Jeanne Chall
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Jeanne Sternlicht Chall (January 1, 1921 – November 27, 1999), a
Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
psychologist, writer, and literacy researcher for over 50 years, believed in the importance of direct, systematic instruction in reading in spite of other reading trends throughout her career. Chall became deeply committed to teaching, to the importance of children's successful reading acquisition and the need to address failing readers, to the power of research to answer practical questions, and to the merit of understanding the historical background of research questions. Though her views were often controversial, she was respected by her peers for the meticulous research. Her conclusions about the best way to approach beginning reading were unpopular when she first presented them, though they have subsequently gained acceptance in the literacy community. Chall's professional life was committed to children's successful reading acquisition, especially low S.E.S. (
socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...
) children's. She was also committed to finding answers to failure among readers. She responded to the national concern over why many children were not learning to read well, made popular by
Rudolf Flesch Rudolf Franz Flesch (8 May 1911 – 5 October 1986) was an Austrian-born naturalized American writer (noted for his book ''Why Johnny Can't Read''), and also a readability expert and writing consultant who was a vigorous proponent of plain Engli ...
's ''
Why Johnny Can't Read ''Why Johnny Can't Read—And What You Can Do About It'' is a 1955 book-length exposé on American reading education by Rudolf Flesch. It was an immediate bestseller for 37 weeks and became an educational cause célèbre. In this book, the aut ...
'', by writing ''Learning to Read: The Great Debate''. She and Edgar Dale also developed a formula, the Dale-Chall Readability Formula, in 1948 which was considered the most valid and reliable of its kind for determining the readability of texts for several decades. In 1983, Chall added ''Stages of Reading Development'' to her literacy contributions. Later, in 1996, she and three of her graduate students developed the ''Qualitative Assessment of Text Difficulty: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Writers''. Chall retired from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1991. She died at 78 in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
on November 27, 1999.


Biographical information

Born in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
in 1921 to Jewish parents, her family immigrated to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
when she was seven; Chall's native language was Yiddish. Although there were no bilingual programs in the New York City public schools she attended, she quickly learned English. Unlike her older siblings, Chall began her schooling in the US and ultimately helped to teach her parents English so that they could pass their citizenship exams. She graduated from the
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
in 1941 with a B.B.A. She served as research assistant to
Edgar Dale Edgar Dale (April 27, 1900 in Benson, Minnesota, – March 8, 1985 in Columbus, Ohio) was an American educator who developed the Cone of Experience, also known as the Learning Pyramid. He made several contributions to audio and visual instruct ...
at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
, where she received a M.A. in 1947 and a Ph.D. in 1952. Between 1950 and 1965 Chall rose from lecturer to professor at City College. Later she became the director of the Harvard Reading Laboratory at Harvard University. Chall died in 1999 at the age of 78. The
Between the Lions ''Between the Lions'' is an American animated/live-action/puppet children's television series designed to promote reading. The show was a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Miss ...
episode "The Fox and the Crow" was dedicated to her memory.


Major contributions

In 1965 Chall moved to
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
to create and direct graduate programs in reading for master's and doctoral candidates. She founded the Harvard Reading Laboratory in 1967, directing it until she retired in 1991. The laboratory is now named after her. She served on the board of directors of the
International Reading Association The International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly the International Reading Association (IRA), is an international global advocacy and member professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialo ...
, 1961–1964, and on the National Academy of Education's Commission on Reading that resulted in the report Becoming a Nation of Readers (1985). She received many professional awards, last given to her in 1996. Chall's most important professional contribution was a byproduct of the professional furor over Rudolf Flesch's ''
Why Johnny Can't Read—And What You Can Do About It ''Why Johnny Can't Read—And What You Can Do About It'' is a 1955 book-length exposé on American reading education by Rudolf Flesch. It was an immediate bestseller for 37 weeks and became an educational cause célèbre. In this book, the aut ...
'' (1955). Flesch attacked the prevailing ideas, saying that reading professionals had ignored their own research. Chall's ''Learning to Read the Great Debate'' (1967) quickly became a classic. Major textbook publishers reacted by emphasizing more phonics earlier in their series. Chall's book was updated in 1983 (3rd edition in 1996) with even stronger research findings to support its conclusions. ''Stages of Reading Development'' was published in 1983. In 1996, Chall and three graduate students wrote a guide to evaluating the level of texts' reading difficulty, ''Qualitative Assessment of Text Difficulty: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Writers.'' Chall's last work, published posthumously, was ''The Academic Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom'' (2000). In it, she divides American instruction into "child-centered" and "teacher-centered" approaches, suggesting that the 20th century was dominated by the former (discovery approaches) in spite of the research that supported a later theory (explicit teaching).


Professional leadership positions

*Fellow in
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
*Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
*President of National Conference on Research in English *Board Member of
International Reading Association The International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly the International Reading Association (IRA), is an international global advocacy and member professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialo ...
's Board of Directors *Board Member of National Society for the Study of Education's Board of Directors *Served on National Advisory Committee on
Dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...
and Related Reading Disorders *Served on the National Reading Council


References


Notes

Chall, J.S. (1958). Readability: An appraisal of research and application. Columbus, OH: The Bureau of Educational Research, Ohio State University. Chall, J.S. & Feldman, S.C. (1966). ''A study in depth of first grade reading: An analysis of the interactions of professed methods, teacher implementation and child background''. U.S. Office of Education U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Chall, J.S. & Conrad, S.S (1991). ''Should textbooks challenge students? The case for easier or harder books.'' New York: Teachers College Press. Chall, J.S., Bissex, G.L., Conrad, S.S., & Harris-Sharples, S. (1996). ''Qualitative assessment of text difficulty: A practical guide for teachers and writers.'' Cambridge: Brookline Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chall, Jeanne 1921 births 1999 deaths Polish emigrants to the United States American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Jewish descent City College of New York alumni Ohio State University alumni City College of New York faculty Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty