International Reading Association Pleased with Nomination

of Arne Duncan for U.S. Secretary of Education

Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association (IRA) President Barbara Walker is pleased that president-elect Barack Obama has nominated proven education activist Arne Duncan as U.S. Secretary of Education.

            "Arne Duncan has shown that he is a consensus builder who has focused on teacher education. IRA firmly believes that the quality of preparation of the classroom teacher is key to closing the achievement gap,” says Walker.

            The fact that Duncan’s appointment was announced in Chicago’s Dodge Renaissance Academy buttresses this hope.  Dodge Renaissance Academy was closed in 2002 for failing to make the grade. In 2005 it was reborn as a professional development school for teachers seeking advanced degrees in education.

            IRA, with nearly 80,000 U.S. members representing the literacy research, policy, and teaching sector of education, hopes the new Secretary will adopt professional development and other policy recommendations laid out in the IRA document “Keeping Our Promise to All Students.”  IRA President Barbara Walker and IRA Executive Director Alan Farstrup sent this document to President-elect Obama and to the nation’s governors for their consideration.

            IRA agrees with President-elect Obama when he said, “I do not accept an America where 60 percent of African-American fourth graders aren’t even reading at the basic level.”  As pointed out in the IRA document, although successful reading programs involve curricula, instructional strategies, and evaluation practices, it is primarily the teachers’ knowledge and skills that actively combine all of these elements.

            National leadership is needed more than ever to ensure that teacher education, professional development, community involvement, strong curricula, and accountability are central in the lives of all learners, especially the most vulnerable. Students need to read and comprehend well in order to be successful in an ever more challenging world.

            Focusing on teachers and helping them to continue to improve their instruction of all children will create a robust and engaged literacy teaching force.  While IRA notes that teachers should have access to many tools to improve education, research shows that ongoing professional development for teachers is one of the keys to sustained literacy success for students.

            IRA looks forward to working with Arne Duncan to improve not only fourth-grade reading scores, but all children’s ability to read and compete in this complex and technological society.

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