The Oregon Reading Initiative - Reading Together! has four major goals: (1) Every student in grades K-3 will learn to read from a fully trained reading teacher. (2) Every new K-3 teacher will be fully trained to teach reading. (3) Every student will read at grade level. (4) Families and communities will read aloud together.

Component Information: Teacher Component

The Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, managed by the Council of Chief State School Officers, honors teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe who died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Each state receives a fellowship. To support the Oregon Reading Initiative, State Superintendent Stan Bunn directed that the annual Christa McAuliffe fellowship go to teachers to help in the statewide effort to improve student reading skills.

K-2 Reading Teams bring together school teams, including the principal, one kindergarten teacher, one 1st-grade teacher, one 2nd-grade teacher, the Title 1 teacher and the special education teacher from a school. The teams receive training, technical assistance and the K-2 Reading Toolkit, a framework for beginning reading that includes all of the key reading components that lead to comprehension.

The Superintendent's Reading Corps makes available up to $5000 per teacher to design materials and provide teachers targeted professional development in order to increase student performance in reading. Graduates of the summer program are asked to lead a minimum of two trainings in his/her district, one training in another district and one training at the Reading Summit.

The Oregon Reading Initiative: Reading Together! Oregon's plan emphasizes teacher development, calling for higher standards to prepare new teachers and state institutes to train teachers in reading strategies. It also stresses family and community involvement and manageable class size as key factors.