Media
Release from the Society for Quality Education
Attention
Education Reporters
New Help for
Literacy or Same Old Same Old?
The Society for Quality Education (SQE) responded to Education Minister Kennedy’s plans to quadruple the number of specialized reading teachers today. The details are not yet clear and SQE fears that merely implementing more “intensive” application of classroom methods that haven’t worked for decades will not lead to success.
“We will be interested to see exactly what kind of instruction will be promoted by the new Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat,” said President, Malkin Dare. “Unless reading instruction is going to change dramatically by using empirically proven research-based teaching methods, we don’t expect to see huge increases in reading scores.”
“Evidence
from such research indicates that explicit, systematic phonics reading
programmes are the most successful for both preventing reading failure and to
remediate,” added SQE Executive Director, Doretta Wilson. “What is still needed is incentive for
existing educators to change teaching methods and for improved teacher training
at the faculties of education. We still
have teachers graduating from teachers’ colleges who have never actually been
taught how to teach reading.”
The Society for Quality Education is a charitable,
non-profit organization dedicated to providing facts about quality education.
The Society works to advance public and private education in
- 30 -
Contacts for this Media Release
DORETTA WILSON, Executive Director Malkin Dare, President
Toronto Waterloo
Phone: 416-231-7247 (bus) Phone: 519-884-3166
416-526-1653 (cell)