EUGENE–The author of a groundbreaking book on why kids can’t read says returning phonics to the classroom is only part of the solution to improving American schoolchildren’s poor reading skills.

"Policymakers in state after state are calling for a return to systematic, explicit phonics. Yet this, in turn, has provoked fear that emphasis on phonics will compromise the very literacy achievements that it is intended to foster," says Marilyn Jager Adams, author of "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print."

As the keynote speaker at the 33rd annual Oregon Conference opening in Eugene next week, Adams will argue that these two concerns can be reconciled. Her keynote address, "Systematic Explicit Phonics vs. Higher Order Thought," begins at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at the Valley River Inn, 1000 Valley River Way. The conference opens at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, at the same location.

More than 300 teachers, school administrators and education policy makers will attend the event, which is sponsored by the University of Oregon College of Education.

The U.S. Secretary of Education commissioned Adams in 1990 to identify and analyze existing research on how to teach reading. Adams is a consultant to numerous national reading advisory groups. She is a literacy consultant for "Sesame Street" (Children’s Television Workshop) and the forthcoming television series from Sirius Productions and WGBH-TV, "Between the Lions."

Other Oregon Conference topics include technology in the classroom, early intervention strategies, testing accommodations, Oregon Certificate of Initial Mastery and Certificate of Advanced Mastery, school wide discipline/safe schools, and positive behavioral interventions and supports.

Preregistration is strongly recommended. To register or for more information, contact conference organizer Carlene Neudeck, (541) 346-5525; e-mail cneudeck@oregon.uoregon.edu.

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