Republicans Recruit Right Wing Ideologue as Expert on Wisconsin Reading Bill

There was a hearing on Feb. 15 about Governor Scott Walker’s “Read To Lead” initiative.

The chief expert that the Republican co-chairs, Rep. Kestell and Sen. Olson, brought in to testify on reading screening and teacher evaluation, was University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky, author of Losing Our Language: How Multicultural Classroom Instruction Is Undermining Our Children’s Ability to Read, Write, and Reason. She has also been involved in the anti-ethnic studies movement in Arizona. Following is an article on Stotsky’s role in the banning of ethnic studies in the Tucson Arizona school district.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2011/09/23/sandra-stotsky-the-right-wing-professor-from-arkansas-that-arizona-will-use-to-ban-ethnic-studies-in-tucson/

A Must Listen: Democratic Party Spokesman, Graeme Zielinski, Silences WTMJ Morning News Host On Recall

Scott Walker has lead Wisconsin to number one in the country in job loss and education cuts. To hear a true “smack down” of the right wing, listen to the following WTMJ broadcast at:

http://www.620wtmj.com/podcasts/news/newstogo/135728068.html?mid=5562419

Walker Hosts Reading Task Force Meeting. Expect the Task Force to be Ideologically Driven.

The first meeting of the task force Read to Lead was held April 25^th at the Capitol in Madison.

Some observations:

Of the 14 attendees only one was a person of color, Representative Jason Fields.

There were no MPS teachers or reading specialists.

There were no bilingual specialists.

There was no one representing ESL students.

The committee appeared to be ideologically stacked.

There was no one representing balanced literacy.

Expect prescriptive, industry driven “solutions” to low achievement in reading.

Expect the “reading wars” to be resurrected with “scientifically-based reading instruction and intervention” to answer everything.

The second meeting of the Governor’s Read to Lead task force will be Tuesday, May 31st.

To view the April 25^th meeting go to:

http://www.wiseye.org/Programming/VideoArchive/EventDetail.aspx?evhdid=4126

MJS Article on MPS Reading Plan

MPS literacy plan gets tentative OK from state

Program requires all teachers, staff to use same reading, writing materials

By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: May 27, 2010 |(21) Comments

As part of overhauling how Milwaukee Public Schools teaches children to read and write, the state has conditionally approved the district’s new literacy plan, contingent on a meaty list of requirements that must be fulfilled before school starts next fall.

A key missing element? The curriculum. The Milwaukee School board has not yet adopted uniform literacy textbooks and curriculum for children in kindergarten through eighth grade, though district leaders on Thursday expressed confidence that they were still on track to fulfill most, if not all, of the state’s demands by September.

But Jennifer Thayer, assistant superintendent for reading and student achievement at the state Department of Public Instruction, thought that timeline would be tight.

“That’s going to make it tough for them to hit our deadlines,” Thayer said.

The 570-page Comprehensive Literacy Planis expected to prompt change in MPS by ordering all teachers and instructional staff across the district, with few exceptions, to use the same reading and writing materials and framework to teach children.

The plan, which has been in development for two years, outlines everything from how many minutes of literacy instruction schools should use to the type of periodic assessments students should take.

NAEPs Trial Urban District Assessment in Reading Just Released/ Milwaukee Included

To see the full report go to:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/dst2009/2010459.pdf

To see the MJS article on MPS reading scores go to the following link:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/94449649.html

Supplemental Reading Programs Show Little Success

One question raised by the research is whether teachers should use a variety of supplemental reading interventions, rather than just one, in their classrooms to address the diverse needs of young adolescent students.

Reading Programs Yield Few Gains in Comprehension By Catherine Gewertz A federal study of supplemental programs that are intended to improve students’ reading comprehension has found that only one of the three programs examined actually did so.

Alan Borsuk Declares War

Alan Borsuk, in his weekly Journal op-ed, says “Start the war.” He is referring to the “reading wars” that were fought during the 1990′s and have transformed over the last decade. Borsuk, assuming he has Howard Fuller in his corner, wants a fight over Milwaukee’s African American student reading results. While I am usually up for a good fight, this is a time for educators, and even newspaper columnists, to collaborate and problem-solve in the face of these abysmally low reading scores.

Actually Borsuk could play a constructive role instead of attempting to divide communities. For example, if I were approaching this issue with the power to write a weekly op-ed in the Journal, I would research the following to better help guide the discussion that should go on:

Who won the reading wars?

What have been the main approaches to reading in the suburbs for the past decade?

What have been the main reading approaches in urban schools for the past decade?

What is the research on the multitude of scripted,  reading industry packaged programs?

Why was the NCLB Reading First mandate such a dismal failure?

Who are the teachers in MPS that are successfully teaching reading?

What does a good reading program look like and how should it be evaluated?

What districts can show strong improvement in reading scores? What are their strategies?

What has been the approach in D.C. and Florida where improvement is being claimed?

Is teaching to the test (whether state tests or the NAEP) synonymous with sound reading instruction?

Alan, try doing some constructive work instead of trying to start a war.

Alan J. Borsuk Posted: April 25, 2010

Don’t we get it? Reading is fundamental

I don’t mind starting the old reading war. In fact, it might be a good time for that.

I just want to be sure it happens as part of starting a new reading war. That’s something we need in a big way.

In fact, start it not only in Milwaukee but across Wisconsin, where people are, frankly, too complacent about the state of kids’ reading proficiency.

Does Milwaukee have the worst reading situation for kids in the United States? Data that has come out in recent months, backed by results over the past decade, make that an ominously serious question.

There soon will be a more specific answer – for the first time, scores for fourth-grade and eighth-grade reading that compare Milwaukee with 16 other urban centers will be made public. When math scores were released a few months ago, Milwaukee eighth-graders rated above only Detroit.

But why wait for that information? It’s already clear how severe the problem is. Overall proficiency of Milwaukee kids in reading has been poor and getting no better for years. Five of eight 10th-graders in Milwaukee Public Schools rated below the proficient level in state tests this year – and Wisconsin has one of the easier definitions for proficiency in the U.S. African-American kids in Wisconsin, which largely means Milwaukee, had the lowest reading scores in the nation in federal results called NAEP scores released last month.

Start the war.