Posted on 01/18/2005 4:06:25 AM PST by shubi
Are taxpayer-subsidized infomercials and payoffs to friendly commentators the federal government's answer to education problems? The U.S. Education Department's secret million-dollar taxpayer-financed marketing campaign to sell the No Child Left Behind Act is only a symptom of what's wrong.
Former President Ronald Reagan used to say that government is not the solution, it's the problem. But we are in the post-Clinton era, and in 1997 former President Bill Clinton told us in Northbrook, Ill., to get over "our love of local control of the schools."
While national media are filled with pictures of horrors all over the world, the biggest tragedy in the United States rates only local stories. I'm referring to the sad, sad tale of how public school systems promote millions of children all the way into high school without ever teaching them how to read.
This situation wasn't pictured on network television, or even on CNN or Fox, but the Orlando Sentinel gave its customers the bad news on New Year's Day. Only 32 percent of Florida ninth-graders and only 34 percent of Florida 10th-graders can read at grade level.
That means two-thirds of Florida public school students are marking time in legally enforced incarceration in government buildings that are euphemistically called schools. Think of all those hours those illiterates have available to create mischief, annoy teachers and other students, and get into trouble.
Why is anyone surprised at the truancy and dropout rates? Wouldn't you - whether you are a student or a parent - check out of the system if it just baby-sat you for nine school years and never taught you how to read?
This high rate of nonreaders is not new; it obviously has existed for years, and I've reported it in this column over and over again. If ninth-graders can't read, we can infer that they couldn't read in the eighth grade, or the seventh grade, or the sixth grade, etc., but were promoted anyway.
What made this a 2005 news story, according to the Sentinel, is that school officials "are panicking," but not because of the appalling illiteracy rate. It's because the No Child Left Behind Act is enforcing accountability and nonreaders are giving entire schools a bad name.
The state of Florida gives a letter grade to each school each spring. A school can drop a whole letter - as from a C to a D - and be hit with a financial penalty if poor readers fail to improve two years in a row.
This threat has motivated schools into serious action, and their solution to this depressing report is predictable. Spend more taxpayer money and hire a new set of teachers to teach high schoolers what elementary school teachers were already paid to do.
Orlando school officials have decided to experiment with three new reading approaches: Scholastic's Read 180, which relies heavily students using computers and comes with a price tag of $439,000; McGraw-Hill's SRA Corrective Reading at $130,000; and Strategically Oriented Intensive Reading Instruction at $84,000.
According to the Sentinel, these three methods will be used on different groups of students because "no one knows exactly what works." That's not true; we already know what works: intensive, systematic phonics.
But for years, most public schools have rejected what works in favor of what's easy: the so-called whole-word method. Instead of teaching first-graders the sounds and syllables of the English language, and how to put them together like building blocks to read big words, schools have taught children to memorize a short list of frequently used words, guess at whole words by looking at the pictures on the page, predict words based on the content of the story, substitute words that seem to fit, and simply skip over words they don't recognize.
Memorizing, guessing, looking at pictures, predicting, substituting, and skipping, are not reading; they are bad habits. A child in those bad habits is guaranteed to be a poor and inaccurate reader.
This whole-word system gets children through the first and second grades when they are given only stories with one-syllable words and mind-numbing repetition, but it is doomed to failure when they are confronted with polysyllabic words in later grades.
Children who are not taught phonics grow up to be adults who can never be hired for anything other than a minimum-wage job. They will never be assimilated into our economy and achieve the American dream.
Children who are not taught phonics grow up to be incompetent voters, like the Palm Beach County voters who spoiled their ballots in 2000 by over-voting for both Al Gore and the Libertarian third-party candidate. Never having been taught to sound out syllables, they saw "Libertarian" and thought they were selecting "Lieberman" for vice president.
©2005 Copley News Service
The figures for private and home schooled children are so much better, it makes me wonder if the education credentialing process promotes making kids stupid.
An accurate read?
Okay-- government schools suck!
Yes, and so does the whole system of keeping out teachers who know a subject and putting in teachers who think they know how to teach.
How do you teach something of which you have no knowledge?
You don't!!! We need to junk the system and go back to hiring good teachers who care about kids and not so much about money and power.
H, but you'll hear, "that's not happening in MY school."
LOL!
God bless Phyllis for her decades of work in promoting the most tried and true method of reading. But because of her work, the government-education-industrial-complex will continue to resist what works.
NCLB forces report cards for SCHOOLS.
NCLB allows students in failing schools to transfer OUT.
NCLB sets teaching standards, such as PHONICS rather than whole language (totally discredited) or there is NO funding.
There is a reason why the NEA is bitterly against this program. They don't want accontability.
If you can create a better way to keep watch on schools, please do so.
Education is the single most important social issue in our country.
I'm acquainted with an elementary school teacher who is a floating reading specialist at a whole-language school. She works with the kids who are falling behind - mainly little boys - and she gets great results. How? She has five or six copies of Hooked on Phonics that she quietly loans out to families to work on at home.
What a load. Did this author ever hear of the No Pass, No Play rule that's been around for the last few decades? It's apparent whenever there's a slow news day, journalists merely pull out from the back of the file cabinet a rant on public schools. Of course it's not the parents' fault that Johnny can't read or even bother showing up for class. No, let's not blame the parents for letting Johnny play videos all day or do drugs or join a gang rather than doing his homework. No, it can't be the parents' fault that PTA's are things of the past. It would be too un-PC to place the blame squarely on uninvolved parents, where is belongs.
If your neighborhood public school isn't up to your standards, get up off your duff and fix it.
$40 per classroom for a copy of Alpha-Phonics, plus $3 for chalk. Presto! (This is based on the assumption that the teachers don't know phonics, either ... otherwise all they'd need is the chalk!)
I never made this connection before. I can always count on Phyllis to teach me something new every column. She isn't a babe, but she is the smartest Conservative woman we've got...as much as I like Coulter and Malkin and Ingrahm &c &c, we need Phyllis.
While I agree with your sentiment about fixing your own neighborhood schools, whatever the 'No Pass, No Play' rule is, it ain't working.
We wouldn't need to keep "watch" on our schools if each locality was running them like in the past.
It is the federalization of schools that caused the problem in the first place. Look at retirement and medical if you want other examples of how federal intervention makes things worse.
I agree that parents have a good deal of responsibility, but in the inner city there are really no parents to blame.
I know one high school here that graduates about 7 percent of those who start and a good number of those are barely literate.
Three of my four kids had a nun that taught intensive phonics in first grade (catholic private school). Results- 1 National Merit Finalist Lawyer, 1 Summa Cum Laude, 1 Engineer.
One without the nun is taking 6 years to get through undergrad.
You have to have kids that care about atheletics for no pass no play to have any effect. With grade inflation, the rule really doesn't have much effect in Public Schools.
That is how Public Schools get around the laws and standards. If they don't like it or can't perform, they just give the grades away and help the little illiterates cheat on the tests.
She'd probably be fired if the administration found out about it. I think she should get a medal.
The president sought to deal with the situation as it is today.
You can tell from the level of hysteria coming from the NEA that the President is on the right track. We have a long way to go, but must start somewhere.
Schools that use Whole Language rather than phonics have many students who can't read. Some kids learn to read in spite of Whole Language. Many don't.
It's not the parents' fault. It's the schools' fault. It has nothing to do with kids watching videos, joining gangs, or not doing homework. It's hard to get students interested in school if they can't read. Teach them to read correctly and many learning and behavior problems will disappear.
It is the parents' fault, however, if they don't go down to the school and raise hell.
Maybe it's just because it's the youngest :-).
Maybe, but the only one of the four that did not have the nun has the most trouble.
Here we go again................
It's never too late for Alpha-Phonics! (Actually, that's not true ... it's been demonstrated that most "dyslexia" is a product of look-say reading instruction.)
Republicans simply need to follow through on getting rid of unconstitutional federal government agencies and other unconstitutional use of tax money, like giving charitable assistance to tsunami victims.
Bump to that!
You're right, because it is not happening in MY school. The kids are taught to read through phonics. Not one child who went from kindergarten to 1st grade this year was unable to read. Granted not all on the same level, but none could not read at all.
I'm curious ... do you favor Federal participation in education (funding and/or regulation), and if so, what's your reasoning?
I have always preferred local control. The less fingers in the mix the better.
OTOH, I have also seen local control become far too territorial and self-serving, which just begets disaster for what they are supposed to be there for.....educating the children.
And do you think Federal involvement is the cure for that? (Trying to keep a straight face here ...)
Not at all.
I generally do not see a need for federal involvement in many things......... more bureaucracy just creates more problems, and doesn't solve any.
Just checking :-).
The States and the People are responsible for educating their children. If a locality is not doing the right thing, it is up to the State to step in to correct the school.
This gives us 50 different responsible authorities instead of one big goofy one.
You will never find me saying that all public schools are the greatest thing since sliced bread, because I don't believe. However, not all public schools are the cesspools of illiteracy and liberalism some would like everyone to believe.
Don't forget....one of the main reasons we moved to this particular part of Virginia was because of the sorry state of schools in Delaware.
One reason the inner city is so bad is the "parents" have been relieved of responsibility for their children. They expect and get free everything and are taught that they don't know how to do anything.
Putting things under local control would force parents to take responsibility. If the kid doesn't do well in school, it goes directly to the parents, either in support or in genetics.
I can't speak to inner city schools, as I haven't lived in one in a long time, and went to Catholic school when I did.
And while I agree with the principle of local control, I look at the state of Delaware with a population of less than 1 million...there is no justification for 19 school districts, plus the vo-techs.........and the state Department of Education is just one big bureaucracy.
In the district I live in Virginia, parents are not relieved of responsibility.......that is not to say it doesn't happen, I'm not that naive, but it seems to happen far less here than in equivalent sized districts in Delaware.
It seems like some of the worst ideas, like "Outcome-Based Education," come from the Feds. On the other hand, the homosexual agenda seems to be strongest at the state level, in many places.
The feds told him in no uncertain terms that NO PHONICS, NO MONEY.
Sadly, it has come to this but the NCLB is forcing schools to do the right thing.
In Delaware the homo-agenda is strongest at the local level in some districts.
The fact that a long time lobbyist for the DSEA (Delaware's NEA), a former school teacher is gay, probably had something to do with that.
I can't help but say it's wrong. The Feds threatening the withholding of funds, while maybe good in this case, is wrong IMHO.
Feds threatening state funding is what has brought us such wonderful things as mandatory seatbelt laws, speed limits, .08 BAC, and a whole host of other infringement laws.
While I support the principles of NCLB, I can not support the blackmailing being done by the Feds. It's not their money---it's OURS.
There is not a SINGLE problem with the public education
system that has to be addressed but alot of problems that in the aggregate are causing the system to fail. Two books
that are excellent and that all parents who have children
in public schools should read are: (1) The Worm in the
Apple:How the Teacher Unions are destroying American Education, by Peter Brimelow (2) Breaking Free, by Sol Stern. To mention only a few of the many problems these
reveal - - the NEA is an adjunct of the Democratic party;
the teacher/student ratio is top heavy with "support
personnel" (teachers'aids, administrators, etc.); the
degrees that most teachers get in "education" are top-heavy
in methodology but not pure subject matter; in other
words, many teachers themselves are not as proficient in
their subject matter as they should be. The NEA is more
concerned with salary and benefits than teaching.
The education curriculum is too often centered on PC
nonsense and assuring "self-esteem" rather than the hard
content of subjects like math and language skills. I
could go on all day but READ those books if you havn't!
Why can’t they read after all those years in school ? Some say it’s the parents fault and the schools can’t be solely to blame. The average kid has one or two parents who are obligated to send the child to school to get an education. It’s not only an obligation it’s the law. Parents or the parent usually works fulltime, provides for the family, pays bills, cooks, cleans, get the oil changed, blah, blah, blah….we’re talking serious multitasking. If 30% or so can’t read after they graduate, do they miraculously become excellent readers 3 or 4 years later ? No…they still won’t be able to read . How are they supposed to teach their future children to read ?
On the other hand, there’s the teachers whose sole job is to educate…TEACH….that’s it. Now here’s little Johnny who can’t read and he’s in the 12th grade. ( Yes..they get that far and even graduate.) Let’s see how many teachers he has had during this span of time. If he attended the average public school he had approximately 80 different teachers who were supposed to teach him. Some have had even more than that. You do the math…If a kid is in high school right now he has 7 or 8 different classes with 7 or 8 different teachers. With 4 years of high school he will have had between 28 and 32 different teachers during his high school years alone. This is not counting the special Resource teachers for kids who need that extra help…usually in reading and math.
A kid is sent to school daily, locked in the building for 7 hours , locked in the classroom with a teacher for 6 hours , during a span of 12 or 13 years, approximately 2100 days of his life or 14,000 hours or so. He encounters and spends considerable time with about 80 adults who swear they are there to help and swear they really care about kids but 1/3 or so still can’t read. Parents are not professional educators. Teachers are professional educators with all sorts of college degrees but some have trouble teaching kids. If the parent does his job and makes sure his child goes to school like he is supposed to, how is he to blame if the 80 teachers don’t perform their tax paid obligation ? I mean, there is no federal “draft” for teachers and I have never heard of people being forced to teach with a gun to their head. Teachers choose to teach as a profession just as an electrician chooses to be an electrician. But, the good electrician will give you a warranty for the work he or does. If your child can’t read and you want him to read and you can afford it, you spend more money on a tutor or at a learning center to help him do what you’ve already paid 80 people to do. That is insane.
What about math ? Oh..that’s another whole can of worms. Most graduate and still look up at the ceiling trying to calculate 7x8. If you don’t believe me ..ask the average kid you meet what’s 9x6 or 4x8 . This is something you should definitely know by the 4th or 5th grade. They lack very basic math skills and use their fingers to figure 6+8 or 9+7...I’m talking about kids in high school on the verge of graduating. Try teaching Algebra to someone who can’t add or multiply very well. I’ve tried.. After working in the “real world” for years , I wanted to teach and I became a high school Algebra teacher for a couple of years . I’ve been in the belly of the education beast and have seen teachers and principals who are there babysitting and getting a check. Way too many.
The key is, states don't track private school performance, in general. (The exception is the handful of states that track homeschoolers and mandate minimum test scores to be "allowed" to homeschool.)
You can indirectly assume greater performance from those private schools that have high admissions standards - but those schools aren't going to do any good for those reading below grade level, anyway. But specific indicators of performance are difficult to find on private schools.
How would we really track private school performances anyway? Force private schools to use the same tests as public schools? Force them to disclose their scores to the state education people? How would the state even know who's enrolled in private schools? Any attempt to track private school performance in the same way public performance is tracked would impose unacceptable restrictions on the freedoms of private schools.
I know.
It most certainly is the parent's fault (singular - read: single mother.) First off, anyone who has a child out of wedlock is basically strapping an anvil around that kid's neck and throwing him overboard, educationally speaking. To go back and do it again 4 or 5 times is exponentially worse.
The lack of family structure leads to all the problems that make it impossible for a child to have the *pre-reading skills* necessary to learn to read, with the number-one consequence being poverty. Children in these environments aren't read to as toddlers. Their mothers often do not speak standard English, which makes the transition to "book" English more difficult (i.e. grammar.) There are few if any books in the house. The child never sees the mother or other relatives read. The child grows up in a text-poor environment, dominated by the worst television possible.
Schlafly has been hammering on whole-language for years, but the sad fact is that at one time in this country, whole-language was the *only* form of reading instruction (from the 1940s through the 1960s) at a time when reading deficiences were far lower than they are today. So the problem isn't whole-language alone.
I know the stats independently for home schooling. You can look them up on the web.
We have a Catholic school that gets above average results with the same demographic as the public school I spoke of.
There is no doubt it is the "system" of the public school that is largely responsible for the travesty.
Regardless of anecdotes, private school performance numbers are generally NOT reported. That a private school in one areas does well does not mean you can compare the two systems. Pretty much every private school has some kind of screening on the intake - which means that the most troublesome students are not admitted in the first place.
When you think that an uncredentialed teacher in a one room schoolhouse got better results than the millions of dollars spent on public schools, it is really frustrating.
Much of the teacher's unions excuses that it is the lack of parent support and drugs or crime that cause their failure to teach keeps the real problems from being solved.
We must have people that are actually able to teach, not just those that have been schooled in teaching methodology with no ability to teach or inspire children to learn.
In our state and many others there are standardized tests that all must take. The catholic school I spoke of takes students that were failing and generally gets them to score above average on the State tests.
Discipline is the key to the difference. There are more troublesome students in public school but there is no discipline. It is chicken/egg.
I was taught during the 40s thru 60s and learned phonetically.
At what point do the professional, paid, educators bear some responsibility ? There are single parents who have kids who can read fine and some two-parent households with kids struggling to read. The common factor in both are the public school teachers. Some teachers teach and some don't.
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