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To be expected as expectations of the impossible under insurmountable conditions increase. I have nothing but profound sympathy for people still trying to teach.
Well, it confirms that this “soaring” never really got off the ground in the first place.
TL;DR: It was all BS and lies.
That says 7% of scores across a few schools are suspect. I'm not claiming to have a full resolution into this or a crystal ball but the report does not point to overall results being, "all BS and lies."
Reading skill is critical. Instilling a life-long love of reading is about the best thing you could do for a child.
I have volunteered to read to kids in a Head Start program to help them prepare for kindergarten. It's a United Way program and when I saw the ad, I thought "THIS is a good use of my time in retirement." Waiting to hear back from the contact.
That says 7% of scores across a few schools are suspect. I'm not claiming to have a full resolution into this or a crystal ball but the report does not point to overall results being, "all BS and lies."
Personally, I’m not holding my breath. Mississippi is the poorest state in the country and it shows.
Because you are a retired teacher and administrator, please describe situations where phonics is contraindicated for a specific learner.
It is never contraindicated. It is of several important competencies required to learn to read Scarborough's rope is an excellent visual. The problem arose from fulty research that led to a whole language and balnced literacy movement that was never effective but ended up having great marketing behind it. Even the ways comprehension in balanced literacy programs were some of the least effective. The big movement on returning (because these techniques and research are not new) has come because educators have been pushing hard and Covid closures really exposed how reading skills have degraded even in higher performing schools. Also, parents got on board and joined educators in advocating for change.
It is never contraindicated. It is of several important competencies required to learn to read Scarborough's rope is an excellent visual. The problem arose from fulty research that led to a whole language and balnced literacy movement that was never effective but ended up having great marketing behind it. Even the ways comprehension in balanced literacy programs were some of the least effective. The big movement on returning (because these techniques and research are not new) has come because educators have been pushing hard and Covid closures really exposed how reading skills have degraded even in higher performing schools. Also, parents got on board and joined educators in advocating for change.
the bolded...what does that even mean? Sounds like something that looks great in a published paper. But how many parents were involved? They all agreed on one course of action?
the bolded...what does that even mean? Sounds like something that looks great in a published paper. But how many parents were involved? They all agreed on one course of action?
The Sold A Story Podvast is a great place to start. But, I have seen many parents in the past 2 years ask very specific questions about how reading is taught and attending school committee meetings to ask about curriculum, Parents of children with reding challenges such as dylexia have been particularyly vocal. There are currently 32 states in the process of passing or have passed legislation regarding literacy. It is one of the few cases where the government intervention is leading to positive change in education.
Columbia quietly walks away from Teachers College project that ruined countless lives
By Post Editorial Board
Published Sep. 17, 2023, 6:33 p.m. ET
Columbia University is trying to quietly walk away from a disaster it imposed on generations of American children.
The least we can do is call out the damage done.
Just before the Labor Day weekend, Columbia announced that it’s “dissolving” the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and sending its creator, Lucy Calkins, off on indefinite sabbatical.
For decades, Calkins and her colleagues pushed “literacy” programs based on ideology, not science, programs that failed the children who most needed help.
Her “balanced literacy” approach gave short shrift to phonics — by teaching children to look at pictures and guess words, for example, instead of sounding them out — and failed to foster the building of knowledge and vocabulary vital to learning the love of reading.
Columbia’s decision comes months after Chancellor David Banks pulled the plug on the Calkins-friendly approach once used by nearly half of NYC public schools.
Indeed, the drive toward “evidence-based” instruction has seen districts across the nation reject the Teachers College approach.
So Columbia’s move is essentially just recognizing reality.
But it doesn’t recognize the school’s guilt.
If Columbia University could be held liable for the harm done to generations of American kids, it would lose its entire $13 billion endowment and more. The least it could do is offer an abject apology.
Update: Since this editorial posted, Columbia’s press office has contacted us to note that Lucy Callkins is not a Columbia prof, but rather a Teachers College one, and to insist that closing the Reading and Writing Project was entirely the decision of Teachers College, a separate institution from Columbia — just like Barnard.
Something that Mississippi did that people take for granted is that they cracked down on truancy. They started making absenteeism have a consequence. Just being in class helped a lot.
Thank you! At least the legislatures did step in, and their involvement paid off. Maybe other states will take note.
I wonder if the 1st and 2nd-grade teachers (and maybe the kindergarten teachers as well, since reading is now being taught at that level) had to get training to teach phonics, after the requirement became law.
It wouldn’t surprise me
Phonics like grammar for older grades is not something really taught in educational classes
Big article in NYTimes this week about a University that closed down its partnership with a university professor’s non-profit that didn’t use phonics to teach reading
Apparently that professor was at one time considered a top authority in how to teach reading
Not su much since data mining shows using phonics has better results in teaching reading and improving reading scores
My daughter taught in elementary grades and believes in phonics but lots of districts don’t and teachers have less and less authority to teach using their preferred methods—
Districts really dictate what happens hour by hour, day by day
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