Thank You for the link to the blog.

You and your team and those with similar ideologies must live with the rage of the likes of our frequent visitor who represents the Union and insists daily that low results are due to low SES and continues to insist they be allowed to exist in the no accountability bubble.

We now have transparency in our First Nations as far as fiscal accountability.This is a hard pill to swallow for the people who live in poverty,unrest always creates change.

If we had more press on the absolute lie that low achievement in schools is directly linked to poverty and we could link it rather to poor instruction and pedagogies ,we could actually begin the discussion.

Canada’s journalists are it seems pro school boards and don’t want to upset them or show the public that in some,only 50 percent or fewer are learning to read by grade 3.

They just get away with it,annually.
I must go and take an antacid!

Nobody says that poor kids cant learn. Nevertheless SES is the reason why they do not.

Think of it as a wealthy student running a 100 meter dash while the poor kid runs a 100 meter hurdle race.

The various hurdles in the poor kids lane are labelled nutrition, low birth weight, housing, violent neighbourhoods, transportation problems, latch key problems, inexperienced teachers, poor role models, absent a great deal, moving too often, and so on.

Jo Ann, your are right-on re: this statement; “If we had more press on the absolute lie that low achievement in schools is directly linked to poverty and we could link it rather to poor instruction and pedagogies ,we could actually begin the discussion.”

Your next line rings true also.

“Canada’s journalists are it seems pro school boards and don’t want to upset them or show the public that in some,only 50 percent or fewer are learning to read by grade 3.”

Most schools of journalism in this country are historically left-of-centre and sadly very few really good education journalists exist in this country who actually know the system or have studied it from all sides.  Most simply parrot what the system’s communication spinners and weavers dictate.

Also, when it comes to education what sells newspapers and radio spots is NOT usually what works well or the success stories.  Crisis, lack of accountability, teachers strikes and idiot school boards are what too many Canadian journos. focus on.  We have success stories that involve parents making very excellent decisions for their children, as well as those educators who don’t buy the usual union mantra. Sadly both parents and good educators are nicely ignored or trivialized by the usual suspects.

When you deny that achievement fits with SES like a hapersonnd and a glove you just look foolish.

Lived in an aboriginal community in the late 70ies .  Follow their issues to date.  I hate it!  They live in squalor, no proper drinking water, black mold, huge substance abuse issues, then there is the corruption/leadership issue - puts modern school boards to shame. 

Then there is the Harper government expediting their extinction with the poisoning of their water and land so that they can extract resources most cheaply to bolster the dollar.

Heavy metal poisoning may get in the way of a good literacy strategy. 

There are strong leaders in the aboriginal community working to fix this mess but it is deep hole and it needs way more that a few posts on a blog. 

Is this something that the Society for Quality Education is supporting with money and talent?

please advise

They believe all of those hurdles can be overcome with phonemic awareness and direct instruction. Testing of course will help.

Potent,
You bring the money; we bring the talent!

Dear Doretta, (08é03 5:28)

First,  kudos on your ability to finally after 6 exchanges to go with MY moniker. I see this sort of leadership in schools all the time.

Unfortunately there appears to be a bit of a mix up.  I am a teacher…...you are an administrative assistant in an organization that has postured for years to revolutionize education.  I expect if students are to be best served you need to bring the $$$$  and   I will bring the talent.

I think that after more than a few decades at this we should both focus on what we can do.

I have taught the urban poor in Toronto, Montreal and Peel Region for over three decades. The education establishment always says they can’t learn b/c of ‘low ses’ with its so-called attendant disadvantages. So I’ll state for the record their claim is nothing but a red herring used by the union thugocracy and their fellow travelers. I will put the children of the working poor I have educated… up against any IB/AP student in Ontario (Now seven who are known Harvard graduates). And mine will always win. Just wanted ya’ll to know it.

Correlation Equals Causation In Illiteracy-Prison Equation

Doesn’t matter how much evidence LD advocacy groups present to governments and school systems about the connections, they are ignored.  They refuse to act on the ONE factor that will drastically reduce prison populations, prison recidivism, homelessness, university remedial courses in the basics for incoming students, etc. — READING ABILITY. 

There must be SOME reason teachers and ed systems REFUSE TO COMMIT to teaching reading to ALL students.

Is it because it’s not politically “progressive” to teach reading by direct instruction rather than guessing? Is it because the English language is hard, with many exceptions to easy rules?  What is it?

I have a dozen books before me on — NOT “Literacy” but ILLITERACY.  There are more out there.  Maybe someone knows why this resistance.

Here is another take on the school-to prison pipeline.  This is in the US, but applicable here.

Should State Funding Go to School Books or Orange Jumpsuits?  http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/02/state-funding-go-school-books-orange-jumpsuits/

Though this does not point to illiteracy but to poor education in the story, a reader does point to more research on the topic.  J E Stone from Education Consumers Clearinghouse says:  “Take a look at our cost of our schooling failure calculator:  http://www.education-consumers.org/Calc/  It sums the cost of not just prison (included in Public Safety), but welfare, healthcare, and future education costs.”

This calculator determines the cost of Third Grade Reading Failure by state. Students who can’t read by the end of third grade pay an enormous price but so do taxpayers.

For every student who fails to master reading, the public is saddled with what amounts to a hidden annual surtax imposed at the local, state, and federal levels - one that cumulates with each succeeding class of students.

Even with such persuasive accurate instruments:  Why is there no concentrated action on Reading?

In the Health field if there was this epidemic the correlation-causation equation would urgently trigger action.  What will it take?

We all scratch our heads Tunya,my take is the professors don’t want to admit they`ve been wrong.

Where could they hide?
They themselves don`t know how to teach kids to read so they can`t train the teachers.
It`s all a big show.
The emperor has no clothes.

By the way,congratulations edubeat.

It is all educational malpractice.

One thing though,if we are all told to jump over the bridge,most will jump.It is only the rare bird who says why and this won`t work so I`m not doing it.

There is such a hate on for phonics it`s unbelievable.
They feel comfortable accepting phonemic awareness but teachers are forbidden from showing the letters representing the sounds.So…they still don`t learn.

Pure insanity!

Anti intellectualism at its best. The professors know nothing. Only we amateurs have the truth.

Please.

Potent “Lived in an aboriginal community in the late 70ies .  Follow their issues to date.  I hate it!  They live in squalor, no proper drinking water, black mold, huge substance abuse issues, then there is the corruption/leadership issue - puts modern school boards to shame.”

That’s a little too dumbed-down for my liking actually “Potent” however a more accurate assessment of Aboriginal or First Nations communities is that some have done very well indeed and are managed very well through competent leadership. Others do not. If you’re speaking of Northern Ontario reservations you’ll find a mixed bag there still.

I find your parallel between some poor band corruption/leadership and school boards refreshing and I would venture that there are some boards as vacant and corrupt as are some band councils. It would be more than a welcome turn of events should all school boards undergo the same kind of scrutiny, open books and even forensic audits as First Nations are these days so we can weed things out board-by-board in this Ontario once and for all.

“Then there is the Harper government expediting their extinction with the poisoning of their water and land so that they can extract resources most cheaply to bolster the dollar.”

Prove it please.  You sound like you’ve had a bit of sip of Maude Barlow’s kool-aid.  Next you’ll be trying to spin a Mike Harris tale. Your bias is too clear “Omnipotent”.

And now to this piece of verbal selfie -  “Unfortunately there appears to be a bit of a mix up.  I am a teacher…...you are an administrative assistant in an organization that has postured for years to revolutionize education.  I expect if students are to be best served you need to bring the $$$$  and   I will bring the talent.”

You’ve got your script all wrong “Ompo”.  This is how that old canard quacks “I am a teacher…..and you’re NOT, therefore I must be right and you’re not.”  Didn’t buy that when you were a faux-parent/teacher advocate and I sure don’t buy it now. Oh, and that “talent” you speak of abstract at best in this forum because you’ve chosen not to use your name.  Doretta and SQE on the other hand can be measured rather successfully IMO.  She’s neither trying to fool us or belittle the efforts and discussion here.

Doctor-patient

Lawyer-client

Dentist-patient

Teacher-student-parent

Potent and Doug are the typical educators acting on the best interests of the K to 12 education establishment, and NOT serving the interests of the students and by extension the public. The more militant educators such as Potent and Doug are part of the ‘poverty’ theorists gang pushing Marxist political theorem to advance the best interests of the K to 12 educators. Of course the Marxist educators of some fame would lead us to believe that Marxism has little to contribute to the education of children, reading instruction and other matters of education. http://schoolingincapitalistamerica.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/the-pioneers-of-marxist-thought-in-education-a-review-of-marx-and-education-by-jean-anyon-part-one/

Plenty of other articles in the education journals and education circles describing the Marxist reasons by the educators, why they have such a hatred for phonics and yes even phonemic awareness. http://clogic.eserver.org/4-1/shannon.html

Another ploy used by the K to 12 crowd is making the accusation of anti-intellectualism to dissuade people from looking deeper into the pedagogy of the educators. Anyone who is well-schooled on the political philosophers is able to discern quite quickly the Marxist philosophy is leading the charge in the education practices and policies of the typical K to 12 school. What non-educators sees as education malpractice, is not what the K to 12 establishment sees at all. What do the educators see?  For Doug and Potent, they see a broken society filled with broken children. Karl Marx also saw the masses riddled with deficits and brokenness that needed to unite to take their place in the armies of the working class to follow the instruction and orders of the elite professional class. The only problem that Marx had, what to do with the smarter than average working class people who saw through the Utopian version of governing and operations. The identical problem that the K to 12 establishment is dealing with - the public who is not part of the K to 12 establishment.

There is no action on the part of the K to12 no matter how persuasive the evidence is because the K to 12 system is not at all about providing quality education for one and all. It is all about providing education services according to the social-economic status of students.  As I stated before, the only way to turn it around, is to dump the current legislated education acts, and begin anew with authentic consultation by all segments of society and experts in their fields. I am quite sure the health professionals will come out in droves, dictating the reading instruction to be based on the reading science and NOT a reading instruction philosophy.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-baiting

Nancy,

Red baiting has a long and unsavory history in Canada and especially in the USA.

When used in intellectual life the user is dismissed as a flame throwing ignoramus.