Politicians and teaching reading

[richarda...@aol.com]

We probably should worry about the new task force in WI that is examining WI reading policies. Given the members of the task force I won't be surprised to see them recommend an NCLB/Reading First type solution. Of course it was Libby Burmeister's caving in to federal NCLB/RF demands that produced the declines in WI reading achievement in the first place. Everyone should know that the NCLB/RF debacle produced greater amounts of reading instruction and greater attention to two of the three pillars of reading that the NRP identified (phonics and fluency). However, RF schools, even with more instruction and more focused instruction, did not enhance reading achievement. That was the final conclusion of the federal evaluation study comparing achievement in RF schools versus other high-poverty schools.

The failure of NCLB/RF to improve reading achievement along with the internal program corruption that led to the replacement of federal RF employees and every technical assistance center director was what drove Congress to defund RF after this school year. Now that that profit center is gone folks will again be proposing "scientific" efforts even though the NCLB funded What Works Clearinghouse found only 1 of 153 reading programs had "strong evidence' it improved reading achievement. hat program was Reading Recovery which was largely banned by the RF folks if only because it was scientific and it worked even though the program largely trains teachers to teach expertly.

I'm not sure anything will deter those profit mongers who promote slick but proven worthless commercial reading packages. You have to understand the millions of dollars they make from selling their crap sustains them.

Dick Allington
University of Tennessee
A209 Bailey Education Complex