About
the National Reading Panel (NRP)
NRP
Meetings Archive
| Panel Meetings
December 8-9, 1999
Washington, DC
Meeting Minutes
December 8, 1999
Introduction
The National Reading Panel met on December
8 and 9, 1999 in the Mirage Room of the Holiday Inn-Georgetown
in Washington, DC.
Those Panel members attending were:
Dr. Gloria Correro, Dr. Linnea Ehri, Ms. Gwenette Ferguson,
Ms. Norma Garza, Dr. Michael Kamil, Dr. Donald Langenberg,
Dr. S.J. Samuels, Dr. Tim Shanahan, Dr. Sally Shaywitz,
Dr. Tomas Trabasso, Dr. Dale Willows, Dr. Joanna Williams,
and Dr. Joane Yatvin.
The Panel convened at 9:13 a.m. The
meeting was called to order by Peggy McCardle of the
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.
At the start of the meeting, NRP Executive
Director F. William Dommel, Jr., announced that the
two-day session would be primarily spent on finalizing
the subgroup reports. He commended the Panel for its
work to date, and noted that the Panel's work was of
real substance, had real intellectual content, and would
have considerable impact on reading instruction.
Before breaking into subgroups, Dr.
Langenberg announced that the Panel would address three
issues: a status update from each of the subgroup chairs;
a briefing from those Panel members who attended the
National Reading Conference in Orlando, FL; and a discussion
of several important issues recently raised by Dr. Yatvin.
Alphabetics Subgroup
Dr. Ehri provided
the Panel with an update on the Alphabetics report.
She provided copies of the tables for the phonemic awareness
studies, noting that 52 studies were reviewed. She detailed
the methodology the subgroup used in conducting its
meta-analysis of those studies.
Dr. Ehri also noted that the analysis
of the phonics portion of the Alphabetics report was
in development and moving forward.
Fluency Subgroup
Dr. Shanahan then presented an update
on the Fluency Subgroup, noting that the report was
virtually unchanged from when it was last presented
to the Panel.
Teacher Education Subgroup
Dr. Correro began by thanking Dr. Kamil
for all of his help in developing a Teacher Education
report. Dr. Correro noted that there were a number of
standards currently being developed, from organizations
ranging from the American Association of Colleges for
Teacher Education to the International Reading Association
to the Association for Childhood Education International.
Dr. Kamil then detailed the 32 articles
that were qualified for inclusion in the Teacher Education
report. Nine of them looked at preservice education,
while the remaining 23 focused on in-service work.
He noted that there were many additional
studies, especially those focused on Reading Recovery,
that were also examined, but not included in the study.
While schools do a great deal of preservice
education, Dr. Kamil noted that student outcomes are
rarely analyzed. Instead, teacher outcomes are the measure.
Recess
The Panel recessed from 10:39 a.m.
to 11:03 a.m.
Reading Comprehension Subgroup
Dr. Kamil then presented an update
on the Comprehension report, which focused on four areas
- vocabulary, comprehension instruction, teacher preparation
and comprehension instruction, and criteria for research.
Dr. Kamil said the report was essentially
the same report presented in October, and has been reviewed
by two outside researchers.
Briefing on National Reading Conference
Dr. Shaywitz then briefed the Panel
on a recent presentation before the National Reading
Conference. She was joined by Drs. Shanahan and Ehri.
She said the presentation was well received.
Members of the Panel then agreed that
they should try to seek inclusion on the conference
program agenda for 2000, when they will be able to provide
greater details about the Panel's findings.
Panel Concerns
The Panel then heard from Dr. Yatvin,
who had raised some concerns about the Panel's findings.
She urged the Panel to pay greater attention to those
instructional items that teachers face on a day-to-day
basis. She also expressed concern over the limited scope
of issues emphasized by the Panel subgroups.
Recess
The Panel recessed at 12:41 p.m. to
conduct subgroup meetings.
December 9, 1999
Introduction
The Panel reconvened on Thursday, December
9, 1999 at 2:13 p.m., following a morning session of
subgroup meetings. The Panel was called to order by
Dr. Langenberg.
Reading Comprehension Subgroup
Dr. Kamil provided an update on the
reading comprehension report. He said the subgroup had
made progress developing an executive summary for its
work. He also noted that similar progress had been made
on the teacher education executive summary.
Fluency Subgroup
Dr. Shanahan announced that the Fluency
subgroup had drafted an executive summary and was finalizing
its complete report.
Dr. Samuels noted that the Fluency
subgroup included in its report its observation that
there is no experimental literature showing cause and
effect relationships between the amount of reading that
people do and reading achievement.
Alphabetics Subgroup
Dr. Ehri updated the Panel on the Alphabetics
subgroup's progress. The subgroup made changes to its
report, based on the comments of some reviewers. The
subgroup also made significant progress drafting its
executive summary.
Final Report Discussion
Mr. Dommel then began a discussion
on the Panel's final report and its overarching themes.
Panel members agreed that they should
develop a glossary of terms, and that the methodology
report should be included in its entirety.
After much discussion, members of the
Panel agreed to finalize all subgroup reports and executive
summaries by mid-January, with a final full Panel meeting
scheduled for the end of January 2000.
The Panel adjourned at 4:13 p.m.
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