[ Yet another effort is made to teach READING to students for success in school. The saying goes: Learn to Read by end of Grade Three — then Read to Learn from Grade Four onward. It is a lamentable frustration to parents that this is not a priority for schools in general., This post to Society for Quality Education describes the effort and below is my comment. http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/reading-intervention-model ]
BEWARE: Education System Swallows Reforms
This essay is NOT to diminish or dampen enthusiasm for this Reading Intervention initiative in Wisconsin. Good intentions, good people, good funding, however, do not necessarily result in enduring results over the long haul.
The Reading Wars have been around a long time. So has the mortifying knowledge about the Matthew Effect — illiteracy at an early age has a downward spiraling effect on students whose failures compound toward unfulfilled lives and even criminal records.
The Reading Wars are political, not pedagogic, and some time in the future — despite tons of books and articles on the topic — the agenda issues will be revealed. So far there is no definitive answer as to why this feud continues to spoil good education practice. This RTI (Response to intervention) research project is favoring phonics as the preferred approach.
As far as the school to prison pipeline this is also addressed by this project whose funding agency stresses the loss to productivity of illiterate citizens.
Why do I show concern for this project? Mainly because it is yet another research project — added to the tons of other previous research efforts — that stands to be neutered or absorbed by a performance-averse education system — a system which cares more for its own survival than what’s good for the children.
I am hoping that written into the plan— in black and white in a prominent place — are the expectations for this program’s survival and succession once the professional consultants leave. Thanks for the link http://rti.dpi.wi.gov/ but I see no prospects for long-term commitment.
By way of cautionary tale, I add this story from the book, “Getting Schooled” by Garret Keizer — {quotes and paraphrasing] *** The author’s wife, a highly trained special needs teacher, was involved in an enthusiastically supported, well-funded, project to build special facilities for treatment, classes, parent programs, service agencies, and offices for specialized personnel. . . . a ‘one-stop shopping for parents in need of broad-spectrum services, a cafeteria, activity rooms, cushioned playground’ . . . volunteers worked around the clock, community involved . . . ‘reporters came to snap the pictures . . . ‘A new day dawned. It would be a short one. You can build a school from the ground up, but the directing destiny will always move from the top down. You can say ‘the kids come first’ till the cows come home, but in practice the kids come fourth behind the administrators, parents and teachers — or fifth, in a dairy economy, behind the cows. Within the space of about three years a new superintendent relocated his office to the building. The social service agencies vanished . . . at least one treatment room was rededicated as a space for obsolete computer equipment . . . ‘the spacious ‘gross motor room’ was commandeered for district-wide principals’ meetings . . . ‘ [few remembered the original project] ***
Best wishes and Good Luck with your wonderful research study which promises so much good!