Member-only story
Reading Instruction and Interventions in School: Science, Policy, and Practice
Josiah Brown, a volunteer member of the board of the Literacy Coalition of Greater New Haven, sent this account of an event in which the Coalition was involved.
The Literacy Coalition of Greater New Haven collaborated with the New Haven Free Public Library on an October 24 forum that the Public Library hosted on “Reading Instruction and Interventions in School: Science, Policy, and Practice” (which followed by a decade a Literacy Forum that had featured Margie Gillis on teachers and reading research).
The October event had been previewed, along with other literacy news, in an earlier Independent story — and preceded by one night the annual spelling bee to benefit New Haven Reads, a key Coalition participant. (As Lucy Gellman’s coverage of the Oct. 25 spelling bee noted, “While New Haven Reads tutors 550 kids a week, an all-time high of 234 more remain on the waitlist” — so additional volunteer tutors are needed!)
The importance of this work was underscored days later by the release of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. On average nationally, both 4th-graders and 8th-graders saw declines in reading proficiency since 2017. In Connecticut, 4th-graders’ reading skills showed a slight decrease — while average gaps among various…
