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Education
The national cost of having kids grow up to be functionally illiterate is estimated to be over $2Trillion. (1)
The cost to democracy is increasingly evident as we see less intellectual appeal emerging on the political stage. Fact and objectivity are readily obscured in what author Susan Cain refers to as a growing "culture of personality". The ancient, pesky gadfly of reason is brushed off as “elitism”.
Our community needs to do better at ensuring that every child in Cornish becomes a strong reader and learns how to successfully navigate the world within and beyond our lovely town. Unfortunately, our school board and administration have not responded well to my specific concerns.
What should we do?
There is a science of reading. Decades of research have taught us what approaches work and which ones have a lower success rate. (2)
However, according to Nancy Duggan, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Decoding Dyslexia, MA and long-time parent advocate, teachers usually do not receive much instruction on the topic of how reading should be taught. She suggests that persistently making this fact known to our representatives may be the single greatest item of advocacy needed for the advancement of literacy. (3,4,5)
This is a bipartisan issue. Much work is being done in conservative states to improve educational outcomes. I wish there was a way to engage everyone by reaching across the isle on this issue, but there don't seem to be a lot of means to communicate with the general population of Cornish.
I hope to update you periodically on this issue and to provide more details on my family's experience, which drove me to become very passionate about education. I am happy to discuss ways to improve the situation for our children. The following articles may be a nice introduction to the topic of America's literacy problem.
Reference Links:
(5) https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/
OPEN LETTER TO THE CORNISH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL AND SUPERINTENDENT:
Hi Karin and Sydney,
I want to take a moment between my kids’ intensive reading remediation sessions to broach the subject of reading instruction in Cornish. I have become aware, through the IEP process, that the district lacks a full understanding of the science of reading. I continue to offer my education consultants as a resource to the district to collaborate for the benefit of the students.
Probably the most damning sign that there is a problem in Cornish is the exclusive reliance on Fountas & Pinell as the measure for reading progress in IEPs. Anyone who claims my son is a “level z” reader, and therefore has no problem, is either ignorant or deceptive. I’m sitting here every day listening to his tutorials and I can see the same deficiencies that were reported by my consultants for the past two years. He lacks the foundational skills needed for efficient reading, and without intensive intervention, he could never succeed academically.
I recognize this is a broader problem, beyond your special education program, because I have been watching the school's declining achievement scores. Yet, it is reasonable to expect an overwhelming majority (95%)* of students to meet reading proficiency standards if they receive consistent phonetic, rules-based reading instruction using a research proven methodology from pre-K onward. *(National Center for Education Statistics (2017) “Reading Performance, NCES” Lyon, R. (2009) “Reading Difficulties: Prevention, Early Intervention, and Remediation.” Southern Methodist University; Kilpatrick, D. (2015) “Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties; Mathes, P. (2015) “The Case of Early Intervention in Reading)
There is so much information on this subject that it should be difficult for educators to continue to ignore the problem of reading instruction. Part of my mission in Cornish will be to inform the community of the history and best (and worst) practices for teaching children how to read.
I am hoping you will stay current and educate your staff on this topic. I also hope that your new curriculum director will understand and be empowered to make this priority number one.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Reovan
PS Here is some urgent press on the topic.
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-for-the-students-we-wish-wed-taught-better/