National Reading First Higher Education Consortium holds inaugural meeting
The National Reading First Higher Educational Consortium (NRFHEC), based at the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts (VGC), held its first meeting on July 17-18 in St. Louis. The meeting was scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Department of Education’s 4th Annual National Reading First Conference, and NRFHEC members took advantage of the opportunity to participate in both events.
All 15 NRFHEC members, as well as guest speakers Joe Torgesen from Florida State University, Helen Perkins from the University of Memphis, and Susan Smartt from Vanderbilt University, joined the team for the inaugural meeting. Pulling all these people together and creating the necessary materials for the meeting required a Herculean effort - complete with all-nighters at the office - from NRFHEC Project Manager Regina Blair, Erica Simon, and others.
The meeting concentrated on establishing a community of practice among consortium members, reviewing the results of a survey that NRFHEC developed (with many hours of work from Saro Mohammed) to determine member needs and interest, discussions of the features of effective instruction and reading comprehension instruction, and developing an implementation plan for each member.
Participants and guest speakers alike agreed that the meeting was a resounding success. NRFHEC member Kathy Wilson of the University of Nebraska said she already is putting the information shared at the meeting to use.
“I’ve already done some initial sharing of some of the information with colleagues,” she said, “and will be using some of the resources in a workshop that I was just asked to lead in a nearby district.”
After the two-day meeting, members and guests were encouraged to participate in the National Reading First Conference, which took place July 18-20, also in St. Louis. The conference featured informational sessions and practitioner presentations addressing the importance of literacy and scientifically based reading research and instruction.
“Holding our first meeting in conjunction with the National Reading First Conference was important to us. As faculty, our members rarely get to attend the National Conference,” Blair said. “It was great to provide them with that opportunity.”
At the National Conference, VGC’s Pam Bell Morris and Vanessa Cortez led a breakout session titled “Collaborating for Student Success: General Education and Special Education Working Together” for the product development branch of the Vaughn Gross Center’s RMC Reading First project. As part of their presentation, Morris and Cortez provided participants with a Collaboration Log to facilitate communication about instruction for students with special needs. Both the presentation and the Collaboration Log were well received, according to Morris.
The mission of NRFHEC is to promote integration and sustainability of scientifically based reading research (SBRR) and scientifically based reading instruction (SBRI) in higher education by providing higher education faculty members with SBRR products that they can integrate into their preservice teacher-education courses and field experiences, and by facilitating networking among members. For more information about NRFHEC, contact Blair.