[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 91 (Thursday, June 24, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7558-S7559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             READING SCORES

  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, I am here to take a couple of minutes to

[[Page S7559]]

point out a success story that appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star.
  I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Lincoln Journal Star, June 23, 1999]

                       Reading Scores Rise Again

                           (By Joanne Young)

       Right before his eyes, Steven Hladik saw his daughter's 
     life change.
       ``She's just happy. She went from being a sad little girl 
     to totally loving life,'' Hladik said of his third youngest 
     child, Nikyle, 6.
       He attributes the change to Reading Recovery, one program 
     Lincoln Public Schools has used to improve first-graders' 
     reading skills. A dramatic decline over 15 years in reading 
     scores of elementary- and middle-school students prompted LPS 
     to focus on bringing those scores up.
       Metropolitan Achievement Test reading scores are up for the 
     second straight year for grades 2-8, according to a report to 
     the Lincoln Board of Education. This snapshot of 1999 
     achievement showed that since 1997, second-graders have 
     improved 16 percent. Third-graders are up 12 percent, fourth- 
     and fifth-graders up 8 percent. Only ninth-grade scores have 
     held about the same.
       Math scores, which had declined along with reading scores, 
     are up in all grades, with six of eight grades working at 70 
     percent or better of their peers nationwide.
       LPS Associate Superintendent Marilyn Moore delivered the 
     good news Tuesday at a school board meeting.
       Board member Shirley Doan said the improvements came 
     because of commitment by teachers, principals and students.
       ``I think we have giants standing on the shoulders of 
     giants here,'' Doan said. ``Can we do it again? It would be 
     very unusual, but I think we can.''
       About the same number of students were tested in 1998 and 
     1999. More special education and English as a Second Language 
     students were given accommodations this year, such as more 
     test time and help with instructions. But a second analsis of 
     '98 and '99 scores that excluded all special education and 
     ESL students verified that scores improved, Moore said.
       Leslie Lukin, LPS assessment specialist, pointed to several 
     reasons for the reading improvement: Teachers have changed 
     the way they teach reading in kindergarten through third 
     grade, with different teaching plans for each grade. They 
     also are familiarizing students with the format and type of 
     questions on the achievement tests.
       But Reading Recovery may have produced the most dramatic 
     results.
       Aimed at the 20 percent of first graders having the hardest 
     time learning to read, the program offers one-on-one help 
     with letters, sounds, sentence structure and reading methods. 
     Kids spend half an hour a day with Reading Recovery teachers 
     and special books. Then they read at home with parents.
       Jeanette Tiwarld, the LPS Reading Recovery teacher leader 
     said Reading Recovery builds on children's strengths--what 
     they already know--to accelerate their learning and improve 
     their confidence.
       The number of children in the program have gone up as more 
     teachers have taken the rigorous Reading Recovery training 
     and more schools have added the curriculum. In the 1994 
     school year, 78 children passed through the full program. 
     Last year, the number jumped to 527.
       Questionnaires from parents of this year's Reading Recovery 
     students sang the praises of the program. Their children were 
     much more confident, they said, far happier after catching up 
     with their schoolmates in reading.
       For Nikyle, it was a godsend.
       She had changed schools three times in kindergarten, just 
     as she was starting to learn, because her mom and dad were 
     splitting up, her dad said. She started first grade at McPhee 
     Elementary and then when her father got custody of her and 
     three brothers and sisters, she moved to Calvert Elementary.
       All the while, because of everything going on in his own 
     life, Steven, Hladik didn't realize the effect on Nikyle. She 
     was being in learning, and she was miserable.
       ``She hated to go to school. It was hard to get her up and 
     make her go,'' her father said. ``She was insecure and really 
     quite.''
       Now she loves school. And her confidence has soared.
       Not only has her reading improved so have her math and 
     other subjects, her friendships, her self-esteem.
       She's making sure what happened to her doesn't happen to 
     her 4-year-old sister, Stephanie.
       ``Every night she sits and reads books to her,'' her father 
     said.

  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, this is about the success of a Federally 
funded program that was implemented by heroic people in Lincoln, NE--
they include principals, schoolteachers, and the Lincoln school board. 
I am talking about Title I. One of the reasons I talk about it a great 
deal is that, in Nebraska, there are 17,000 students that are eligible 
for Title I, but because we don't appropriate enough money, they are 
not funded. They don't get the benefits of this kind of effort.
  What this article talks about is a program called Reading Recovery 
that has been implemented in the Lincoln public school system over the 
last 3 years--and it's a very rigorous program. The teachers had to 
train themselves; they had to make a commitment to acquire the skills 
necessary to implement this program. The article starts off with a 
parent talking about the exhilaration of seeing his daughter learn how 
to read and make progress--be successful, in other words. What they 
have done is quite remarkable. It needs to be observed because citizens 
need to know that success indeed is possible.
  Second graders have improved their reading scores 16 percent; third 
graders, 12 percent; fourth and fifth graders are up 8 percent. These 
are dramatic increases. They have achieved the increases by starting at 
a very early age, using Title I moneys, using this Reading Recovery 
program, and going after young people who are at risk, who are falling 
behind, who have come into the school system without these reading 
skills.
  They have said if you want to lift the overall test scores, quite 
correctly, you have to help those who are most likely to fail if we 
don't intervene. That is what Title I is. It is not the Federal 
Government telling these local schools what to do. We recently passed 
an Ed-Flex bill that provided increased flexibility. I support that. 
But unless we provide resources, it is impossible for local heroes to 
take the money and make something of it.
  I will point out, in addition to the necessity of an early effort, an 
additional challenge we face. It's explained in one little paragraph 
here. Those of us born in 1943 sort of remember schools in the 1950s 
and 1960s and think, gee, why can't we do it the way we did it? Things 
have changed. In this article, one little paragraph says the following 
about this young girl who was given the benefit of this program:

       She had changed schools three times in kindergarten, just 
     as she was starting to learn, because her mom and dad were 
     splitting up, her dad said.

  She ended up caught in the middle of a custody battle, a transfer 
occurred, and as a consequence of the transfer, she fell behind. That 
is what happened. What Title I enabled her to do was catch up. It is 
quite a miraculous thing that happened as a consequence, as I said, of 
significant local commitment and the help of teachers who trained 
themselves and a principal who was committed. One of the principals is 
Deann Currin at Elliott Elementary. The Lincoln school board supported 
Reading Recovery. They used title I money. Again, it is not the Federal 
Government telling them what to do, but providing them the resources.
  I regret to say that in Nebraska, there are 17,000 children eligible 
for Title I programs that simply are not able to benefit because we are 
not providing a sufficient amount of resources.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota is recognized.

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