[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2788 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2788

   To establish a strategic planning team to develop a plan for the 
                 dissemination of research on reading.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 26, 2000

  Mr. Cochran introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To establish a strategic planning team to develop a plan for the 
                 dissemination of research on reading.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. READING RESEARCH DISSEMINATION AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.

    (a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the ``Reading 
Research Dissemination and Implementation Act''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The National Reading Panel was convened to assess the 
        status of research-based knowledge in the area of reading 
        development and instruction and to evaluate the effectiveness 
        of various approaches to teaching children to learn to read.
            (2) On April 13, 2000, the National Reading Panel issued 
        its report, ``Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based 
        Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and 
        its Implications for Reading Instruction''.
            (3) The National Reading Panel was to assess the extent to 
        which instructional approaches found to be effective are ready 
        for application in the classroom, and to develop a strategy for 
        rapidly disseminating the information on those approaches to 
        schools to facilitate effective reading instruction in the 
        schools.
            (4) The National Reading Panel has completed its assessment 
        of the objective research-based knowledge in the area of 
        reading development and reading instruction and has identified 
        several instructional strategies that have been clearly 
        documented by research to be effective for teaching the range 
        of reading skills to children of varying reading abilities.
            (5) The National Institute of Child Health and Human 
        Development has developed an initial dissemination strategy to 
        provide all Members of Congress, all colleges of education, all 
        State departments of education, and all public libraries in the 
        Nation with copies of the National Reading Panel's report.
            (6) A dissemination of findings, although helpful, does not 
        typically lead to systematic and genuine implementation of the 
        critical research findings that inform teacher preparation 
        practices, classroom instructional practices, and educational 
        policies.
            (7) To ensure that research findings on effective reading 
        instructional approaches are fully implemented for the 
        improvement of the education of our Nation's children, a 
        strategic plan for the dissemination and implementation of the 
        findings is necessary.
    (c) Establishment of Strategic Planning Team.--The Assistant 
Secretary of Education for Educational Research and Improvement and the 
Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human 
Development of the Department of Health and Human Services shall 
jointly convene a strategic planning team to develop the plan required 
under subsection (d). The team shall be composed of the following:
            (1) The Chairman of the National Reading Panel.
            (2) Persons jointly appointed by the convening officials 
        from among persons who are representative of each of the 
        following:
                    (A) The National Institute of Child Health and 
                Human Development.
                    (B) The Department of Education.
                    (C) Teacher professional organizations.
                    (D) Parents.
                    (E) Presidents of institutions of higher education.
                    (F) The teacher education colleges or departments 
                within institutions of higher education.
                    (G) Private businesses.
                    (H) Public libraries.
                    (I) State boards of education.
                    (J) State directors of special education.
                    (K) The Governors of States.
                    (L) Publishers of reading textbooks.
    (d) Plan.--The Strategic Planning Team shall develop and, not later 
than December 31, 2000, submit to the Secretary of Education a plan--
            (1) to determine--
                    (A) the extent to which current teacher preparation 
                for both preservice and inservice training incorporates 
                the findings of the National Reading Panel; and
                    (B) how any barriers to the incorporation of those 
                findings can be changed in order to integrate the 
                findings into programs to educate and certify teachers;
            (2) to identify the deficiencies in instructional 
        materials, including textbooks and supplementary materials, and 
        to determine how materials might be designed to correct the 
        deficiencies in ways that reflect the findings of the National 
        Reading Panel;
            (3) to determine whether there are any barriers in Federal 
        and State policies that would preclude appropriate adoption of 
        the National Reading Panel findings; and
            (4) to identify specific strategies for collaboration among 
        businesses, public schools, teacher education programs, 
        university and college administrators, and teacher-parent 
        collaborations to guide and ensure that evidence-based 
        instructional practices are implemented in teacher preparation, 
        classroom instruction, and Federal and State policies.
    (e) Implementation of Plan.--Upon receiving the plan under 
subsection (d), the Secretary of Education shall immediately take the 
actions necessary to implement the plan.
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