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A new researcher in the College of Education will study
reading and the long-term success of young students like
this Rock Bridge Elementary School student in Columbia.
Megan Ryder photo
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New
Chair to Study
U.S. Reading Problem
By
Christian Basi
In the United States, 38 percent of fourth-grade students are scoring
below the basic reading proficiency level. Recent research has found
that children who don't learn to read often have difficulty in other
areas. A new position at the University of Missouri-Columbia's College
of Education will be dedicated to understanding the best ways
to teach and encourage children to read, focusing on their long-term
success.
“Reading is
a gateway skill, a foundational skill that can facilitate
or impede progress in other areas. Once a student is behind in
a set of skills, it can be very difficult to pull out of that
hole,” said Carolyn Herrington, dean of the College of Education.
“By the fourth or fifth grade, a lack of reading mastery
can have an enormous impact on a student's future success. When
students reach their adolescent years, they start to employ coping
strategies that can hide their deficiencies from others.”
The new position in the College of Education,
the Chancellor's Chair of Excellence, will encourage research
collaboration among experts in psychology,
medicine, education,
health professions
and human environmental sciences
to improve researchers' understanding of how children learn to
read and how best to prepare future educators to teach reading.
The faculty member also will prepare graduate students and stimulate
additional research studying the connection between reading and
after-school programs, extracurricular activities and public policy.
”Children have such diverse backgrounds,
and we need to incorporate how different backgrounds affect the
reading process and identify which strategies work best with which
kids,” Herrington said. “We expect the faculty member
will use the resources that we have available on campus in a number
of different fields to tackle the critical issue of making sure
every child is reading at grade level. We know that early intervention
is key, and we need to develop and test multidisciplinary strategies
that teachers can apply in the classrooms. This new position also
will play a key role in professional development for current teachers
so they can draw upon a variety of strategies to accommodate the
needs of struggling readers from all types of backgrounds.”
MU student teacher Emily Noelker, BS Ed ’07, works
with students at Shepard Boulevard Elementary School in
Columbia. She is now a graduate student in MU’s Teaching
Fellowship Program. Megan Ryder photo
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Support for the chair will come, in part,
from the Chancellor's
Fund for Excellence, which has received unrestricted money
from donors in the For
All We Call Mizzou campaign. MU Chancellor Brady Deaton has
a strong interest in reaching young children and preparing them
for college admission.
“It is vital to our mission as the state
land-grant, flagship institution that we help all Missourians
prepare for college,” Deaton said. “In order to accomplish
this, we must understand how young children learn to read and
how to best prepare future educators to teach children. This is
a very urgent situation for our educational professionals.”
Herrington said that she expects to have the
chair filled within a year.
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Last Update:
September 3, 2008
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