A Weekend for Reading

Gov. Gray Davis, in his “State of Education” speech Saturday, will challenge all Californians to do something, anything, for the sake of reading. He will ask parents, teachers, neighbors, corporate leaders and students to do more. Currently, two out of three California children cannot read at grade level by the end of third grade.

The governor and U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley will speak this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Reading by 9 Conference. Teams of teachers, school librarians, administrators and parents will attend sessions at the Los Angeles Convention Center on the state’s new standards, reading research and such basics as spelling instruction. They will be exposed to national experts, top researchers and textbook publishers.

Southern California’s schools can use volunteers willing to read to a classroom or tutor a single child. At the conference, volunteers can get training; parents--who after all are the first teachers--can network with other parents.

California students hit rock bottom in reading five years ago when the state’s fourth-graders ranked shockingly last on a national assessment test. State legislators responded by requiring a return to phonics, raising standards, improving teacher training, approving several research-based reading series, restocking school library shelves and reducing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. California’s $1-billion statewide textbook spending will go only for books that meet state standards and have been proven successful.

In Los Angeles, the school board Tuesday approved a reading initiative that will require schools that post primary reading scores below the 50th percentile--which is most of them--to spend their new state textbook money on one of three phonics-based reading series that have a proven track record. Teachers will get training and help from new reading coaches.

The Times Reading by 9 Conference invites a sharper focus on this first basic skill, the one on which all other learning is built.