Why Jacques, Johann and Jan Can Read

Appalled at the reading disabilities in her third-grade classroom in New Jersey, Geraldine E. Rodgers requested a sabbatical leave to observe first-grade reading instruction and to test resultant second-grade oral reading in the United States and Europe. In 1977-78, using a portion of a silent reading test from IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement), which she had translated commercially into Dutch, Swedish, German, and French, she tested the oral reading of over 900 second-graders in their own languages in the United States, Holland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, Austria, and France. She rated first-grade teaching emphasis on a scale from 1 (for sight-word "meaning") to 10 (for phonic "sound"). Mixed programs were rated from 2 to 9. She then immediately tested the oral-reading accuracy, speed, reversals, and comprehension of second-grade children in the same schools, in their own languages.