New Haven

HERE’S some good news for Connecticut as students across the state settle in to school. The Legislature has re-established a position at the state Department of Education for a person to oversee the teaching of reading in school districts that have particularly low test scores.

While this position for a state reading consultant was originally created seven years ago, it hasn’t been filled for the past year and a half because of fiscal and policy restraints. This time, however, the Legislature seems to realize that creating this position is more important than ever and the hope is that a consultant will be hired and on the job by the end of November. The state needs to think seriously about what sort of qualifications this consultant will need.

This is a big step toward closing the huge gap in reading achievement within Connecticut — indeed the largest gap between high and low achieving students in the nation. According to a 2005 report by the federal Department of Education, reading scores for Connecticut’s fourth graders have declined since the last group of fourth graders was tested in 2003. Results showed that 53 percent of white students, 85 percent of Hispanic students and 88 percent of African-American students were reading below grade level.

It’s clear that we have a crisis that requires putting reading back on the state’s education agenda. Legislators, local education agencies, institutes of higher education and the state Department of Education must all agree to institute practices that take advantage of the advances that have been made in reading research, particularly in the area of phonics and spelling.