MAKING A CASE FOR SB929—AN ACT CONCERNING CLOSING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT GAP
by Sue Haynie, Member of the Board of Education
Connecticut has the largest Achievement Gap in reading among low income children and their more affluent peers in the nation. Between 1998 and 2009, Connecticut’s neediest children showed no improvement on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), a test that compares the reading and math achievement in all 50 states. Here in Norwalk and based on 5 years of our own Connecticut CMT data, 50% of Norwalk 3rd graders, from all socio-economic levels, were not reading at grade level. Brain research informs us that reading is teachable to 95% of our students. So what happens to kids who are not reading at the level they should be, when they should be? For one, a child who hasn’t learned to read by the end of 1st grade has only a 1 in 8 chance of ever catching up with his peers. And, without grade level reading skills by 3rd grade, 1 in 6 children will drop out of school or fail to graduate on time. We live in a global and demanding economy; sub-par reading skills are simply no longer an option.
SB929—An Act Concerning Closing the Achievement Gap was discussed at the April 5th Legislative Reading Forum in Hartford. Act SB929 stresses the need for better university level pre-service reading instruction for teachers, better tools for classroom reading assessments, better professional development for classroom reading instruction and better communication with parents about effective reading strategies to use at home.
Childhood illiteracy to the degree that we are experiencing it is a detriment to the long-term health of our nation and has negative consequences for everyone—and not just the child who has not been taught to read. The repercussions of illiteracy at this scale impact you, your children, your neighborhood, your property values, your taxes, your schools, your city, and your country. Let’s hope the Connecticut General Assembly adopts a sense of urgency in regard to this reading crisis in Connecticut and acts on Act SB 929.
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The CMT is the CONNECTICUT test. Has anyone compared this test to tests from other states? I believe you would be quite impressed with the level of difficulty of the CMT. The student must possess the skills and strategies to read, to comprehend and to place the correct word (from choices of words) in context all at once. Not an easy task for a young student.
ReplyDeleteHow is another state commission going to help a single child learn to read?
ReplyDeleteAll this bill does is create more paperwork for schools (and what gets sacrificed so that the reports can get done?).
Big government is not the answer.
Last summer I wrote about a study done by the federal government that noted how Connecticut tests are indeed not up to snuff, compared to many of the exams administered by other states. We need to stop kidding ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with all the assumptions behind the bill Ms. Haynie is writing about; that is, better training will solve the problem.
There is considerable recent research in cognitive psychology and among serious researchers that indicate the skills-based approach to literacy, which still dominates in the U.S., but hardly anywhere else, is a large part of the problem, especially after third grade.
I truly hope that ALL Norwalk teachers will be able to access quality professional development, not just teachers from title 1 schools. This is a huge flaw in our school system that should be fixed.
ReplyDeleteBruce, Norwalk has been training teachers on strategy based reading, as researched by Marie Clay and implemented by Reading Recovery teachers. Norwalk's administrators have been on the cutting edge from years back to train teachers using the cueing systems, which include, but are not at all limited to the phonetic approach. Teachers have also received vital training in comprehension strategies as well. In fact, the Literacy Specialists received training from the state dept. of ed. so that they could carry out this training in the schools and model in the classrooms. Whether the principals followed through was left up to them.
ReplyDeleteMy feelings are based on the works of E.D. Hirsch and Diane Ravitch (their views have been officially adopted by "The American Educator"). Essentially, we need to move away from skills based approaches to literacy and focus on content and formal language ability. Most of the countries that outperform us after third grade in reading and writing focus on content, not skills such as sequencing, identifying "main ideas," etc.
ReplyDeleteTake, for instance, the DRA and its silly metacognitive ability section at the end of some of the higher levels: all of the serious research indicates those abilities are NOT developed until AFTER the subject has been mastered; they really can't be taught.
Also, the so-called improvements caused by the various types interventions and programs that have been tried over the years have been short-termed. After thirty years of skills based instruction, scores have remained fairly flat.
We still expect fifth graders who don't know what the Mayflower was, or who don't know all the words to our national anthem, or even the differences between a country and a state to pass a difficult reading test. It's not going to happen.
We have great teachers and trainer. What's lacking is a curriculum with a common content that children need to begin learning at home or in pre-school.
This view is supported by recent developments in cognitive psychology, which have shown (according to what I've read) that background knowledge -- cognitive domains -- and formal language ability are the most important indicators of a high level of literacy.
I think I may agree with Bruce Kimmel, but I would have to sit down with him to discuss this further. I strongly feel we need to address other factors in the literacy equation that we are not addressing currently. First and foremost, there are children with visual impairments who we are not identifying with the very deficit contributing to their poor reading skills. The last thing they need is more reading strategies that enable them to compensate for a possible visual impairment. This is the sort of thing that creates poor decoding skills which impacts upon comprehension. Second, the state needs to finally realize that it has long been speaking out of both sides of its mouth. It insists teachers differentiate instruction yet it mandates one common formative assessment by which all learning styles are assessed. To fully assess all students, we would need to level the playing field by seeking a range of data from assessments that cater to different learning styles. These assessments need to be compiled and cross referenced to more accurately know what is going on with our students. Lastly, the innate problem with a skills-based approach to learning is that it ignores the range of abilities and talents that exist in the unique and creative personalities that make up a classroom. We have an obligation to let students, and their parents, know what they can do well and what areas of strength will contribute to meaningful lifelong endeavors.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. Bruce Kimmel and Sue Haynie have the answers on how to cure the reading achievement gap. Why not make it a road show and take it to the International Reading Association's Annual Convention? I'm sure everyone else in the profession will line up to hear your vast wisdom on the issue.
ReplyDeleteCome on- let's not be cruel because Bruce Kimmel has some opinions about how to teach reading. At least he offers support for what he writes.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know what Sue Haynie's opinions are-- other than she supports a bill that will form a commission to study reading. To my way of thinking, any one who supports more bureaucracy and more report-writing hasn't spent enough time in a classroom
Bruce, do you have a degree in early literacy? Or have you just read a few articles and are now a self proclaimed expert? The importance of prior knowledge has been known in Norwalk since at least the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I have a Masters degree in reading from New York State and have been a reading teacher in Manhattan -- mostly to second language learners -- for the past five years. Prior to that, I taught third and fourth grade for nineteen years in northern Manhattan, where virtually all of my students were second language learners and received free lunches.
ReplyDeleteWhat I know about statistics and data come from my prior career -- I did not become an elementary school teacher until I was 39 -- at Columbia University, where I received a Ph.D. in Sociology/History in 1981 and taught there in the 1970s.
Again for what it's worth, my classrooms and reading groups have been frequently visited by teachers and administrators, as well as publishers, as part of their own professional development. They seem to enjoy how I give short shrift to overt instruction of skills and focus on content and various types of genres. The test scores of my students have generally been exceptionally high.
Occasionally, I provide information to New York City journalists and academics regarding various aspects of NYC schools.
Well then, you should work your magic in Norwalk.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that no too long ago Dr. Mary-Alice Fitzgerald, with a Ph.D. in reading from Harvard, was the supervisor of Language Arts? Do you really think she was not cognizant of current research? She was highly qualified and recognized that there was no 'quick fix.'
I am tired of reading that Norwalk does not know what is current or has no knowledge of current research. It is assumed that 'others' need to tell them the what and the how to teach. The teachers and administrators in Norwalk are top notch and very capable.
Thank you for the response. Two points:
ReplyDeleteWhat I was referring to is a national problem, not a Norwalk problem, and this problem is clearly evident when U.S. test scores are compared to those of other developed countries, most of which have totally different types of curricula than we have. One might argue that our teachers are taking the blame for what is really an outdated approach to literacy.
Not all of the teachers and administrators in Norwalk are "top notch and very capable." There is a fair amount of research that indicates the quality and short-term results of what happens in classrooms are dependent not only on what the students bring, but also on what the teachers bring. The folks from Cambridge did not agree with your last sentence.
Once again, Norwalk teachers were trained NOT to teach skills in isolation. Literacy Specialists know this and were meant to model good practices in teaching reading. What happened once the Literacy Specialists were under the control of the building principal is unknown. I have heard many of them take small groups from the classroom and teach these groups according to what the principal believes to be best practices. Since the principal evaluates these teachers, the teachers do as told.
ReplyDeleteBruce, I am tired of this argument. I have better things to do with my time than to debate this with you. I have to wonder why you would take so much of your time to reply to me. Is this an ego trip for you? Just wondering.....
Bruce, have you any idea how you are coming across to Norwalk's teachers? Yikes! If you are running for office, this is not the way to do it. Are you suggesting teachers have professional development in your classroom? First of all, are you an elementary classroom teacher or an ELL teacher? Every teacher I know is an excellent teacher but that excellence is steeped in the humility to self-reflect, with room to grow. They would never admit to having all the answers. Teaching reading is as multifaceted as each and every student that comes before them. 2:00 is responding in a way that I believe only he/she can. Your ongoing commentaries have reached a point where one must ask why do you persist in being so self-serving? If it is political office you seek, that is fine and good, but please do not undermine the work of Norwalk's good teachers.
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ReplyDeleteThis thread is supposed to be a discussion on literacy, not a place for personal attacks. Please keep the discussion focused on ways to improve literacy.
ReplyDeleteMoina, I think there has been a lot of teacher and administrator bashing in almost every topic here. While some administrators were named, others were just openly blasted as an administrative group, i.e. central office, building administrators.
ReplyDeleteIf teachers and administrators can be held up for target practice, why not an individual who bashes our teachers on a consistent basis? I don't get it.
I hope I deserve an answer rather than a deletion. I am not mentioning names here, I am just asking a simple question. I do respect your reporting.