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Credit: Photo by: Nick Romanenko
Gov. James E. McGreevey addresses pre-K
through 12th grade educators from around
the state at an Oct. 8 literacy forum
held at Rutgers and hosted by the
Governor's office.
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The Graduate School of Education-New Brunswick (GSE) is a national leader in developing new knowledge about how children learn, and it is distinguished in creating partnerships that apply that research in pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms. The GSE also educates and trains a significant number of New Jersey’s reading teachers. So it made sense that the GSE hosted Governor James E. McGreevey’s literacy forum Oct. 8.
“We all benefit when young people can read. Helping young people acquire the fundamental tool of literacy unlocks doors,” President Richard L. McCormick told about 400 pre-K through 12th grade curriculum supervisors, principals and teachers from around the state. The president related his own troubles picking up reading in elementary school. He struggled until the fourth grade. “In the fourth grade, for the first time I had a teacher I really liked. And I was reading material that had my interest … At last, McCormick learned to read,” the president said to laughter from the audience.
Richard De Lisi, acting dean of the GSE, and Leslie M. Morrow, professor II and literacy coordinator at the GSE, organized the daylong event, which was born out of a dinner discussion between McGreevey and McCormick. McGreevey made a commitment when he took office in January 2002 to have every child in New Jersey reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. Panelists at the conference included experts from the GSE and around the country as well as the State Department of Education.
“We couldn’t ask for more support than we have received from Richard McCormick as President” of Rutgers, in working with the GSE to improve reading instruction in New Jersey Schools, said state Commissioner of Education William Librera. The state has placed 90 reading coaches to help struggling readers in about 200 schools throughout the state. Librera hopes to create a similar program in New Jersey for math instruction.
Librera introduced John Guthrie, professor of human development and director of the Maryland Literacy Research Center at the University of Maryland, who said a child’s motivation and engagement in reading is more important than any other factor – including classroom strategies or techniques – in developing good readers.
Guthrie’s comments were echoed in a workshop by Michael W. Smith, professor and chair of the department of learning and teaching at the GSE and author of “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men.” Smith said children are motivated to read for fun and to get information they can use immediately.
Morrow advised attendees on tapping “Reading First,” a national program that funds reading instruction in kindergarten through grade three. She said schools should “use research, but also their hearts” when interpreting federal policy guidelines and designing reading programs for their students.
Dorothy S. Strickland, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor professor at the GSE, offered strategies to help the struggling reader. In an interview before the forum, Strickland said she sees a national movement among education schools to work more closely with state departments of education and local school districts. “My hope is that the school districts out there will really see us as support for them. It’s a partnership, that’s how I view it, and anything we can do to solidify that partnership in terms of how we can help one another.”
A highlight of the conference was a town hall-style discussion moderated by the governor. Using a microphone and a bit of wit, McGreevey fielded suggestions from the educators. Many educators expressed frustration with the federal No Child Left Behind act, which requires regular assessment tests. But educators complained that the federal measure doesn’t provide them with the feedback they need to improve scores. “I was just so frustrated because the federal government didn’t talk to us,” McGreevey said. “A cookie-cutter approach led to our level of frustration…a prescriptive methodology doesn’t really ensure success.”
Other discussion topics were English as a Second Language, calls for more teacher mentoring, teaching students test-taking methods and developing ways to track students’ progress over years. Lucille Davy, the governor’s special counsel for education, told the educators that a database is being piloted in New Jersey that allows officials to collect data and follow children’s progress. “It’s in the works. It’s not funded fully at this point,” Davy said.
McGreevey closed the conference by saying: “This is the foundation not only of our education system, but our democracy … there is no greater cause than literacy.”
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