Sec. 2. Findings
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The Congress finds that in order for a comprehensive and effective literacy program to address the needs of children it is critical to address the following: Literacy development is an ongoing process that requires a sustained engagement and investment beginning in early childhood and continuing through secondary school. Developing literacy skills begins at birth as infants and toddlers associate sounds, gestures, and marks on paper with consequences and meaning. Many teachers and staff in early learning programs are not provided with high-quality professional development in how to support children’s language and literacy development.
Such high-quality professional learning and preparation, that is job-embedded and ongoing, promotes strong early language and literacy for all children’s readiness for school. Research shows that writing leads to improved reading achievement, reading leads to better writing performance, and combined instruction leads to improvements in both areas. Students in kindergarten through grade 12 need to be engaged in combined reading and writing experiences that lead to a higher level of thinking than when either process is taught alone.
Teachers and early childhood educators need professional development to improve the reading and writing abilities of children who are at risk for developmental delays or are reading and writing several years below grade level. Middle school and secondary school teachers in core academic subjects must have the tools and skills to teach reading and writing for subject area understanding and to differentiate and provide instruction for students with varying literacy skills. Approximately 70 percent of 4th graders and 8th graders read below the proficient level on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Between 1971 and 2008, the reading levels of 17-year-olds in the United States showed little to no improvement. The ability of secondary school students to read complex texts is strongly predictive of their performance in postsecondary mathematics and science courses. Only one-third of secondary school students who enter 9th grade each year can expect to graduate in 4 years with the skills needed to succeed in higher education and the workplace. The 25 fastest growing professions have higher than average literacy demands while the fastest declining professions have lower than average literacy demands.
The intellectual and linguistic skills necessary for reading and writing must be developed through explicit, intentional, and systematic language activities, to which many low-income and minority students do not have access. Only 71 percent of secondary school students graduate on time with a diploma, meaning that every year 1,230,000 students fail to graduate from secondary school in the United States. These 1,230,000 nongraduates cost the United States more than $319,000,000,000 in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes.
Meaningful engagement of families in their children’s early learning supports school readiness and later academic success. Parental literacy habits are positively associated with parental reading beliefs, parent-child literacy and language activities in the home, children’s print knowledge, and interest in reading and writing.