Break My Heart, Secretary Duncan

Gaby Chapman

On June 16, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued the following statement on the
Institute of Education Sciences' new Reading for Understanding Research Network:

"Today's $100 million investment in reading research addresses a well-known challenge facing
schools across the country. It's not enough to teach students how to read. We need to teach students
to understand what they're reading. This project will bring together the best minds in the country —
from researchers working in with collaboration with practitioners — to find solutions that will
improve reading comprehension so that our students are on track to succeed in college and careers."

The Reading for Understanding Research Initiative (Reading for Understanding) will spend $100
million dollars to improve our students’ reading comprehension by (a) identifying processes that
take place during reading that contribute to comprehension (Haven’t we already done that? Are
there some processes we’ve missed?); (b) developing ways to teach teachers to teach these processes
to students (presumably better ways than we have now, because these are clearly not working); and
(c) developing better assessments of students’ ability to understand what they read.

One hundred million dollars. The initiative is expected to take five years.

We only need to teach students to understand what they are reading when they have no interest in
what they read. Most of the reading that takes place in school is assigned reading—by definition
reading that someone else thinks is interesting. So I agree, if students are going to spend their time in
school reading what other people find interesting, we are going to have to find better ways to teach
them to how to understand what they read. And I am not completely cynical about this initiative;
$100 million dollars is bound to turn up some more effective ways to teach students to understand
what they are not interested in.

It’s just that I have sat on the bench at recess with a third grade boy who was depressed because he
didn’t think he could stand summer vacation, knowing he would have no more access to the books
he wanted to read. And I have watched hundreds of kids learn to love to read when they had
somebody giving them all the books they were interested in reading and then I have watched their
reading test scores rise like yeasted bread. And I have seen, over and over, how the students who
were the easiest to teach to write and who had the easiest time understanding anything they read
were always the students who read independently (unassigned)and in quantity. And it has always
been so grindingly hard to find the money to buy the books to keep my students reading all the
books they are dying to read, all the books that are helping them so extensively, academically and
emotionally.

Oh, Arne, you break my heart. One hundred million dollars could buy so many books for kids to
read. Instead of trying to find a magic bullet to teach reading comprehension without encouraging
real reading—reading that tumbles you headlong into the pages of a book, a book that grips your
mind, heart, and soul; a book that makes you want to read through the night, forget your lunch, miss
the bus, that draws you back from anything you might be doing; a book that makes you weep, laugh,
and ponder (I mean truly, give me a break, are we not talking comprehension here?)—we could be
putting so many more books into kids’ hands that make their eyes light up, grab their minds, and
yes, develop their reading comprehension.

Take ten cities. That’s ten million dollars apiece. Even with a generous million for space, equipment,
and salaries, that would leave nine million dollars to buy over million books. Set up reading rooms
for kids around each city. Staff them with people who love to read and to give books to kids. Equip
ice-cream carts with books and patrol the neighborhoods. Tell kids their reward for reading one
book is that they will get another one. Get Bill and Melinda Gates to set up a data system to keep
track of what and how much each kid reads, and then track test scores. Make your motto be All the
Books Every Child Wants To Read.

It wouldn’t take five years to get your answers. Or ten years, if you count the five years it would take
to see if the research from the first five years works. Another generation of students would not have
to wade through their school years alongside the ever shrinking library while researchers work even
harder to find a better way for them to learn comprehension than by reading plenty of books they
love.