Tests show that far too many children still have trouble understanding what they read, and the U.S. Department of Education has turned to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) to help figure out why.

Professor Christopher Lonigan and Associate Professor Carol Connor of the Department of Psychology and FCRR have received a $20 million, five-year grant as part of a nationwide initiative called “Reading for Understanding.”

Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph Travis said, “Reading is amazing when you think about it. We learn what letters mean, then what individual words mean, and then what strings of words—sentences—mean. The horizon of reading research has moved from understanding difficulties in recognizing letters and words to pinpointing the struggle to understand strings of words—if we conquer this, we will make a huge breakthrough for, literally, millions of children who are struggling with this final challenge.”

Other Arts and Sciences professors included in the grant are Michael Kaschak, Ralph Radach, Christopher Schatschneider, and Richard Wagner, all of the psychology department. In addition, the project involves professors from the College of Education as well as the College of Communication and Information.

Moreover, as part of the federal initiative, FCRR researchers received two additional grants, one for $4.5 million to Professor Barbara Foorman, director of FCRR, and one for $1.5 million to Assistant Professor Jeanne Wanzek of the College of Education.

“No other university in the world has as much expertise in this area as Florida State,” Travis said. “It is this breadth—experts on how the brain develops, how language is learned, and which alternative teaching approaches work—that sets us apart from everyone else." To read more, go to http://www.fsu.edu/news/2010/06/28/reading.comprehension/