"The Special Edge," a newsletter funded by the state's Special Education Division and produced by California Services for Technical Assistance and Training (CalSTAT) at Sonoma State, features an article by Marion Joseph of the California State Board of Education that equates reading with access.

Certainly when last year's news broadcasts informed us that Afghan females were barred from schooling, we could all feel a collective response. Are we as clear, I wonder, about our community response to those among us who don't get literate, particularly those with learning-disabilities?

Marion Joseph sees the improvement in methods and materials at hand as a continuum that began with content standards. "In adopting K-8 reading/language arts materials (in January 2002), the State Board of Education incorporated evaluation criteria that were specifically aimed at meeting the needs of students with disabilities in an organized, systematic, coherent fashion...." Evidently they invited participation from teachers and publishers, got 200 hundred applicants, and chose 15 to put this together.

The article refers us to the website on the reading/language arts programs, which is 301 pages of small print. It's useful to remember that the target audiences are teachers and publishers. If you do check it out, spend your time with Section 2: Goals and Key Components of Effective Language Arts Instruction.

I went looking for more on reading skill as an access issue, and came off satisfied with the language. Here's a bit of it, so you can judge for yourself:

"Parents are encouraged to involve themselves in education, and are supported in their efforts to improve their children's learning in read and the language arts."

"Materials and programs are organized so that parents, siblings, and community members can provide extended learning experiences."

"The community is used as a classroom abundant in examples of how and why the language arts are important in our lives, our work, and our thinking."

"The important dimensions of motivation to read are an individual's self-concept as a reader, and the value placed on reading. Self-concept derives, in large part, from the individual's skill in reading; that is, by mastering standards in reading the student becomes motivated."

In short, if it's important in your life outside school, you probably care about it. If you find you can do it, you probably like it.

So they've got the cart in the right place, and they've even got the horse in the right place. Let me have your thoughts...