Quote of the Day – Plus – On Real Reading Research
“But decades of research has (sic) shown that teaching early elementary students how to sound it out—teaching them systematic phonics—is the most reliable way to make sure that they learn how to read words. Many reading researchers have raised concerns about having cueing as a ‘tool in the toolbox,’ because it takes students’ eyes off the words.”
Sarah Schwartz in “National Education Policy Center, Deans’ Group Take Aim at the ‘Reading Wars,’” Education Week, March 19, 2020
The Plus
Earlier this week, the Bluegrass Institute released our report about “What Milton Wright knew about reading instruction, but lots of teachers apparently don’t.” The report zooms in on the very disturbing evidence of problematic reading instruction in Kentucky, pointing out in Attachment A that about 200,000 Kentucky public school students languish as very poor readers, at best, at a time when the economy requires ever more education, which is generally dependent upon fluent reading ability.
The report points out that legislation to create a stronger reading program in Kentucky – one similar to that which is producing amazing results in Mississippi – was summarily killed in the last legislative session without even getting a hearing in the House.
Still, outside of Kentucky, lots of people including EdWeek’s Schwartz are researching the issues and coming to realize that there are some very strong answers for teaching reading much more effectively, if our educators would just be willing to sit down and learn how to do them.
But, teacher resistance continues.
Schwartz actually makes her comments in an article that is mostly about a union teacher supporting group of college professors, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), putting out a dubious statement that declared “there is no settled science of reading,” instead promoting the now highly contested ‘balanced literacy’ approach for teaching reading.
The NEPC’s statement basically supports maintaining the status quo in reading instruction – and Kentucky’s kids suffer accordingly under that status quo with the latest, 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress results for Grade 4 reading showing not much more than one in three of the Bluegrass State’s white students reading proficiently and only an abysmal 14% of the state’s Black students passing similar muster.
The facts are that EdWeek has done a lot of research on reading over the past few years, and they don’t buy the NEPC nonsense.
That NEPC nonsense included, among other things, an attempt to slam the news media drawing attention to the deplorable condition of reading instruction for just trying to ignite old reading wars.
Well, NEPC, the facts are that a huge number of kids, again about 200,000 in Kentucky alone, are in really bad shape for reading ability, and we don’t appreciate folks trying to put union-serving nonsense ahead of doing a better job for all those students – and our nation, too.
One more note: the NEPC took umbrage at our recent report about Florida Versus Kentucky and put out a hit piece on it a few days ago, as well. We’ll have more to say on that shortly — once we stop laughing.
Meanwhile, if you want to get a better picture about reading issues in Kentucky, check out our Milton Wright report. If you would like a more general overview of what reading instruction should really look like, EdWeek’s “How Do Kids Learn to Read? What the Science Says” article is one place to start.