December 23, 2008

Chairman David Obey

House Committee on Appropriations

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20510

                                                                                Re: Economic Stimulus Package

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Literacy professional development is the most powerful tool policy makers have to improve reading achievement of high need students.  These vulnerable students are the core of Title I, Title III, and IDEA programs. 

The United States has over 18 million struggling learners – at all grade levels.  Unfortunately, most of these children attend schools with the most challenges and the fewest resources.  Professional development as a primary intervention for improvement will increase student learning. [This has been documented by Richard Correnti (AERA, 2007) and an IES’s 2007 study by the Regional Education Laboratory at Edvance Research.]  

American schools need professional development programs that:

• fund consistent and  precise instruction for teachers and administrators,
• coordinate with the needs of the schools, and
• target schools that are in school improvement or schools that have been identified by the state education agency as a school in need.

Professional development in the economic stimulus package will have an immediate and long-lasting impact on a part of the workforce that is frequently left out of “infrastructure” programs: women.  The teaching workforce is 75% female. Also 18% of teachers have less than three years experience. Targeting these novices will make them better teachers and induce them to stay with teaching, thus combating a persistent and costly retention problem.

Adequate funding is essential, not only for professional development programs themselves, but to cover the costs of substitute teachers that allow the classroom teachers the time to expand their knowledge and practice of teaching high-level content to vulnerable children.

The International Reading Association asks that you include professional development in the economic stimulus package.  In doing so, Congress will be providing a stimulus to the economy, helping the largely female teaching force as it invests in the neediest children in the United States, and preparing a lost segment of our children to compete in this complex and technological society.

Sincerely yours,

Alan E. Farstrup

Executive Director