Teachers! How would you like an Every Child Reads logo for materials you're generating for your classroom? Click on the button above to download the graphic which is 5x5 inches and 250 dpi. It's a jpeg file which will appear in your browser (quite large). Just right click on it when it after it downloads to copy or save it to your hard drive or shared folder. And once you've saved it, you can insert the image in any Microsoft application or document you're working on. To resize the image once it's in the document, select the image, depress the shift key while dragging the corner image handles diagonally (holding the shift key down keeps the image in proportion).

elcome to the Every Child Reads Video page. This is a special video that we produced explaining our progress in the Every Child Reads Program. More information about this program will be posted here. But right now, we're testing the video for distribution on the Web. It's about 10 minutes in length and is RealMedia streaming video format. For you folks with high-speed access, the video loads and plays quickly. If you are on dial-up at 28.8 or 33 megabits per second, pre-load will be relatively slow, but it may be worth the wait. This video features real teachers and students putting in practice the principles of the Every Child Reads Program, which is a multi-grade integrated curriculum approach to reading instruction at Dubuque Schools. Meanwhile, this Web page represents a test for educators throughout our state to demonstrate how this technology of streaming video works. We thank you for discovering it and giving it a try. Let us know what you think.

Click on the Video Adventure button on the left to download and view the video. It's about 10 minutes in length.

For more information on Video Adventures and how to make your Web browser video capable, click here.

What is Every Child Reads?

The Every Child Reads program was begun three years ago by the Iowa Department of Education in response to declining test results across the state. The Department invited local districts to participate in this new initiative. At the invitation of Dr. Jane Petrek, Superintendent of the Dubuque Community Schools, Eisenhower Elementary School elected to participate in the three-year commitment. A core team of Eisenhower teachers, Tammy Duehr, Lisa Johnson, Sue De Weerdt, and Laura Herman along with Lois Robbins, Principal , Diane Muir, Assistant Principal and Sue Lansing, District Language Arts Supervisor, participated in the staff development initiative.

The main pillars of the Every Child Reads initiative are action research, reading comprehension strategies, analysis of data, and peer coaching. The core team participated in intensive staff development sessions in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines over the three-year period with Emily Calhoun, a noted researcher and staff developer in action research and school improvement. The core team inserviced the remaining Eisenhower teachers and also the Hoover Elementary School staff in the Every Child Reads initiative.

Overall benefits of the program include improved student reading comprehension on test scores and in the student use of the comprehension strategies when they read independently. In addition, teachers and administrators have increased their expertise in planning the next steps in staff development and in monitoring student achievement over time by analyzing data collected. Both Eisenhower and Hoover schools conducted action research by surveying parents to determine if and how much students were reading at home. Teachers found that students were not reading at home and launched a reading at home program in which the students read and recorded the number of minutes they read at home each night. Honor Roll Certificates were awarded each month if students met their reading goal that month. The reading at home program has been successful at both schools and is contributing to improved student achievement in reading comprehension.

For more information on Every Child Reads, contact Sue Lansing, District Language Arts Supervisor.