May 16, 2002 – Many teachers are not prepared to teach reading — a situation that exists across the nation as well as the territory. And at least in part because of that, 38 percent of all fourth-grade children nationwide have reading skills below the "basic" level, which means they cannot read well enough to complete assignments appropriate to their grade level.
According to the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices in Washington, D.C., a unit of the National Governors Conference, research indicates that most students can improve their reading and writing achievements with "expert instruction." Skilled teachers are the key.
The V.I. government has embarked on a program to get that kind of "expert instruction" to teachers so that they can pass it on to their pupils.
"We hear all the negatives about education," Roy McFarlane, Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's special assistant for information and technology, said Thursday, "but we are actually doing something right now. We just graduated 23 teachers in an instructional program on St. Thomas."
The same program started Tuesday on St. Croix, where 40 teachers had been expected to take part. "We had 60," McFarlane said, and that's not all. "This morning, I was talking with some Charlotte Amalie High School teachers," he added, "and they want to sign up for the course."
The teachers take the course on their own computers at home, or wherever they can get access to one on their own time. It is about a 40-hour course, but "it depends on the individual teacher's skill," McFarlane said. "We do an assessment test at first to determine where the teachers fit into the course."
The computer-based training is available to all teachers territorywide. It is part of the Riverdeep Learning Company's Teachers' Universe Program, a professional development program that trains teachers to utilize technology tools in classroom instruction.
McFarlane set up the course last month in conjunction with Vernelle DeLagarde, president of the St. Thomas-St. John chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. He got the idea for the course while attending a Microsoft Government Leadership conference where technology in education was one of the main topics. Microsoft personnel subsequently came to the Virgin Islands to demonstrate the Riverdeep program, he said.
McFarlane praised the teacher-students. "The dedicated teachers who took the [St. Thomas] course and the ones taking the one now on St. Croix have the courage and interest to try something new in order to improve their skills," he said. He emphasized that the teachers did the course work on their personal time with their own equipment. The graduates of the St. Thomas class each received a laptop computer for their efforts.
The program will help train teachers for certification under President Bush's "No Child left Behind" education reform act, McFarlane said. The new law requires that all teachers be certified by 2004.
Part of the Riverdeep program is online, where up to 500 teachers can work on their own time. "Let's say, if teachers want to … get their hands on a new tool for classes in the fall," McFarlane said. "They can log on during the summer and take the whole course. It is a very interactive tool. It complements anything in our current curriculum."
He said the program also allows users access to the Jones Knowledge Reference Library, which his office pays for. "It's a valuable library because it links to so many different things," he said.
McFarlane's enthusiasm for the program seems to know no bounds. "We are doing something tremendous," he says. "Yes, we have major problems, but this is good news."
He said he found out the other day that "this same program is being taught in Georgia and Florida, and our graduates did far better than theirs."
McFarlane said the program complements another called "Destination Math" that is currently in use in the territory's schools. That program "can go anywhere from the third to the ninth or 10th grade, to algebra," he said. "We wanted to make sure that this tool fits in with the curriculum."
School principals got to see a demonstration of the reading program about six weeks ago, he said, and plans are being explored to expand it to train all teachers in the territory. "The bottom line, my No. 1 priority, is my students," McFarlane said. "I'll do anything I can."
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