Reading Horizons’ Curriculum Director, Heidi Hyte, travels the world promoting phonics instruction.

In the last year she has conducted trainings and needs assessments for NYC Public Schools and Public libraries. Additionally Heidi went to Doha, Qatar and Dubai plus she went back a second time to check in with the Rising Star school for children from leprosy colonies located in Chennai, India. Reading Horizons has donated $122,000 in reading software and resources to this wonderful organization.

I think you'll enjoy this documentary produced by Doug Jardine on the Rising Star Outreach mission and its school. We are proud to be associated with so many worthy programs and leaders throughout the world who are empowering others through literacy.

Most of us will not get the opportunity to travel the world to teach children to read but we can all do something. Read to a child today, volunteer at a school, or make a donation to your local school library.

What are your plans to change the world in 2012?

With more than 9,800 retail outlets nationwide, Dollar General, in a joint effort with the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and ProLiteracy, has created a National Literacy Directory website to help families and individuals get help with reading and writing.

As of August 2011, the organization had awarded more than $3 million in grants to 700 schools and other literacy centers.

Grants are available for Summer Reading programs, youth literacy efforts, and Back to School literacy initiatives. Dollar General grant programs are available to qualifying non-profit organizations in the 35 states where Dollar General stores are located.

Additionally, Dollar General is interested in providing funding to assist school libraries and meeting centers as they implement or expand new technology, materials, and software to support literacy programs.

Since more than 30 million adults and millions of children struggle with just the basics of reading, Dollar General is also seeking volunteers.

Dollar General's commitment to literacy is an integral part of the company's culture. In fact, Dollar General's co-founder, J. L. Turner, was functionally illiterate when he started the company.

Dollar General believes learning to read, receiving your GED, or learning the English language is an investment that opens doorways for personal, professional, and economic growth. That is why our commitment to literacy remains strong. It is the one gift that no one can take away—the one gift that lasts a lifetime.

We think so too. Help a school get free reading software by playing Lemons for Literacy at home or in the classroom.

It’s been pointed out time and time again that schools are struggling to get their students reading at grade level. This is of particular concern since it has been discovered that if a student isn’t reading at grade level by third grade they are 4x’s more likely not to graduate from high school.

But what can be done to solve this problem? There are several ideas that have been posited, one being that government support for for-profit schools could be the answer to accelerating the process that effective reforms are revealed.

In a recent article, the following positions were made in support of this opinion:

As Silicon Valley blogger Sarah Lacy noted, "I've spoken to many venture capitalists who say they'd love to use technology to change education, but few think they can make money at it."

Washington deems it acceptable to make a profit by reducing greenhouse emissions but not by reducing dropouts.

Ultimately, our public policy should urgently seek to better educate our children by any means necessary. We need to embrace a quality revolution that focuses solely on holding organizations accountable and responsible for improving student outcomes. Those that do should be rewarded and scaled so that we can ensure that students receive the education that they deserve using the entrepreneurial spirit and genius that have made America so great.

Another popular opinion is that the government needs not to support for-profit schools, but to support the educators they themselves hire.

Jon Steward, an unlikely voice for reform, recently said: “I’ve always found with education that individuals are the ones that make the enormous difference. And the more that you are able to empower a great teacher, a great principal, a great superintendent, that can make enormous differences. How do we empower the individuals to have the authority and responsibility to make those changes and not tie them to arbitrary objective realities or goals?”

Here’s a clip from his recent interview with Melody Barnes, one of the chief government officials in regards to education policy:

With few exceptions, every individual that goes into education wants to make a difference, whether in their work in public education or private education. In both of these markets the individuals working on the forefronts have their hands tied with regulations – whether it be standards to abide by or barriers to entry.

Why not capitalize on educators’ passion for helping students by granting them more freedom to do the job they elected to do? Do you think this would raise or lower the number of low-level readers in this country?

Struggling readers, low-income students and English language learners are all students that can be considered “at-risk.” However, as pointed out in an Education Week article today, “Every Student is at Risk.” Here are some excerpts from the article by teacher, Eric Fox:

“…I battle ignorance, apathy, lack of vision, lack of motivation, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, disorganization, and a bad memory on a daily basis. I don't have enough degrees and have never been elected to public office, so much of what I say may not seem important. My view is minuscule. I can't see the landscape with trends and data points. I just see the trenches.

…Every child, adolescent, or young adult who enters our school doorways is at risk of not developing his or her potential. I've never heard an elementary student say, "I want to make meth when I grow up," or "I can't wait until I'm old enough to go to prison," or "When I'm a teen mom, I can really play house."”

- Eric Fox, Teacher, Jenks, OK

Every student struggles with something. No student has a perfect life. Every student needs an education that challenges them and helps them learn more about their interests and their possibilities.

Of course, struggling readers and English language learners are among the entire student population that are "at-risk" and researchers have found strategies that can help them reach their potential:

1. Explicit and systematic phonics-based curriculum
2. Multisensory, Orton Gillingham-based instruction
3. Positive reinforcement and a focus on strengths

In recent news it’s been revealed that more and more students are struggling with reading making the implementation of these strategies as important as ever. In fact, “at-risk” readers are in many instances becoming the norm.

By using these strategies with every student from the start of their education there will be less "at-risk" readers and teachers will have more time to focus on some of the other factors that make every student "at-risk of not developing his or her potential." 

Learn strategies for teaching “at-risk” readers with Reading Horizons free 30-day online training! >

Finland has become a point of fascination for educators around the world. In 2009 Finland was the highest performing country on the international assessment, PISA, with only the city of Shanghai, China performing better.

Making Finland’s education success more interesting: only 30 years ago Finland’s education system was much like that of the United States. “Thirty years ago, Finland’s education system was a mess. It was quite mediocre, very inequitable. It had a lot of features our system has: very top-down testing, extensive tracking, highly variable teachers, and they managed to reboot the whole system,” said Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University.

So what did Finland do to turn its education system around? There are 5 key reforms that have led the country to its current educational success:

1. Teachers must have master’s degree.

To become an educator in Finland, candidates must get through a very competitive program. In fact, 2,400 people competed for the 120 coveted spots in the fully subsidized master’s program for schoolteachers last year. Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator and author noted: “[In Finland] it’s more difficult getting into teacher education than law or medicine.”

2. Children begin school at age 7.

To start children’s schooling before the age of 7 is seen as a violation of childhood in Finland.

3. Scorns homework and testing until the teenage years.

“The first six years of education are not about academic success, we don’t measure children at all. It’s about being ready to learn and finding your passion.”   - Dr. Sahlberg.

4. Same number of teachers as NYC with almost ½ the students.

Finland employs the same number of teachers for 600,000 students, as New York City employs for its 1.1 million students.

5. Children are schooled from ages 7 to 16 and then go to vocational or academic programs.

After completing basic education at the age of 16, 95% of the country goes to vocational or academic high schools.