JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: The reading gap among school children in this country is disturbing.
Fewer than 40 percent of fourth and eighth graders are considered proficient readers.
There is a push to change how students are taught to read, and it is being led by parents
whose children have dyslexia.
Special correspondent Lisa Stark of our partner Education Week reports from Arkansas for our
education segment, Making the Grade.
LISA STARK: Meet the families who changed how every child in Arkansas will learn to
read, because they know what it's like for kids to struggle with reading.
Here's Kim Head:
KIM HEAD, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: My kid is crawling under the table, stomach
aches, doesn't want to go to school.
We're in tears.
LISA STARK: Amber Jones:
AMBER JONES, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: The psychological damage that happens to them
when they cannot figure out reading.
Scott Gann:
SCOTT GANN, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: He said, "I told you I can't read.
Nobody believes me."
LISA STARK: These families have spent thousands of dollars on educational testing and tutoring
to discover their children have dyslexia, a learning disability that makes it difficult
to spell and read.
It affects one in five individuals.
Here's Dixie Evans:
DIXIE EVANS, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: Not being able to get the help from your school,
the people that are supposed to know, that are supposed to have the answers, not being
able to get that help and having to go out and find it on your own.
AUDI ALUMBAUGH, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: The sense of urgency with us is, while
the schools are trying to figure their way, these kids, they don't have time to wait.
LISA STARK: Audi Alumbaugh has led the push to pass new state laws on reading instruction.
She has a niece with dyslexia.
AUDI ALUMBAUGH: She is not a strong reader still because of our delay in figuring out
what was going on, but she will be a success.
And I saw how it impacts every fiber of the family, which is what everybody here says.
And there's just no need.
We have a system in place to fix this.
LISA STARK: That system includes explicit instruction in phonics, teaching students
how letters and sounds go together to help the brain process the written word.
WOMAN: If we have the word brush, brush, an we want to take away the buh, we are left
with?
CHILDREN: Rush.
WOMAN: Very good.
SARAH SAYKO, National Center on Improving Literacy: We absolutely know that this is
the best way the teach children to read.
LISA STARK: Sarah Sayko with the National Center on Improving Literacy says this approach
works well for all students, not just those with dyslexia.
SARAH SAYKO: We know without a doubt that reading is not a natural process.
Reading has to be taught.
And it needs to be taught systematically.
LISA STARK: Here's what that looks like at Springhill Elementary in Greenbrier, Arkansas,
where students with characteristics of dyslexia get intensive reading instruction.
CHILDREN: Rain.
WOMAN: Rain.
Oh, I tried to trick you all on that one.
Very good.
LISA STARK: Why are you in those groups?
Do you know?
What's that for?
Dan, do you want to say something about that?
DANI FULMER, Student: To help us spell better, I think.
LISA STARK: What about you, Cord?
CORD BEAIRD, STUDENT: Read better.
ACE NEWLAND, Student: Write better.
LISA STARK: Ace, Cord, and Dani are taught the use their senses of touch, feel, and movement
to help imprint words into their brains.
ACE NEWLAND: And like pounding tapping helps me like write it.
LISA STARK: So it helps to pound the word out and tap the word out?
ACE NEWLAND: Yes.
LISA STARK: And why is that, do you think?
ACE NEWLAND: Because you're sounding out each letter.
LISA STARK: And letters become words.
Words become stories.
Reading is no longer something to avoid.
CORD BEAIRD: And then now I know a lot about reading.
And when I go to chapter book, I will get stuck on big words.
DANI FULMER: I would like to see words.
And I would like to just see them and say, oh, I know that word, and then just keep on
reading.
LISA STARK: Are you able to do that at all yet?
DANI FULMER: Some words.
LISA STARK: For those who can't read well by the end of third grade, there are lifelong
consequences, including higher school dropout and poverty rates.
Arkansas ranks in the bottom third of states when it comes to reading, and this group is
determined to change that.
They have fought for laws to transform reading instruction, often battling an education establishment
resistant to change, says Dallas Green.
DALLAS GREEN, Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group: They didn't want us around.
They would see us at educational things, and it would be like, oh, lord, here they are.
LISA STARK: But perseverance paid off.
Seven years and at least eight bills later, Arkansas is revamping everything, from dyslexia
screening, to reading instruction, to teacher take and licensing, costing the state $6 million
a year.
STACY SMITH, Arkansas Department of Education: Statewide, we have embraced this.
And it's not been easy.
LISA STARK: Not easy, but a watershed moment, says Stacy Smith, who oversees curriculum
and instruction in Arkansas.
STACY SMITH: When we saw schools who started implementing dyslexia programs, kind of more
school-wide, and all of a sudden their reading literacy results were improving, it was kind
of that moment of, wait a second, not all these kids are dyslexic.
LISA STARK: This type of reading instruction is the most beneficial for early readers.
That was the conclusion of the federally appointed National Reading Panel nearly two decades
ago.
STACY SMITH: So, there is actual scientific evidence about how students learn to read.
And it's largely been ignored.
LISA STARK: Ignored largely because of years of ideological fights over how to best teach
reading.
Should lessons be heavy with phonics or steeped in good literature?
Smith says sure kids of course need time with good books, but from what she's seen in Arkansas,
the first step is comprehensive phonics instruction.
That's why the state is moving to teach every student this way.
STACY SMITH: Golly, you think, what have we done?
What have we done for generations to kids that we didn't really teach to read?
LISA STARK: Arkansas is now retraining thousands of its educators who were never taught this
method of teaching.
MIRANDA MAHAN, Teacher: When I first started teaching, I honestly didn't know how to teach
kids to read.
I didn't.
I taught them some sight words.
I taught them the letters and what sounds they make.
And I hoped that they put it all together.
Rush.
LISA STARK: Teacher Miranda Mahan no longer has to hope.
She knows kids are learning to read.
MIRANDA MAHAN: I know that we're sending better readers to first grade now than we did, and
first grade's going to send better readers to second grade.
And I feel that there's not going to be as many students fall through the cracks.
LISA STARK: This is happening around the country, with parents leading the way.
Over 40 states have laws, pilot programs, or bills ready to be signed around reading
and dyslexia.
But the requirements and mandates vary widely.
In Arkansas, by the school year 2021, all elementary and special ed teachers must show
that they know how to teach reading based on the science.
At Springhill, they will beat that deadline.
For principal Stephanie Worthey, this is personal.
Remember that student Ace Newland?
That's her son.
STEPHANIE WORTHEY, Principal, Springhill Elementary: I was an educator.
And I struggled with my own child.
And had this not come out and I was able to learn about dyslexia, I wouldn't even have
been able to help my own child, rather less a whole building full of children.
LISA STARK: So is this new approach working?
Let's go to the source.
ACE NEWLAND: Reading is kind of fun for me now that I know how and stuff.
LISA STARK: The efforts are still so new, they haven't yet moved the needle on state
tests.
For those pushing for the changes, there's little doubt they will.
Would you say that teaching your children a different way has made a difference for
your child?
WOMAN: Yes.
LISA STARK: How much of a difference?
WOMAN: Life-changing, completely.
LISA STARK: Life-changing when children are truly learning to read.
For education week and the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Stark in Greenbrier, Arkansas.