"So the anti-public school, pro-book banning crowd has latched onto the “science of reading” movement…shocked," tweets Ryan Davis (@DavisTeaching). "How we, as educators, allow conversations about school & learning to be framed really does matter."
"Fun fact: there is no Republican or Democrat way to teach reading," responds Robert Pondiscio (@rpondiscio).
A bunch of other people said, "We support the research on how kids learn to read because we want kids to learn to read.
Also on Twitter, Berrinchuda Montoya links to a position statement by Boston College's School of Education. She thinks it boils down to: “Please continue paying 50K for a Masters degree from our institution.”
There are brief nods to research (but it's "narrow"), and a mention of phonological awareness, and phonics in the long list of things that the ed school wants its graduates to teach.
In Sold a Story, a series of podcasts, Emily Hanford takes on popular ideas about teaching reading -- Reading Recovery and Lucy Calkins' Units of Study -- that were "proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago." She describes "how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended."
Hanford's reporting has been very influential in the move to research-based reading instruction, also known as "the science of reading."
Holly Korbey reports on how Mississippi began steadily improving, building a "miracle," when it invested in training elementary teachers in the "science of reading" and providing literacy coaching. This year, training will expand to middle-school teachers.
In addition, schools are going beyond phonics to teach the five pillars of literacy, such as vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
Jackson Public Schools, for example, implemented the knowledge-building curriculum Wit & Wisdom in 2019, to address those gaps. Their literacy units often focus on science or social studies concepts that students might not be exposed to otherwise.
. . . In Rankin County School District this year, director of curriculum, instruction and professional development Melissa McCray launched a series of trainings for principals and teachers on how to weave pieces of structured literacy like morphology into algebra, world history and earth science.
"The shift to knowledge-based curriculum, which research has shown to improve reading comprehension," was challenging for teachers, but they're making the transition, reports Korbey.
The Barksdale Reading Institute is now focusing on persuading professors at Mississippi’s public universities to teach the science of reading to future teachers. "The foundation conducted several studies showing how little time universities spent on the science of reading, then leaned heavily into training and literacy coaching aimed at university faculty," writes Korbey.
Kentucky schools are sticking with old methods that don't work very well, reports the Courier-Journal. "When other states recognized trouble with their children’s reading levels, they took action, adjusting their reading curriculum to a more phonics-heavy approach," the newspaper writes. "And they got results." But much of Kentucky "is standing firm with the method other states are dumping." They find "a tangle of entrenched beliefs fueled with a steady stream of tax dollars that is leaving many children behind."
It’s a nice thought that teaching reading is neither Repub or Demo — but that’s only partly true. Look at the political proponents of intensified phonics and you’ll find that they are clearly aligned with a war on the public schools and public school teachers who are the keepers of the dream that all kids - ALL kids, have a shot at becoming all they are capable of becoming. How did the latest iteration of this standoff begin? Emily Hanford clearly points it out in podcast #3 that Bush Jr. and Republican conservatives created the issue and set themselves up against bonafide seasoned educators and literacy scholars. I could go on and on — and will on Substack.Com. But a…
When my older sister was about 8 years old, she taught my little sister, then about four, to read as an accidental byproduct of playing "school". Back then, phonics was standard.
When governments simultaneously subsidize and operate schools and restrict parent's options for the use of the taxpayers' sub-adult education subsidy to facilities operated by government employees, the question of how to teach Reading, or Math, or any subject becomes political. Enrollment determines school budgets. System administrators have a direct financial incentive to maximize students' residence in the system (i.e., to waste students' time). So... Whole Language methods of Reading instruction and "discovery" methods of Math instruction.
I think that lots of kids learn to read because parents, grandparents, and older siblings teach it. For kids who don't have that, they might be in need of time or money invested in a good reading program.
I'm not sure that teachers even understand that they are still using some of these techniques. I've volunteered with kids for a decade, but I homeschool and taught my own kids phonics so I didn't know what I was seeing. So many teachers seem to just download some assignments to send home. I've often helped kids with the 'have somebody read this, then read it every day' types of assignments. It's frustrating to see kids who can't manage cvc words tryin…
Remember, of the many skills & subjects American schools teach, their children succeed better in reading than in anything else (such as mathematics, science, second languages . . . the list is long, German schools traditionally taught 15 subjects to their students), so arguments suggesting we need to spend even more money on reading -- when we already spend more time, energy, and money on this than anyone else in the world -- favour a misallocation of limited resources.
Phonics never went away in my area...the admin chose to restrict the offering to a small subset of students. All others were directed to private tutoring, which is mostly offered by certified teachers. The issues are underfunding of IDEA and the legal decision that public school does not have to offer any more than an adequate amount of instruction. No student will ever be offered the full grade level's worth of instruction, as the staff will always be directed to put their time toward remediation once the othered have learned enough for a pass. Since many of the othered come from literate families, public school will continue to be daycare for them in their early years.