What’s the Science Behind the Science of Reading?

There has been lots of noise and many hopeful words about the science of reading.  It is at the basis of the MSDE’s plan for kids to either be reading at grade level at the end of 3^rdgrade or be held back or participate in a special summer program.  There is no guidance as to what would happen if at the end of 3^rd grade repeat, the child is still not at grade level.

The Science of Reading AKA Orton Gillingham, is not all that much science. The basis of this miracle worker plan is Orton Gillingham (OG)method of teaching reading.  It is a plan that is heavily invested in phonics and linking motor input with phonics.  It is not a plan that emphasizes reading comprehension.  What is the point of reading if the reader gets the sounds the letters are supposed to make but does not get the meaning from those sounds?  Is that really reading at all?

It is said that in fourth grade the purpose of reading shifts from word attack skills and decoding to comprehension.  How does the teacher motivate children to read if there is no story to the reading.  Or the story is phonetically consistent but has no interesting motivating plot line.

It is beginning to dawn on the advocates for OG that you can’t teach reading on the basis of word attack skills alone.  The kids aren’t interested AND Orton Gillingham only covers one part of the reading process.  What to do now? The OG advocates have sold a bill of goods to the rest of the folk, that only OG has the scientific basis for teaching reading.  Just ain’t so.  EVERY teaching method has a scientific basis if what you mean by that is research to back up the techniques being recommended by the method. Every single commercial reading method has research to show that it is the one way to teach reading.  OG has great marketing tools.  One of the best things Orton Gillingham has going for it is that it is VERY structured and if followed by the weakest teacher, there will be some positive results.  Is that what is passing for science these days, methods for our weakest teachers?

 

 

 

is it the Union or poverty?

 Is it the union or poverty?

Not too long ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones, an African American mother, wrote an article in the New York Times in which she apologized to her daughter for sending her to an inner-city New York elementary school.  Ms Hannah-Jones wanted to support a poor minority-majority school by sending her middle-class daughter.  At the end of elementary school, her daughter begged her to please send her to their neighborhood school that was mixed race and in an upper middle-class area.  Her daughter explained she KNEW she was getting an inferior education and she had plans for college and wanted to be prepared.   Mom finally relented and after her daughter enrolled in the neighborhood school, she saw the error of her previous decision.  Her daughter was behind the other kids in preparation and expectation.  She has a lot of catching up to do. 

The question is, why are schools located in poor minority areas so poor at educating these kids.  Is poverty the answer?  Well, the particular school in question receives $50,000 per year per pupil.  Its total enrollment is low, so class sizes have good pupil/teacher ratios.   Are these kids just genetically deficient?

Joel Klein, a former New York City school system chancellor, argues the problem is the union and the control the union has over the teachers. Thereby, the entire school system.  Teachers’ unions argue that they advocate for children’s learning.  In fact, the unions  have two intractable positions that will not change.   Teachers have life-long tenue.  Don’t believe that?  Try to terminate a public -school teacher.  The second principle is that competence and compensation are totally unrelated and must never interact.  The best teachers go to a public school that is high-performing schools and has well-motivated children.   The teachers that principals of “good schools” don’t select go to the schools where kids are tougher to teach.  So you have the weakest teachers with the kids who are struggling the most to learn.

New York has one strong advantage over Maryland.   In The Big Apple charter school teachers do not have to belong to the union.   The Union has fought that by having the legislature limit the number of charter schools.  In Maryland, charter school staff must join the union just as all public-school teachers.   And the Union is adamant that charter school teachers keep to the strict working hours that public-school teachers are contracted to keep, even if they want to work longer.  So, what’s causing the problem?  Poor kids or poor teachers protected by a strong union.

For 65K you get two hours of instruction

 For 65K you get 2 hours of instruction 

Alpha Schools is a network of schools across the country that are moving into Bethesda, Maryland.   The network began in Austin, Texas.  It is founded by billionaire Joe Lemandt who has called traditional education obsolete.

The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2027.   A location has not been determined but so far, one family has committed.  The school has said that over 100 families have expressed interest in the model.  The school will not open unless it has 25 committed families who have put down the $1,000 deposit.  Although a final tuition has not been established, school officials expect it to be around $65,000.  Students will complete all of their academics within a 2-hour period.  All lessons will be delivered by AI. kids will be on screens for the 2 hours of academic work.  School leaders say the AI will adapt to the students on-the-fly so if a student is doing well in math, math will get tougher.  But if the student is struggling in reading, extra help will be offered.

In the afternoon, kids will study subjects such as: life skills, financial literacy, public speaking and “grit”.   Staff are not teachers- both literally and functionally.  Staff are called guides. They are not trained nor licensed as teachers.   Their jobs are to work on motivation, relationships and life skills.

Staff will be well paid. Guide starting salary will be 100k and 150K in high cost of living areas. The starting salary for teachers in Montgomery County where Bethesda is located is $66,690.  Presently the school will be kindergarten through 8^th grade.  But there are definitely plans to expand into high school. 

Alpha Schools has tried to become a public funded charter school; but so far, it has failed to be approved by any public school system.   

While early news was great, critics have questioned the claims of how quickly kids have learned as well as the unconventional training of some of the guides.   The curriculum for some of the non-academic teaching has been considered unorthodox.

Sixty-five thousand for two hours of instruction isn’t exactly a bargain, but, hey, this isn’t a discount store.

The Fallout has started- Maryland is in the lead!

 The Fallout Has Started

The US Department of Education has decimated the Office of Civil Rights for people with disabilities.  The number of complaints by parents to the Maryland State Department of Education alleging an abridgement of their children’s rights have jumped 200% since 2022.   Is there a connection here?

Families have complained that school districts have failed to test for suspected disability, provide accommodations required in the IEP and/or provided a program that ensured academic progress.   The rate of complaint per 10,000 in Maryland is among the highest in the country.  Overall, states have seen a 50% rise in special ed filings.  In a survey conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children (a professional organization for special educators) and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, complaints have increased so much that it is difficult for the resolutions within the required 60-day timeframe.  When a complaint is filed, an investigation is triggered.  If the State Department of Ed determines that a child’s rights have been violated, the school district must file a plan for correction and improvement going forward.

So many complaints have been filed in Maryland that MSDE has recently advertised for a 6^thposition to investigate and respond.   Many reasons are advanced for the uptick. Parents know more.  They are also learning to use AI tools to write the complaint.  Complaints to MSDE are free.  Advocates recommend care in the use of AI since it can routinely provide bad information which will slow down any resolution.  A federal special ed center recently published a guide: A Parent’s Guide to using AI for Advocacy.

In Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest school district, roughly 15% of the enrollment is students with special needs.  Montgomery County has been particularly hard hit with complaints including physical abuse of a student.  The overriding problem is that no amount of correction can rewind the tape and replenish what was lost.

It didn’t take too long for the loss of leadership at the federal level to yield loss of civil rights at the local level.

 

Again, and Again and Again

 Again, and Again and Again

School test results are out in Maryland and in spite of the HUGE investment of funds, student test scores have only inched upward.  What is keeping student achievement so low?

Everyone keeps trying.  In 2002 it was No Child Left Behind (NCLB), that assured us that by 2014 every child would be on grade level.  And that was going to be achieved by the ever popular accountability.  Didn’t happen.

And by 2015, NCLB was left behind with the all new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  

NCLB and ESSA required lots of accountability AKA testing.  School systems had to make adequate yearly progress or be held accountable with sanctions.  That, of course, made no sense because school systems that did poorly would be sanctioned to receive less money and the illogic went with less money they would learn to do better.  Not sure how that works?

There is one full proof way of improving test scores- change the test until the test produces better scores.  Maryland is at the forefront for that.  After several attempts with tests that yielded poor scores, Maryland will roll out a new state testing system, The Maryland System of Testing Academic Readiness (MSTAR).  Don’t you just love how the new name creates such a delightful acronym?  The new system will launch in the spring for grades 3-8 for ELA and for math.  The high school tests MCAP will remain the same.

Paired with the new testing system is a read by third grade or be retained program. Students must be on grade level by the end of 3rd grade or be retained. There is, however, the caveat, parents have to agree to the retention.  If they do not, kids will need to take a summer program before they are promoted to 4^th grade.  If the parents do agree to the retention, students will be retaught in the method that has already failed them because we all know that the Science of Reading, a highly phonetic method of teaching reading, works for everyone.  Everyone that is, except for the kids who fail to learn by it.  

All of these solutions that throw money at the problem fail to take into account some very basic principles.  All humans learn differently; teach them the way they learn even if that isn’t the most popular method du jour.  Get the unions involved so school districts can find a way to get rid of folks who can’t teach.  They aren’t bad they just need a different career.  And lastly stop rewarding all teachers equally regardless of their performance.  Use the money that is saved to reduce class size so that even the best teachers have a chance to teach.

Equitable doesn’t mean the same thing for all kids.  Accountable doesn’t mean more testing.

When will we ever learn.

 

Saving Special Ed-Maybe?

 Saving Special Ed-Well, Maybe

In July, a bipartisan group of US Senators pushed a bill (SB5046) through a Senate committee.  The Secretary of Education and the Trump administration are working to dismantle the US Department of Education.  That can’t be done straight away because the Department was created by Congress and can only be eliminated by Congress.  However, the Education Secretary is working at death by a thousand cuts. Mostly what she is doing is entering into agreements with various other federal agencies to take over the functions of the Department of Education.  For example, the section that does Career Education has been transferred to the Department of Labor by one of these agreements.

SB5046 would keep the Office of Special Education and Rehab Services (OSERS) within the Department of Education.  Advocates for the civil rights of children with disabilities were already very concerned that their function was being transferred to the Department of Justice where it would be very low priority.  Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were the co-sponsors of the bill.  Interestingly, both Collins and Murkowski are in very tough reelection campaigns.  

The Bill was introduced on the Senate Floor on August 4.  It has not moved since then.  The Congress did state in the most recent passed spending bill that the Department of Education had no authority to transfer these programs.  BUT the language is non-binding so the Department of Education was free to keep on making agreements to transfer programs which it has continued to do.

What difference does this make to the kids with disabilities who may be living in your house or in your family?  Turns out lot of difference.  If a local school district doesn’t do right by a child, the appeal is to the state department of education.  However, the State Department of Education and the local school system are arms of the same animal.  So if a family doesn’t like the result, they have no administrative, no cost appeal.   It’s off to court, if you can afford counsel.

What's with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

 What’s with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

There has been a string of allegations that District of Columbia public schools’ staff have abused kids.  In March, a teacher’s aide pleaded guilty to forcing a child to eat hot sauce as a punishment.  The child is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum.

In May, a parent was not notified when her daughter on the autism spectrum was sexually assaulted by another student.  

In 2024, a parent sued the District when untrained staff were administering her child’s medication.

Parents are suing the district in a case that involved a boy who was open palm smacked in the face by his teacher.   The family was not notified until 2 hours later.  The child’s face was still red from the smack when the dad picked him up AFTER school.  The boy was in kindergarten.  He has difficulty with speech, language and verbalizing.  In April 2024, the boy was tossing a football with a friend during morning before care.  The teacher asked the boy to stop.  When he didn’t, her testimony is that when he didn’t she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, “causing her hand to hit his face.”  Both another staff person and another student collaborated the boy’s account, that he was flat on smacked in the face with an open palm.  The teacher continued her assignment in both before care and in teaching up until her arrest.  There were two other prior allegations of misconduct by the teacher.  In this instance, the teacher pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree cruelty to children and was sentenced to a year of probation, including anger management classes and a mental health evaluation.

The boy’s family is now suing the school district.  Plaintiffs claim that since the event the boy has been afraid to attend school, expects to be hit by a teacher if he does wrong, and is suffering from anxiety.  The family has said they have proposed a settlement with the school but have not received a response.  The family has also claimed they were totally shut out of the follow-up to the incident and to any disciplinary measures taken by the school.  It is unclear by the court decision if DC public schools has revoked the teacher’s license.  

The family has recently sold their home in Washington DC and moved to Prince George’s County Maryland.  Their son not attends school in Capitol Heights.  They say he still is afraid to go to school.

It should be noted that all of these events were against kids with significant disabilities.  Are these things happening to plain kids?

Washington DC is not that big a school district.  About 51,500 kids attend traditional public schools and the remaining 45k attend public sponsored charter schools.  What’s going on within the culture of DC schools?