Well Malkin, Since You Didn’t, I Did!

I just posted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal my comment, #66.  It might be stale by now, but hopefully someone in Head Office reads it.  There are some sharp commenters who might still be reading.  And Malkin, hope you don’t mind too much my using your words without credit.  We just have to get our message out and since you were on their doorstep, thought you could have given them a nudge?

MATTHEW EFFECT A CONCERN

Look up Matthew Effect on the Internet. Basically it refers to the observed result that children who fail to read at grade level start slipping — not only in the skill of reading but also in other respects, demonstrating diminished love of reading, diminished love of learning as a whole, diminished self-esteem, etc.

In other words, they become “disabled” and incrementally become “more disabled” due to poor reading ability or poor or absent teaching of reading skills. In medicine this acquired disorder is called an iatrogenic outcome, induced by the treatment — an infection, complication of treatment, etc.

What a coincidence.

I’m from Canada and a friend just happened to be in Las Vegas when this story broke. This is what she wrote:

“You know, if a Martian were to visit Clark County and try to find out what to do about the board’s poor literacy results, it would probably take the Martian about an hour to learn that additional spending and trying harder haven’t worked elsewhere, while abolishing Balanced Literacy and instituting systematic phonics has worked elsewhere. One has to wonder why these truths elude the new superintendent of the Clark County School District.”

Well, your superintendent certainly has it right about the Grade Three turnaround point: “We know students have to be successful by the end of third grade.”

The news story goes on: “Skorkowsky set one overarching goal that must be met by students, even though the details of getting there remain unclear. All children must show grade-level reading skills by the end of third grade, the pivotal point where students transition from learning to read to now reading to learn.“

What about pinpointing the problem closer to the Reading Program? Why not consider systematic phonics in elementary years instead of Balanced Literacy? Will this upset the “consultants” in Head Office?

That`s a excellent response,very impressive Tunya.

I`ve had both a school and a clinic and one wonders how many fewer “assessments” for school problems there would be if kids were taught by highly trained teachers in explicit systematic synthetic phonics.

It is Las Vegas. It has a huge Latin population who are ELL with parents who change hotel rooms.

It is the perfect storm for low achievement.