U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions told Troy University College of Education students and faculty Friday that more needs to be done to help students who struggle with reading at all grade levels.
Sessions is promoting legislation to create a Striving Readers program, which would provide funding nationwide for literacy initiatives serving students in grades 4-12 and would complement the Reading First program for grades K-3.
“If you can't read effectively, you tell me how your going to do high school level work,” Sessions said.
Sessions said data shows that 70 percent of middle and high school students are not reading on grade level. He said the Alabama Reading Initiative has been a successful model that is being copied by other states.
“I believe Alabama is leading the way in new ways to teach reading,” Sessions said.
Sessions spoke to more than 100 Troy students majoring in education and several members of the College of Education faculty in the Hawkins-Adams-Long Hall of Honor.
Several faculty addressed concerns to Sessions during the meeting. Many said they felt student teachers need more classroom exposure to student who struggle with reading.
“Many students don't even know that there is such a thing (as struggling readers),” said Dr. Mary Anne Parker. “They think that everyone is going to be reading at grade level.”
Troy was just one of several stops Sessions made across the state on Friday. Earlier that day he spoke to farmers in Union Springs about the ongoing drought which has ruined most crops this planting season.
“We are truly having a 100 year drought,” Sessions said. “Many of the farmers I spoke to were in their 70s and they all said they'd never seen a summer as dry as is right now.”
Sessions said he plans to try and get federal aid for farmers as soon as possible.
He also wants to set up a program to provide grant money for farmers to use to establish reservoirs in an effort to increase the number of farmers with irrigation.”
“Irrigation can take a crop that would be a failure and make it a money maker,” Sessions said.