdad school, Dec. 4, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jeremy Todd  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “This is a monumental day for these women,”...

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban,...

Hezekiah 3:16 The book of Hezekiah is one of the most significant books of the Old Testament. This book is often quoted in the press, cited by bloggers, and many people refer to it in daily conversation. One of the most significant passages in the book of Hezekiah is Hezekiah 3:10-16 where the author speaks about the Antichrist and the Beast. Hezekiah 3:16 reveals that the number of the Beast is 666. Anyone who knows the Bible and reads the paragraph above will know that what is written above is a bunch of nonsense. Hezekiah does not mention the number...

HAWIJAH, Iraq, Oct. 16, 2008 – The first graduation of a pilot literacy program was held yesterday at the soccer stadium here in Iraq’s Kirkuk province. The program, which began June 15 as a pilot program for the National Literary Campaign, graduated nearly 500 students. The four-month course covered basic reading, writing and math skills for employment marketability, officials said. Students attended classes four hours a day, five days a week, for completion of the National Literary Campaign's requirements. "I have worked closely with the local government leaders and watched them develop this program, through the execution of the program,...

Link only - AP

NEW ORLEANS: Marsha Williams always hesitated when mail arrived from the government, but after Hurricane Katrina she began to fear the letters. One notice warned that her apartment building could be shut down because the landlord had not repaired storm damage. She worried: What did all the legal forms mean? Was there more paperwork she needed to send in? But at age 51, Williams was embarrassed that she could not read much more than her own name and address. "I didn't get a lot of school when I was a child. I guess they didn't have enough to go around,"...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, July 28, 2008 – Iraq is targeting more than 6 million illiterate adults through a national literacy campaign. Iraqi policemen submit applications for modified security badges, May 22, 2007, in Salman Pak, Iraq. Literacy is a requirement for members of the Iraqi security forces. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiller  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that more than 60 percent of the adult population in Iraq cannot read or write. This was not always the case, U.N. officials said. At one time, Iraq...

Can't resist it - I was raised on American culture and am all the happier for it. It formed me culturally and made me what I am. Since I come into contact with Americans professionally on a frequent basis, it's always a great pleasure to have 'common ground', so to speak. Today I started reading 'Moby-Dick' for the fifth time. And believe me, I do have an exceptional memory. But this book is so rich that you can spend a lifetime with it and still miss out on some things. The pretty pragmatic, relativistic Ishmael embarks on a boat trip...

HAWIJAH — In the month which marked the birth of the United States of America and the liberation of other nations, July 5, will be remembered in Hawijah, Iraq, as the day its country’s deputy minister of education Nehad Al-Juburi and the prime minister’s education advisor Zaid Chaid paid a historic visit to bring national attention to a pilot literacy program underway here. Five-hundred SoI members in four of the sub-districts of Hawijah, Iraq - Zaab, Abassi, Riyadh and Hawijah city - are currently participating in this program, which teaches students up to a 3rd to 4th grade reading...

this site is personal to me it seems no strings attached, their sponsors take care of it all. just click and you will help many worthwhile causes, like hunger, breast cancer, literacy and pets. really, i run firefox with adblock plus and this site has given me no malware or issues/popups. it seems legit, if i can donate a can of food a day and more, i'm sure someone here can help spread the word. i appreciate it. and i'm in no way affiliated with them or paid, this isn't spam. i'm just a news junkie with this place and...

TALLAHASSEE, FL - A report issued today by the Department of Education reveals that the expected illiteracy rate among high school graduates will decline significantly this year. This marks the first time in several decades that this benchmark has fallen in two consecutive years. The expected illiteracy rate of 32% is down from 33% last year ...

Remember shortly before Election Day 2006 when Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) suggested that if you don't get a good education, "you get stuck in Iraq" (video available here)? Well, last month, famed horror author Stephen King was speaking in front of a group of high school students at the Library of Congress, and he virtually made the exact same statement. For those that can bear it, what follows is another in a long line of liberal media members bashing the military (embedded right, h/t Terry Ann): I don't want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV,...

In my ignorance, I once held hopes of gaining entrance into a club more exclusive than any country club or nightclub. Having been educated in public schools and therefore exposed to only one form of thought, I thought this club represented intellectualism. My first exposure to intellectual thought was a shelf filled with dime store Golden Books. One of the American “ladies� had heard about the cleaning abilities of a Slovenian immigrant woman who was laid off from her job in a factory. So this lady picked my mother and me up and drove us out to her big house...

Or maybe not Because the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act imposed standards and accountability on the public schools, many conservatives were willing to support the law even though it was also a massive expansion of the federal government's role in education. It might be time for them to reconsider. On Thursday, the Department of Education announced that a key component of the measure -- the $6 billion Reading First program -- has been an utter failure.

OK everyone, it's time for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now" post. I like to get a feel for what Freepers are reading these days. It can be anything...a best seller, a literary classic, a trashy pulp novel, a scientific journal, etc. Do not demean this thread with posts like "I'm reading this Thread right now". It became un-funny a long time ago. I'll start. I've just started "One Square Mile Of Hell: The Battle For Tarawa" by John Wukovitz. Rather than a minute by minute account of the battle, it takes a more personalized view of the battle...

FORT HUACHUCA — There is one thing Command Sgt. Maj. Gerry Wykoff is thankful for, and that is Dr. Seuss never wrote an Army Field Manual. As it is, his children’s books are full of tongue twisters, as the senior noncommissioned officer for the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca found out Monday when he read Seuss’ “The Sleep Book,” to fourth-grade students of Janet Josa’s class at General Myer Elementary School. For many young school students, the Dr. Seuss books are today’s “See Spot Run” that older generations remember from their days in the lower grades of elementary education. Nationwide,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a functionally illiterate man who says the Kanawha County school system failed to provide him a proper education. An attorney for Thomas Sturm says that although Sturm was allowed to graduate from Sissonville High School in 2004, the 21-year-old man can read only on a third-grade level. The attorney, Mike Clifford, says the school board failed to abide by state and federal laws meant to monitor and protect the rights of students with disabilities. Sturm allegedly suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Kanawha County Judge...

<p>Woops, an errant email advisory sent to House Democratic members by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office had some unique suggested talking points for the upcoming "Read Across America" day. Basically, it said, just tell the kids and their teachers: blah, blah, blah.</p> <p>"Blah, blah, blah, blah Blah, blah, blah."</p>

What will happen to reading and writing in our time? Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy. The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day? Maybe neither. Let me suggest a third possibility: Literacy -- or an ensemble...

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- John Corcoran graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years without being able to read, write or spell.Corcoran's life of secrecy started at a young age. He said his teachers moved him up from grade to grade. Often placed in what he calls the "dumb row," the images of his tribulations in the classroom are still vividly clear. "I can remember when I was 8 years old saying my prayers at night saying please god tomorrow when it's my turn to read please let me read. You just pretend that you are invisible and when...

"As a school librarian, I wind up reading all sorts of damning reports on students' lack of reading skills. The latest dire news came from the National Endowment for the Arts' recent "To Read or Not to Read" study, which warned that "less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier." High school students are faring even worse: Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of "non-readers" has doubled over a 20-year period, from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004. This multitasking generation, we're led to believe, can't focus on any item for...

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Like a top-heavy tower of books, Seattle tumbled from its ranking as "America's Most Literate City" this year. The new winner: Minneapolis, ending Seattle's two-year reign on top. The Emerald City only slipped to second place, but some of the local literati took it hard. "I don't believe it," said Tracy Taylor, general manager for Elliott Bay Book Co. in Pioneer Square, which was bursting with post-Christmas customers Thursday. "And we're not even having a sale," Taylor noted. But the statistics don't lie — even though they also don't capture all the nuances of what makes one city more literate...

When Congress decided to appropriate $2 million in fall 2001 to help D.C. kindergartners and first-graders learn to read, city school officials were told that the money could be spent only on the Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program, a new product with virtually no track record. They had just picked a different reading curriculum, and "we didn't want to be guinea pigs," recalled Mary Gill, then the system's chief academic officer. School leaders did not know that the $2 million was an earmark that had been guided into law by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) just after she had received more...

A computer instructor (left) teaches boys ages 11 to early teens how to use a computer during a computer literacy course at the community center in Assiriyah. Photo by 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. ASSIRIYAH — Thanks to recent improvements in security, local leaders with a little help from Soldiers in Troop D, 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, are bringing civic improvement projects to residents throughout this village of more than 2,600 people. The Troop D Soldiers leant a hand in one such project by donating computers for...

REPORT BY AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH FINDS AT LEAST 20 PERCENT OF COLLEGE GRADS UNABLE TO DO FUNDAMENTAL COMPUTATIONS WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The AIR study...

WASHINGTON - U.S. fourth-graders have lost ground in reading ability compared with kids around the world, according to results of a global reading test. Test results released Wednesday showed U.S. students, who took the test last year, scored about the same as they did in 2001, the last time the test was given — despite an increased emphasis on reading under the No Child Left Behind law. Still, the U.S. average score on the Progress in International Reading Literacy test remained above the international average. Ten countries or jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and three Canadian provinces, were ahead of the...

The 2007 Human Development Report says Iceland now leads annual United Nations Index. Iceland has narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today. Norway had held the number one ranking for the previous six years. This change in ranking is a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita figures, stress the Report authors. Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult...

The Constitution of the United States established what form of government? Which wall was President Reagan referring to when he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"? These questions were part of a 60-question test of civic literacy administered to college freshmen and seniors at 50 American colleges and universities. The test (available at www.isi.org) covered American history, government, international relations and economics. The results were disheartening. Freshman overall scored an average 50.4 percent, while seniors improved only to 54.2 percent. Eight of the 50 colleges were left to explain how four years at their institution could actually diminish students'...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2007 – More than 12,000 children of servicemembers each year are getting a foundation for lifelong literacy from their doctors through an effort called “Reach Out and Read.” “Reach Out and Read” co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Barry Zuckerman reads with a young patient. The group’s literacy program is part of early childhood check-ups at seven U.S. military medical facilities. Photo courtesy of the Reach Out and Read National Center  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Reach Out and Read presents a unique opportunity to support and strengthen military families with young children,” said Carolyn...

America’s Founders were convinced American freedom could survive only if each generation understood its founding principles and the sacrifices made to maintain it. Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions asks: Is American higher education doing its duty to prepare the next generation to maintain our legacy of liberty? In fall 2005, researchers at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP), commissioned by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) National Civic Literacy Board, conducted a survey of some 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities. Students were asked 60 multiple-choice...

High Tech Illiteracyby: Malcolm A. Kline, September 12, 2007 At the same time that American students are becoming more and more technologically adept, they are increasingly less and less likely to possess rudimentary capabilities, data from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) indicates. “Think of the way we do research—look up a topic, follow a link to another link to another link—linear,” Pennsylvania school board member Kathy Pettiss explained to the American School Board Journal (ASBJ). “Our kids go 40 different directions at once, just like a spider’s web.” “They shop sites that have no store—there’s no inventory until someone...

CALGARY (ALBERTA): The reading skills of young male students may improve more when boys are tutored by women, a Canadian study shows, contradicting some school policies to hire male teachers to improve boys’ literacy. Herb Katz, an education professor at the University of Alberta, took 175 boys in the third and fourth grades, identified as struggling readers, and paired them with a research assistant who worked on their reading skills for 30 minutes a week over 10 weeks. On average, the boys paired with female tutors felt better about their reading skills after the 10 weeks than those who were...