I’ve been meaning to get to Sol Stern’s eyebrow-raising exegesis of the rise and fall of Reading First. But whether you’ve read it or not, read this blistering response, which imagines a conversation between a smug reading teacher and a fourth-grader who can’t read. It may peel off your wallpaper. Tip ‘o the hat to Ken DeRosa of D-Ed Reckoning for posting this.
Archive for March 7th, 2008
Hard to believe this will stand up but as of right now, it appears tens of thousands of parents in California are breaking the law. The crime? Homeschooling.
Here we go again with curriculum narrowing. It’s happening…it’s not happening…it’s happening, but the problem is overstated. The edusphere erupts over whether a reported 16% of schools cutting art for more reading and math can be characterized as “many schools,” or whether narrowing under NCLB happens “often” or only sometimes. Still to come, whether “many,” “some,” “a handful” or “just a few” angels can dance on the head of a pin, or whether angels dancing on pins is a troublesome, but overstated trend.
The important point continues to go undiscussed: Given that a broad, content-rich education is the key to reading comprehension—hence raising test scores—narrowing the curriculum in any form is not just unacceptable but counterproductive and foolish. If you want to see test scores up, start arguing for curriculum reform. This is the common ground that ought to unite friends and foes of NCLB alike.
Everything else is angels dancing on the heads of pins.
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