by Richard Long

“We applaud President Obama’s leadership in declaring that early childhood education should be open to all students. Expanding and improving early childhood education is a critical effort for enhancing educational opportunities for all of our students but especially the most vulnerable children in our society,” according to International Reading Association (IRA) President Carrice Cummins. She continued, young children clearly benefit from expanding their vocabularies, their knowledge of words, understanding of sounds and other literacy related experiences. However, she stressed that effective early childhood learning is not simply about learning a few skills; it is linking those skills to developing an understanding of how they can be used and how they make meaning.

Carrice Cummins


Richard Long

The key to expanding and improving early childhood education will be in making sure that the program has the tools to be successful. These tools will include teachers who have a strong background in literacy and child development. To ensure that we have the teachers we need we recommend that the Congress work with the states to support the number of early childhood teacher education programs for teachers in four-year institutions and for paraprofessionals in community colleges and that these programs have early literacy teacher education components. In addition, we suggest that the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development increase their attention to early childhood learning and instruction.

“Improving early childhood education will result in long-term and significant improvements in how a child functions in elementary school; we should not lose this opportunity to make this difference,” Cummins concluded. IRA will be offering new resources to expand what teachers know about teaching in early childhood programs with books, webinars, and conference sessions that will emphasize what we know works and makes a difference in the lives of our youngest learners.

Richard Long is the director of government relations at the International Reading Association, rlong@reading.org.

by Elizabeth Bleacher

Research has found that teachers are the most important contributors to students’ academic success. Since there is evidence that teachers play a critical role in the accomplishments of their students, government programs should be reworked to facilitate teacher growth. The International Reading Association’s newly developed Universal Principles: The Essential Role of the Teacher in Classrooms, School, and Society is meant to enable that process. These principles were developed by a group of teachers working at all levels of education.

The Universal Principles are meant to serve as a comprehensive framework for teacher education and support. A complete version of Universal Principles: The Essential Role of the Teacher in Classrooms, School, and Society can be found at the IRA website. Additionally, IRA is seeking reader suggestions regarding the Universal Principles until November 1. All comments and recommendations can be e-mailed to the IRA.

Capable and dedicated teachers ensure that their students experience academic success at the classroom level, but they also ensure that their students will become literate, well-adjusted members of society. The Universal Principles are broken into three separate sections that effectively outline the role of teachers and the support they need. The three sections are: teachers are dedicated professionals, teachers need adequate support and access to sufficient resources, and teachers are intensely committed to student success.

IRA endorses these proposed principles as essential for every teacher worldwide. In order to create schools where students can thrive, government programs need to consider teachers and their role in students’ lives. Highly qualified and effective teachers are critical to classroom success and the academic development of students.

Elizabeth Bleacher is the strategic communications intern at the International Reading Association.

Stark differences in education policy emerged Monday evening during a debate between education advisers to President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney at Teachers College, Columbia University. Obama Advisor Jon Schnur and Romney Advisor Phil Handy spoke in depth on topics ranging from Common Core State Standards and No Child Left Behind to student assessment, teacher development and evaluation, vouchers, and early childhood education.

The event was hosted by Teachers College and Education Week, with live webcast sponsored by the International Reading Association. Visit the Education Week website to access the webcast archive.

Schnur, co-founder of America Achieves, previously served as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America Education Policy Committee. Handy, higher education co-chair of the Ed-Policy Advisory Group, is CEO of Strategic Industries. He formerly served as chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, and was twice appointed by President George W. Bush as vice chairman to the National Board for Education Sciences.

The International Reading Association is sponsoring a live webcast on October 15, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. EST, in which Jon Schnur, education advisor to President Obama, and Phil Handy, who serves the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney in the same role, will debate education policy matters at stake in the 2012 election.

Registration for the live webcast is free at www.edweek.org. The webcast is co-hosted by Education Week, the leading education trade paper, and Teachers College at Columbia University. The debate will be moderated by Susan Fuhrman, president of Teachers College. A panel discussion featuring education journalists and others will immediately follow the debate.

Schnur, co-founder of America Achieves, previously served as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America Education Policy Committee. Handy, higher education co-chair of the Ed-Policy Advisory Group, is CEO of Strategic Industries. He formerly served as chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, and was twice appointed by President George W. Bush as vice chairman to the National Board for Education Sciences.

“Everyone concerned about the education of the nation’s students will want to take advantage of this special opportunity,” said Marcie Craig Post, executive director of the International Reading Association. “We are thrilled to sponsor this valuable webcast, and we are encouraging our members and the public at large to register and join in.”

Coming less than a month before the U.S. presidential election, the webcast will provide audience members with an excellent opportunity to hear representatives of the democratic and republican candidates elucidate their parties’ respective education platforms and contest major policy issues that will affect the nation’s schools over the next four years.

Their exchanges will provide voters with a clear sense of where the candidates’ views diverge, and what the consequences of their election might mean for teachers and school administrators across the country. Education policy has already become a flashpoint in the campaign as the candidates have taken up such issues as raising standards for student achievement and teacher performance, the achievement gap, early learning programs, student loans, STEM subjects, merit pay, school choice, and vouchers.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently released the report Unequal Education: Federal Loophole Enables Lower Spending on Students of Color.

The two primary findings of this paper are that the US is spending less on the schools that serve high concentrations of students of color, and the current discrepancies in per-pupil spending stems from both state and district spending policies.

The report data shows that schools with 90 percent or more students of color spend a full $733 less per student per year than schools with 90 percent or more white students. On average, the high-minority schools have 605 students. This average school would see an annual increase of $443,000 in state and local spending if it were brought up to the same per-pupil spending level as those schools with very few nonwhite students.

Data also shows how an increase of 10 percent in students of color is related to per-pupil spending in each state. It shows that in 24 states an increase in the concentration of students of color is associated with a decrease in dollars spent per pupil. These 24 states educate 63 percent of all students of color. In 13 states the percentage of students of color is not related to a school’s per-pupil spending. In 12 states an increase in the concentration of students of color is associated with an increase in per-pupil spending.

New data shows the percentage of variation in per-pupil spending occurring within and between districts in each state. The percentage of variation that is within districts ranges from 9 percent in Arizona to 77 percent in South Carolina. On average, 41 percent of the variation in spending between schools happens within districts; the remaining 59 percent falls between districts in a state.

Visit the CAP website to view the full report and their recommendations.

CAP Report on Strategies to Increase Teaching Effectiveness

Research Resources from the International Reading Association (IRA)