July 23, 1980
USC & National Charity League
Partner in Campus Reading Center
By Dr. Howard Hobbs, Staff Reading Specialist

   
LOS ANGELES -- Professor Grayce Ransom of The USC School of Education maintains two reading center programs this Summer. The Campus Reading Center is located on the 6th Floor of Waite-Phillips Hall.

The other is The National Charity League-USC Reading Center at the 500 Hollywood Blvd. location, an administrative center with staff and classrooms for students receiving scholarships.

Besidues instruction in social science, math, physical science and reading, the school programs offoer sports, art and counseling for its 37 adult students. Annual tuition of $6,037 is covered through various forms of financial assistance, partly through the League.

The curriculum was developed by Dr. Ransom and features an indivisualized system of learning strands. Each starns focusses attention on a reading skill
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Classroom activity emphasizes critical reading skills and attention to word origins and usage to aid in developing increased  comprehension. Teachers in the program are required to have Reading Specialist certification from the State Department of Education in Sacramento.

 Because many students acepted for participation inthe Readinbg Program have had personal frustration and failure in school reading programs, Reading Center teachers and assistants must accredited to work in educational rehabilitaion programs.

 Dr. Ransom is often quoted as saying, "Some students come here because they are so ashamed because they can't read that they go into a shell and are afraid to talk to the other students."

One student told me, "I used to be a bully to the others here. But, when I learend how to read, I made some good friens here!" Dr. Ransom has encouraged reading educators to forsake mass reading instruction techniques and to concentrate, instead on the individual srudent."We must personalize reading instruction if we hope to improve the quality of our schools and our citizens," she said.

The Ransom Reading Series was extensively field tested in Fresno schools and other California school districts in the 1970's. That system refined a method for finding out what reading and writing skills students have mastered and then helped teachers prescribe those lessons and experiences may still be needed. Her new book, "Preparing To Teach Reading" was published last year by the Little, Brown. Publishing Co.

Dr. Ransom and this writer jointly prepared the Final Draft of the California State Reading Framework for the public schools which was published by the CA State Department of Educatoin earlier this year.

 [Editor's Note: The USC School of Education recently became an "institutional affiliate" of the American Education Research Assoc. As an affiliate, USC willl be able to participate in a network of information about pending legislation and will join with other universities on behalf of policies supportive of educational research.