Frequently
Asked Questions
National
Reading Panel (NRP) Frequently Asked Questions
What is the National
Reading Panel?
In 1997, Congress asked the Director
of the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD), along with the Secretary of Education,
to convene a national panel on reading. The National
Reading Panel (NRP) was asked by Congress to assess
the status of research-based knowledge about reading,
including the effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read. The panel was made up of
14 people, including leading scientists in reading research,
representatives of colleges of education, teachers,
educational administrators, and parents. The NRP met
over a period of two years to discuss their findings
and prepare the results in two reports and a video titled,
"Teaching Children to Read."
Return to Top of Page
How did the National
Reading Panel gather information for its study?
The Panel followed three paths for
gathering information for its study. The first was to
review a variety of public databases to determine what
research had already been conducted on how children
learn to read. The second was to gather information
from the public about their needs and their understanding
of reading research. The NRP accomplished this by holding
public regional hearings. The third was to consult with
leading education organizations that had an interest
in reading issues.
Return to Top of Page
How did the Panel
gather information from the public?
The Panel held five public hearings
in 1998 in different cities around the country: New
York, Chicago, Houston, Jackson, MS, and Portland, OR.
At these hearings, the Panel received oral or written
testimony from 125 individuals or organizations representing
the ultimate users and beneficiaries of the Panel's
findings. These included teachers, parents, students,
university faculty, education policy experts, and scientists.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
learn from these hearings?
Participants in the hearings expressed
several themes quite clearly. They noted the important
role parents and others play in providing children with
early experiences that foster reading development. They
also highlighted the importance of identifying early
which kids are at risk for reading failure and intervening
quickly to help them.
Participants also stressed the importance
of phonemic awareness, as well as the
need to combine a variety of reading approaches into
teaching strategies. The instruction, they argued, should
be scientifically based. For that reason, the participants
urged the Panel to base its conclusions on experimental
studies conducted according to rigorous scientific standards.
In addition, participants highlighted the importance
of professional development for teachers and the need
to encourage more interactions between teachers and
researchers. And finally, participants urged wide dissemination
of the Panel's eventual findings.
Return to Top of Page
What research did
the Panel review in developing its findings?
The Panel first reviewed public databases
and found about 100,000 research studies on reading
that had been published since 1966. Because it was not
possible for the Panel to critically review all this
research, panel members decided to set criteria for
which studies to include in their review.
The Panel began by first selecting
research topics to examine that were central to the
issues of learning how to read. The selection of topics
was guided by the work of the National Research Council
(NRC) Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties
in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
The NRC Committee had identified and summarized research
literature relevant to the critical skills, environments,
and early interactions that are important for gaining
beginning reading skills.
Once it selected the topics for review,
the Panel also decided how to choose which studies to
include in its analysis. To ensure the quality of the
work, the Panel agreed to base its conclusions only
on studies that had appeared in English in a refereed
journal. The Panel limited its review to studies that
focused directly on children's reading development from
preschool through Grade 12. The Panel also concentrated
only on studies that were experimental or quasi-experimental
in design. These studies had to include a sample size
that was considered large enough to be useful, and the
instructional procedures used in the studies had to
be well defined.
Return to Top of Page
What research topics
did the Panel examine?
The Panel concentrated on the following
areas: Alphabetics, including the issues of phonemic
awareness instruction and phonics instruction; Fluency;
Comprehension, including vocabulary instruction, text
comprehension instruction, and teacher preparation and
comprehension strategies; Teacher Education and Reading
Instruction; and Computer Technology and Reading Instruction.
Return to Top of Page
What is phonemic awareness
(PA)?
Phonemes are the smallest units making
up spoken language. English consists of about 41 phonemes.
Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. A few
words have only one phoneme, such as a (a) or
oh (o). Most words consist of a blend of phonemes,
such as go (g-o) with two phonemes, check
(ch-e-ck) with three phonemes, or stop with four
phonemes (s-t-o-p). Phonemic awareness refers to the
ability to focus on and manipulate these phonemes in
spoken words.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
conclude about phonemic awareness (PA)?
Scientific evidence shows that teaching
children to manipulate the sounds in language (phonemes)
helps them learn to read. This remains true under a
variety of teaching conditions and with a variety of
learners across a range of grade and age levels. The
NRP concluded that teaching phonemic awareness to children
significantly improves their reading when compared to
instruction without any attention to phonemic awareness.
Specifically, the results of experimental studies led
the Panel to conclude that PA training led to improvement
in students' phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling.
Return to Top of Page
What is phonics instruction?
Phonics instruction is a way of teaching
reading that stresses learning how letters correspond
to sounds and how to use this knowledge in reading and
spelling. Phonics instruction can be provided systematically.
Systematic phonics instruction occurs when children
receive explicit, systematic instruction in a set of
pre-specified associations between letters and sounds.
Children are taught how to use these associations to
read, typically in texts containing controlled vocabulary.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
conclude about phonics instruction?
The Panel determined that systematic
phonics instruction leads to significant positive benefits
for students in kindergarten through sixth grade and
for children with difficulty learning to read. Kindergartners
who receive systematic beginning phonics instruction
read better and spell better than other children, and
first graders are better able to decode and spell words.
The students also show significant improvement in their
ability to understand what they read. Similarly, phonics
instruction helps older children spell and decode text
better, although their understanding does not necessarily
improve.
Return to Top of Page
What is reading fluency?
Reading fluency is one of several critical
factors necessary for reading comprehension, but is
often neglected in the classroom. If children read out
loud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they
are more likely to comprehend and remember the material
than if they read with difficulty and in an inefficient
way. Two instructional approaches have typically been
used to teach reading fluency. One, guided repeated
oral reading, encourages students to read passages out
loud with systematic and explicit guidance and feedback
from their teacher. The other, independent silent reading,
encourages students to read silently on their own, inside
and outside the classroom, with little guidance or feedback
from their teachers.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
conclude about reading fluency?
Reading practice is generally believed
to improve fluency, and two instructional approaches
are usually used to practice reading: guided repeated
oral reading and independent silent reading. The Panel
determined that guided repeated oral reading has a significant
and positive impact on word recognition, reading fluency,
and comprehension for students of all ages. However,
the Panel was unable to conclude that independent silent
reading, as the only type of reading instruction,
improves reading fluency. More research is needed to
understand the specific influences that independent
silent reading practices have on reading fluency.
Return to Top of Page
What are the components
of reading comprehension?
Reading comprehension is very important
to the development of children's reading skills and
therefore to their ability to obtain an education. In
carrying out its study of reading comprehension, the
NRP noted three main themes in the research on the development
of reading comprehension skills. First, reading comprehension
is a complex cognitive process that cannot be understood
without a clear description of the role that vocabulary
development and vocabulary instruction play in the understanding
of what has been read. Second, comprehension is an active
process that requires an intentional and thoughtful
interaction between the reader and the text (text comprehension
instruction). Third, the preparation of teachers to
better equip students to develop and apply reading comprehension
strategies to enhance understanding is intimately linked
to students' achievement in this area.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
conclude about reading comprehension?
Vocabulary development has long been
considered important for reading comprehension. The
Panel concluded that vocabulary should be taught both
directly and indirectly. Repetition and seeing vocabulary
words several times is also important. Learning in rich
contexts, incidental learning, and the use of computer
technology all help children develop larger vocabularies.
A combination of methods, rather than a single teaching
method, leads to the best learning.
As with vocabulary development, text
comprehension is improved when teachers use a combination
of reading comprehension techniques such as question
answering, question generation, and summarization. When
students are able to use them successfully, they perform
better in recall, answering questions, generating questions,
and summarizing texts.
The Panel found that intensive professional
development is necessary so that teachers can learn
to use reading comprehension strategies effectively.
Preferably, teachers should receive formal instruction
on strategies to teach reading comprehension as early
as preservice. More research is needed on a number of
issues, including which components of teacher preparation
are most effective.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
conclude about teacher education and reading instruction?
The Panel determined that inservice
professional development for teachers results in significantly
higher achievement for their students. This is true
for established as well as new teachers. More research
is needed, however, to determine the best combinations
of inservice and preservice training, the appropriate
length of each, and how teachers should be supported
over the long term to improve student performance. The
relationship between the development of standards and
teacher education is an important gap in current knowledge.
Return to Top of Page
What did the Panel
determine about the value of computer technology to
reading instruction?
The research reviewed by the Panel
was too limited to make any strong recommendations about
the value of computer technology to reading instruction.
However, all the studies indicate positive results,
suggesting that using computer technology for reading
instruction is very promising. For instance, the addition
of speech to computer-presented text, the use of hypertext,
and the use of computers as word processors all show
promise.
Return to Top of Page
Why didn't the Panel
examine any other research topics?
The Panel selected the issues in the
report because they have been the subjects of a wide
variety of studies, theories, instructional programs,
and educational policies. Using the findings of the
National Research Council as a foundation to build upon,
the Panel also considered the testimony from the public
regional hearings when deciding which topics to study.
Through this review, the Panel concluded that these
topics are widely regarded as the central issues in
reading instruction and reading improvement. Nevertheless,
the Panel recognizes that other topics may have an impact
on reading instruction. Each of the reports of the subgroups
identifies areas recommended for future research.
Return to Top of Page
Did the National Reading Panel examine vision-related problems of children as a possible cause of reading difficulties?
In the initial review and screening of the literature on reading instruction, the NRP identified studies that specifically measured reading as an outcome. The NRP applied the same rigorous methodological criteria to all studies that included reading outcomes. The NRP charge was to examine effectiveness of instructional methods for teaching reading. Studies of vision training not explicitly used as reading instruction methods were not considered. Research involving vision was not simply excluded from consideration by the NRP. Studies on teaching reading, either to visually impaired or to non-impaired readers, and that also met the NRP's methodological criteria, would have been included in the NRP's analysis. However, there were no studies involving oculomotor interventions that satisfied these criteria.
Return to Top of Page
What do the Panel's
findings mean to teachers?
The Panel identified a number of instructional
strategies that are very promising for teaching students
with reading difficulties. Many of these teaching methods
and approaches are ready right now for use in the classroom.
In addition, the Panel provided extensive references
that teachers can use to find appropriate and scientifically
validated instructional methods. It also noted areas
where more research is needed to determine objectively
if teaching methods are effective.
Return to Top of Page
What do the Panel's
findings mean to parents?
Parents have long been considered critical
to the development of their children's reading skills.
Parents who read with their children can help get them
interested in reading at an early age and help model
good reading habits. Parents also have other important
roles to play in supporting their children's reading
development. The Panel's report highlights which teaching
strategies have been proven effective and those that
may not be effective. Parents who become familiar with
the Panel's findings can become advocates for quality
reading instruction in their children's schools. In
addition, those who become familiar with the Panel's
findings can use this information to help them determine
if their children are struggling and if they should
be candidates for more individualized reading instruction.
Parents can now rely on the Panel's findings as their
source on reading instruction and use their understanding
of the findings to identify other tools to help their
children develop better reading skills.
Return to Top of Page
What do the Panel's
findings mean to administrators?
The Panel reviewed the effectiveness
of teacher preparation in reading instruction. Although
the Panel determined that more study is necessary to
show which components of teacher education are most
effective, it nevertheless concluded that inservice
professional development improved teaching as well as
student performance. These findings suggest that administrators
should regularly make professional development opportunities
available to their teaching staff. To ensure that the
report's findings are successfully disseminated, the
Panel also relies on administrators to pass on their
knowledge and be effective advocates for research-based
information.
Return to Top of Page
Does the Panel's
work put an end to controversy about the best way to
teach reading?
The Panel's research suggests that
reading instruction is complex. Children come into the
classroom with different levels of preparation, as do
their teachers. In addition, learning to read requires
a combination of skills, including phonics, phonemic
awareness, fluency, and text reading comprehension skills.
Not all children learn in the same way and one strategy
does not work for all children. As a result, the Panel's
findings demonstrate that learning phonics skills is
critical for positive reading development. However,
the best results will be achieved when direct instruction
is combined with the development of other skills, and
when teachers are able to use a combination of direct
instructional strategies to achieve those skills.
Return to Top of Page
What is the National
Reading Panel doing now?
Although the work of producing the
panel report is complete, the findings continue to be
distributed. Panel members also continue to speak at
various conferences and organizational meetings regarding
their findings.
In addition, the work of the
National Reading Panel is being expanded by a nationwide
strategy for dissemination and implementation of its
findings. This new initiative is the National Reading
Excellence Initiative (NREI), a national project for
disseminating reading research authorized by the Reading
Excellence Act conducted under the auspices of the National
Institute for Literacy. The NREI's mission is to make
scientifically based reading research more accessible
to educators, parents, policymakers, and other interested
individuals. The NREI will be implemented through a
diverse mix of public awareness, professional development,
and program replication activities.
In 2001, the NREI will mount an aggressive campaign
to distribute the findings of the National Reading Panel,
as well as other evidence-based reports designed to
improve reading instruction and literacy. As part of
this campaign, the National Institute for Literacy,
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
and the U.S. Department of Education have formed a partnership
to work on continued dissemination and implementation
efforts of the NRP report. They are currently in the
process of convening a "Working Partners Group"
that includes representatives of various education and
business organizations, all of whom are essential to
the efforts to reform and improve reading instruction
in the nation's classrooms. Perhaps most important,
this campaign will be designed to help those on the
education front lines implement evidence-based reading
instruction practices in the classroom.
Return to Top of Page
|
