
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993                   TAG: 9309160027
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TV BLAMED FOR KIDS' POOR READING SKILLS

Many American pupils read too poorly to understand simple written passages, federal education officials said Wednesday in a report that offered yet another indictment of the nation's schools.

But Education Secretary Dick Riley said parents share much of the blame for allowing kids to watch too much TV.

"Children who read poorly overdose on television," Riley said in releasing the report, "Reading Report Card for the Nation and the States."

The report showed that a quarter of high school seniors, nearly a third of eighth-graders and two of every five fourth-graders tested in 1992 read so badly that they could not understand material that should have been simple for students at their respective levels.

The results were released a week after the Department of Education reported that nearly half of adult Americans have such weak reading and math skills that they are unable to perform tasks any more difficult than filling out a bank deposit slip or locating an intersection on a street map.

The report also showed a correlation between performance and the amount of television students watched. Children who scored well watched three hours or less of television each night.

by CNB