[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3204-S3205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    READ AND SUCCEED--MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF ILLITERACY IN AMERICA

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I rise today to share some thoughts on a 
subject of growing concern to many Americans, particularly to parents 
who seek a better and brighter future for their children through 
education.
  It is that we are failing to teach our children to read effectively. 
In 1940, the literacy rate in the United States was 97 percent. It has 
now plunged to 76 percent--a rate which is lower than that of over 100 
other nations.
  To me, this is intolerable. America's future depends on restoring the 
reading skills of its people.
  If we value our responsibility for leadership; if we seek to stay 
competitive in the world economy, we must address the problem of 
illiteracy in America.
  We cannot stand by and watch our children sentenced to a life of 
mediocrity and illiteracy.
  This problem exists in spite of the good intentions of Government and 
the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars over many years.
  Reading is the most basic skill every child needs to achieve 
individual success and happiness--both in work and in life. Yet in 
failing to impart this skill effectively, we are directly undermining 
the success our children seek and deserve.
  The evidence of our failure is all around us. Teachers and 
administrators see it in our schools, where 60 percent of entering 
college freshmen find themselves in need of remedial courses in reading 
or math.
  Employers and businesspeople see it in the workplace, where industry 
spends exorbitant amounts on employee remedial training in basic verbal 
skills. Researchers and scholars detect it in their studies.
  Hardly a week goes by that we do not see stories in the media about 
declining test scores or startling accounts of the growing problem of 
lagging reading skills in America. For example:
  According to the U.S. Department of Education report known as the 
National Assessment of Education Progress [NEAP], ``the average reading 
proficiency of 12th grade students declined significantly from 1992 to 
1994.''
  This important study is widely considered to be one of the best 
barometers of overall student achievement. It reported that ``70 
percent of 4th graders, 30 percent of 8th graders, and 64 percent of 
12th graders did not attain a proficient level of reading.'' In other 
words, these students did not reach a minimum skill level in reading 
which is considered necessary to do the work at that grade level.
  According to a recent 5-year study, entitled ``Adult Literacy in 
America,'' conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, 
similar startling results were found. It stated that: 42 million 
Americans, 22 percent of the population cannot read; 50 million, 27 
percent, can recognize so few printed words they are limited to a 
fourth or fifth grade reading level; 55 to 60 million, 30 percent, are 
limited to sixth, seventh, or eighth grade reading levels; only 30 
million, 16 percent, have ninth and tenth grade reading levels; only 6 
to 7 million, 3.5 percent, demonstrated skills necessary to do college 
level work.

  SAT scores have declined steadily for most of the last 35 years. 
Verbal achievement has declined by nearly 90 points since 1960.
  A U.S. Department of Labor study found that 20 percent of U.S. high 
school graduates could not even read their diplomas.
  Mr. President, this is serious. All of this has consequences--in our 
economy, in our standard of living, in our competitive position in the 
world, and in our national security. For example:
  The lower the literacy rate: the less productive our economy becomes, 
the less hours are worked and the less money they make in the form of 
wages and income, the higher the incidence of crime and welfare and 
their costs to society, the less effectively we are able to compete in 
world markets, the less capability we will have in our Armed Forces 
which are increasingly dependent on advanced technology and highly 
trained personnel as opposed to just sheer numbers.

[[Page S3205]]

  Clearly, our level of literacy is closely linked to our success in 
the world. If we fix this problem, the benefits will spread through our 
entire society. I firmly believe that if we know how to read, we will 
know how to succeed.
  Secretary of Education Richard Riley recently confirmed the problem 
when he said:

       Our Nation's reading scores are flat and have been flat for 
     far too long . . . Too many of our young people are groping 
     through school without having mastered the most essential and 
     basic skill.

  Riley said that ``the most urgent task'' facing American schools is 
to improve reading instruction. So we know the problem exists. We can 
rejoice there is a solution.
  Right now, we can take a giant step forward simply by doing what we 
can to demonstrate and celebrate what works when it comes to basic 
reading instruction.
  Mr. President, we know what works in teaching children and adults to 
read. We can point to evidence backed by more than 60 years of 
educational research and experience.
  What works is when our teachers and administrators return their 
emphasis to the use of phonics as the basis of reading skills 
instruction. Phonics refers to that body of knowledge which allows us 
to break down the letters of the alphabet into sounds so that words can 
be deciphered and sounded out according to simple rules.
  With phonics-based programs, students learn not by memorizing huge 
numbers of whole words, but rather by mastering the very limited number 
of sounds and corresponding letter combinations which are the building 
blocks of all words. With this essential grounding, they are better 
equipped to move ahead to learn more advanced reading skills and 
techniques.
  I do not argue that phonics is the only answer to the many problems 
faced by today's teachers in improving reading skills. The breakdown of 
the family, the impact of television, the force of popular culture--all 
of these and more pose challenges which were unheard of a generation 
ago. But clearly it is time for the pendulum in emphasis to swing back 
toward phonics--and not away as we have been moving more and more in 
recent years.
  Phonics-based programs work. History and statistics have proven it. 
Now, similar grassroots evidence is sprouting up in more and more parts 
of the country.
  For example, in one of the poorest districts in Houston, TX, there is 
a success story from which all of us can learn. There at the Wesley 
Elementary School, its principal, Dr. Thaddeus Lott, has encouraged 
teachers to use proven methods such as phonics in a concentrated effort 
to improve reading skills. The program is working.
  Students are leaving this school reading at two or three levels above 
their grade. Many go on to private academies because their achievement 
levels are so far beyond the public schools they would otherwise 
attend.
  Now, Dr. Lott has been appointed to a blue ribbon committee in the 
Houston Independent School District to expand his quality education 
techniques to other schools in this, the seventh largest school 
district in the Nation. It worked in Houston and it is working 
elsewhere.
  Near one of Chicago's low-income housing projects, Mrs. Marva Collins 
of the Westside Preparatory School is making a real difference. Her 
phonics-based methods are helping all her students learn to read by the 
end of first grade. By the time her students reach third grade, they 
are memorizing poetry, discussing Shakespeare, and talking about early 
American history.
  In Inglewood, CA, similar targeted programs have also proven highly 
successful.
  Now, as the Washington Post reported last week, the State of 
California is urging all of its 7,700 school district ``to place more 
emphasis on phonics'' in order to reverse the dismal results they have 
been seeing on their statewide reading exams.

  These are just a few recent examples--out of many--which show that 
the trend back to a renewed emphasis on phonics is growing. But much 
more needs to be done.
  To help foster similar successful programs and to help focus public 
attention on what can and should be done, I propose to take the 
initiative in my home State of Oklahoma.
  In the near future, I plan to help establish a limited in scope, 
privately funded, reading foundation in Oklahoma City.
  Its purpose, broadly stated, will be to identify children, as well as 
adults, in need of enhanced reading instruction and to help them take 
advantage of a good phonics-based reading program that works.
  If this limited demonstration project is successful, I would hope to 
expand it to Tulsa and perhaps to other cities throughout Oklahoma.
  The goal is to show through private voluntary efforts that we as 
concerned citizens can address this one serious problem constructively, 
without resorting to Government mandates or vast infusions of Federal 
tax dollars which obviously have not worked.
  Indeed, I want to make it very clear that I do not seek to establish 
a new Federal program, nor do I seek any new expenditure of taxpayer 
dollars. I propose no new legislation or Government mandate.
  At the same time, I seek no direct intrusion into the day-to-day 
business of the public schools. I have long been opposed to Federal 
control of local education and I am not about to change my position 
now.
  Rather, what I am talking about is fostering voluntary and 
cooperative efforts through the use of private funds, through 
persuasion, through example, and through a genuine concern for helping 
our young people and others achieve success in life.
  This is a good cause. I intend to demonstrate that what works in Dr. 
Lott's school in Houston and Mrs. Collins' school in Chicago can and 
will work in Oklahoma City. When it does, we will offer it throughout 
the State.
  Mr. President, there is absolutely no excuse for us in the United 
States of America to lag behind other industrialized nations in our 
reading skills--we are going to take the initiative and correct it.

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