[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5806-S5807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. COCHRAN:
  S. 2788. A bill to establish a strategic planning team to develop a 
plan for the dissemination of research on reading; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


       the reading research dissemination and implementation act

  Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, today I am introducing a bill to 
establish the Reading Research Dissemination and Implementation Plan, 
an initiative which follows up on the important work of the National 
Reading Panel.
  Three years ago I discovered that the National Institute of Child 
Health and Human Services had completed a thorough study of factors and 
conditions that affect the learning of reading in children. Since 
reading is such a basic and necessary first step in the process of 
education, nothing is more important to a child's educational 
development than learning to read.
  I was honored to chair the recent hearing of the Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which 
accepted the National Writing Panel's report titled, ``An Evidence-
Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and 
Its Implications for Reading Instruction.'' The report has been 
distributed to Congress, universities, schools, education 
administrators, and libraries. At the hearing, Dr. Donald Langenberg, 
Chairman of the panel, stated, ``There is a recent report entitled 
Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science. . . . that is a gross 
understatement.''
  It is time to ensure that the panel's findings are disseminated in a 
manner that will result in the implementation of the best practices for 
the effective teaching of reading.
  This bill directs the National Reading Panel, the National Institute 
for Child Health and Human Development and the Department of Education 
to devise a strategic plan to include the findings in teacher 
preparation course work, professional development for current teachers, 
textbooks, and other instructional materials. The legislation further 
instructs that the plan be submitted to the Secretary of Education by 
December 31, 2000, and that the Secretary immediately take actions to 
implement it.
  The research report, ``Relations Between Policy and Practice: A 
Commentary,'' written in 1990 by D. K. Cohen and D. L. Ball states, 
``It costs state legislators and bureaucrats relatively little to 
fashion a new instructional policy. If instructional changes are to be 
made, [teachers] must make them. Teachers construct their practices 
gradually. Teaching is . . . a way of knowing, of seeing, and of 
being.''
  Over the last several years, reading assessments have continued to 
show that nearly half of our nation's fourth graders do not read at 
grade level. Research and study on literacy over the last few decades 
has shown that children who have difficulty reading are more likely to 
suffer poor self esteem, fail to achieve in other subjects, become 
trouble makers in school and eventually criminals in jail. The research 
also shows that once a child is nine years old, remediation becomes 
more difficult. We need to move quickly to take advantage of what is 
known to predict and prevent reading difficulties, help those children 
who are having difficulty, and begin teaching for successful reading 
instruction.
  We know that successfully mastering reading at an early age makes 
success in life more likely. It is my purpose and hope in introducing 
this legislation that the classrooms of today's preschoolers, 
kindergartners, and early grades will begin to benefit from the 
intelligence we have about how our brains connect and decode the 
complicated processes needed for reading.
  This legislation will engage researchers, policy makers, teachers and 
parents in a focused mission. A mission to ensure that children acquire 
the most essential skill for future success: reading. I invite other 
Senators to join me in supporting this important effort.
  I ask unanimous consent the text of the bill be printed in the Record 
immediately following my remarks.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                S. 2788

       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

[[Page S5807]]

     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.
                                 ______