[LM_NET] SHARE: NCLB's Reading First Program is a Failure

[Shonda Brisco <sbrisco@GMAIL.COM>]

The NCLB Reading First initiative has been in the news recently.
Interestingly enough is that one of the six components of the program
is the "Improving Literacy Through School Libraries" which calls for:

  * Updating school library materials
  * Creating a technologically advanced school library media center
  * Employing a certified school library media specialist
  * Increasing after-hours access to school libraries.
  * Providing professional development

Apparently this was a "buffet line" of choices for schools to decide
which of the six programs they wanted to selected in order to improve
student achievement in reading, because I don't think THIS component
of the program was considered in many schools....despite the research
that has been done to show that THESE elements DO impact student
achievement.  Maybe instead of spending billions of dollars on reading
programs, textbooks, testing programs, and the other "bells and
whistles" offered by the big business corporations and used in the
classroom that seem to be linked to the NCLB initiative, these funds
should have been diverted to what DOES work!  Those include:

  *  Paying the salaries of certified school library media
specialists in EVERY school.
  *  Updating the technology in school libraries so that these
specialists can teach students and teachers ways to utilize resources
for increasing student achievement in reading.
  *  Increasing library budgets for school libraries that will
automatically (every time I've seen this happen...) create an interest
in reading by students. (If you build it, they will come...and read!)
  *  Adding additional library staff to allow for increased library
hours before and after school, on the weekends, during the evening,
and (heaven forbid)...the summer!!!
  *  Providing professional development to allow librarians and
teachers to learn HOW libraries improve student achievement in reading
(and every other subject in the curriculum).

(Hello?? Can someone wake-up the driver?  I think we're crashing!!)

...off my soapbox, this bright and sunny Saturday morning in Texas.

---------------------------------------------------------

 Read Stephen Krashen's commentary, Jamie McKenzie's comments, and
Joyce Valenza's blog to learn more about what "isn't working."


Joyce Valenza's blog:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1900025990.html

*****************************************************
Stephen Krashen's comments:

Reading First's Dismal Record
Sent to the New York Times, May 2

"Reading program is called ineffective" (May 1) gives
the impression that the recent failure of children in
Reading First to outperform comparison children is an
anomaly; author Sam Dillon quotes an administration
official as well as a GAO report as saying that
educators feel that the program is effective. The
current dismal results, however, are consistent with
previous analyses.

Since Reading First was implemented, there has been no
change in the rate of improvement on reading tests
given by the states. American fourth graders did not
improve between 2001 and 2006 on the international
PIRLS reading test. Members of the administration have
repeatedly claimed that NAEP reading scores are at an
all-time high, but never point out that nearly all of
the improvement took place before Reading First was
implemented.

Reading First has failed every time it has been put to
the empirical test.

Stephen Krashen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jamie McKenzie
*********************************
Check out the New York Times article by Sam Dillon
reporting on this study of Reading First.

An Initiative on Reading Is Rated Ineffective

By SAM DILLON
Published: May 2, 2008

President Bush's $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to
low-income children has not helped improve their reading
comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released
on Thursday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/education/02reading.html?em&ex=1209873600&en=7c271a31f425ba2f&ei=5087%0A

Send this link to all your friends and colleagues and have them spread
the news far and wide so the public comes to understand they have been
hoodwinked by the NCLB movement and its school change strategies.

As many of us suspected, the whole "research and science based"
approach to improving schools has been a sham from the beginning.
Given the failure of The Reading First director, Chris Doherty, to
achieve results with such programs in Baltimore before coming to
Washington to lead Reading First, it should come as no surprise that
the national effort has also been a failure.

Jamie McKenzie
Editor
No Child Left

---------------------------------------------------------
~Shonda

-- 
Shonda Brisco, BA Ed., MLIS
Library Media / Technology Specialist
Weatherford, TX 76086

Digital Bookends wiki / blog:
http://digitalbookends.pbwiki.com
http://shonda.edublogs.org/
sbrisco@gmail.com

Resources for Texas School Librarians:
http://txschoollibrarians.ning.com/
http://txschoollibrarians.wikispaces.com/

"Digital Resources" columnist
School Library Journal

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