Access to books is key
Posted on Ed Week website, May 19
**Comment on: Analysis Ties 4th Grade Reading Failure to Poverty**
**S Krashen**
The Annie Casey Foundation report, Early Warning!, contains no new
information, and recommends that we continue even more aggressively
along the same path outlined by the Obama-Duncan administration,
ignoring the most obvious solution to low reading achievement for
children of poverty: Actual access to books and other reading
material. Standards and tests as a cure for poverty? The report repeats previous descriptions of the impact of poverty but
only briefly mentions that we must provide resources, focusing far
more on the need to institute standardized measures, with “consistent,
aligned expectations” for social, emotional and cognitive development
from birth to grade three. This is a call to vastly expand the Duncan standards and testing
program, expanding it two ways: down to birth, and to cover just about
everything in a child’s life that can be measured and tested. It
clearly states that the mission is to increase testing and tracking
“from the cradle to college” and calls for an accelerated effort to
“link K-12 standards to standards for early care and education from
birth through kindergarten entry.” Ignoring the obvious The report does not even mention of access to books. There is no
mention of the consistent finding that children of poverty have very
little access to reading material, that access to reading material
means more reading and that more reading means better reading
achievement. There is no mention of the consistent finding that better school and
public libraries and the presence of credentialed librarians result in
higher reading test scores, and no mention of the current wave of
studies showing that access to books can mitigate the effect of
poverty on reading achievement. The document repeats the finding that low reading achievement at lower
grades correlates with low reading achievement later on, but does not
mention the possibility of late intervention through improved access
to books. The document repeats the finding that there is summer loss among high
poverty children, but does not mention research showing that access to
books can mitigate this loss, recommending instead regular instruction
during the summer. Other than the briefest comment that “hands-on literacy-rich
activities” are a good idea, it calls for even more testing and
monitoring, and application of the failed principles of the National
Reading Panel. Suggestion Forget all the new standards and tests. The research review in Early
Warning! demonstrates that we know what the problem is: poverty.
Instead of spending billions on new standards and tests of academics
and now social and emotional development (!), let’s use the money to
move swiftly to protect children against the effect of poverty by
supporting school-based nutrition and health programs and school
libraries. By the time committees are formed, grants are developed,
grant proposals written, standards written, and tests developed,
millions more children will have suffered from the effects of poverty.
We already have measures in place that will tell us what is working
and what is not. Let’s go to the cure, and not waste time with
unnecessary measures of the problem. Food, health care and books, not more standards and tests.
information, and recommends that we continue even more aggressively
along the same path outlined by the Obama-Duncan administration,
ignoring the most obvious solution to low reading achievement for
children of poverty: Actual access to books and other reading
material. Standards and tests as a cure for poverty? The report repeats previous descriptions of the impact of poverty but
only briefly mentions that we must provide resources, focusing far
more on the need to institute standardized measures, with “consistent,
aligned expectations” for social, emotional and cognitive development
from birth to grade three. This is a call to vastly expand the Duncan standards and testing
program, expanding it two ways: down to birth, and to cover just about
everything in a child’s life that can be measured and tested. It
clearly states that the mission is to increase testing and tracking
“from the cradle to college” and calls for an accelerated effort to
“link K-12 standards to standards for early care and education from
birth through kindergarten entry.” Ignoring the obvious The report does not even mention of access to books. There is no
mention of the consistent finding that children of poverty have very
little access to reading material, that access to reading material
means more reading and that more reading means better reading
achievement. There is no mention of the consistent finding that better school and
public libraries and the presence of credentialed librarians result in
higher reading test scores, and no mention of the current wave of
studies showing that access to books can mitigate the effect of
poverty on reading achievement. The document repeats the finding that low reading achievement at lower
grades correlates with low reading achievement later on, but does not
mention the possibility of late intervention through improved access
to books. The document repeats the finding that there is summer loss among high
poverty children, but does not mention research showing that access to
books can mitigate this loss, recommending instead regular instruction
during the summer. Other than the briefest comment that “hands-on literacy-rich
activities” are a good idea, it calls for even more testing and
monitoring, and application of the failed principles of the National
Reading Panel. Suggestion Forget all the new standards and tests. The research review in Early
Warning! demonstrates that we know what the problem is: poverty.
Instead of spending billions on new standards and tests of academics
and now social and emotional development (!), let’s use the money to
move swiftly to protect children against the effect of poverty by
supporting school-based nutrition and health programs and school
libraries. By the time committees are formed, grants are developed,
grant proposals written, standards written, and tests developed,
millions more children will have suffered from the effects of poverty.
We already have measures in place that will tell us what is working
and what is not. Let’s go to the cure, and not waste time with
unnecessary measures of the problem. Food, health care and books, not more standards and tests.
The lure of the parallel lines
I miss my digital and film cameras. This smartphone camera isn’t that good.
She seeks sanctuary
This is where I go when my head is tired but my feet are not. This is where I visit when the mind roams and the body protests all movement. This is where I seek repose when my thoughts scurry blindly over once familiar territory and my muscles ache without reason. This is where I release worries like doves and rest my shoulders from their imagined burden. This is where I listen to others while I posture myself in silence.
Beautiful city
Say what you want about Chicago. It is still one of the most consistently beautiful cities I’ve ever had the privilege to visit. To live close enough to the beach is a bonus.
Ron Huberman and CPS do it again
Read about it here, if you can stomach it.
From the article:
The Chicago Public Schools is a system so broke it can't afford sophomore sports, wants assistant coaches to work for free, and has summoned hundreds of teachers to the principal's office to let them know they'll be laid off over the summer. But it can still afford to pay 133 central office officials more than $100,000 a year.
That's what budget reform looks like to schools CEO Ron Huberman.
About two months ago, when Huberman and the Board of Education cut sophomore sports, they said the district, roughly $900 million in the red, could only afford to let freshmen, juniors, and seniors play after-school sports—even after laying off dozens of well paid administrators.
It irked me that a city so rich it could afford to shower subsidies on profitable corporations such as United Airlines and MillerCoors to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars couldn't afford to let sophomores play.
Openbook – See what’s public on Facebook
Check out this website I found at youropenbook.org
This is fascinating…and a great NPR story.
Cancer is so limited
What Cancer Cannot Do
It cannot cripple love
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit
(Author unknown)
