The Reading Crisis: Why Thousands of Colorados Kids Arent Learning to Read

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The Reading Crisis Why Thousands of Colorados
Kids Arent Learning to Read

• Debora L. Scheffel, PhDDirector, Competitive
  Grants and Awards
• Director, Colorado Reading First
• Jeanette P. Cornier, PhD
• Office of Learning and Results
• Colorado Basic Literacy Act

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• Every organization is perfectly designed to get
  the results that it gets.
• -David Hanna

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The Colorado Reading Conundrum
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How Did We Get Here?

• Horace Mann 1830s
• Alphabetic Method (letter names)
• Phonics (letter sounds)

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How Did We Get Here (cont.)

• Phonics Revolt 1930s
• Look-Say Sight Words (restricted vocabulary)
• Language Experience (non-restricted vocabulary)
• Phonics Re-Introduction 1940s
• Addition of Multi-Sensory Pedagogy and Remedial
  Reading Approaches (Fernald, Orton, etc.)

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How Did We Get Here (cont.)

• Whole Language 1970s 1980s
• Reading, a psycho-linguistic guessing game
• Written language is naturally acquired
• A Balanced Approach 1990s
• Whole language
• Phonics

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How Did We Get Here (cont.)

• Standards and Accountability Movement
• Focus on student results
• Return on investment
• Convergence of scientifically based reading
  research 2000s

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What is SBRR?

• Scientifically Based Reading Research
• Relies on experimental or quasi-experimental
  studies (control/comparison and experimental
  groups)
• Uses dependent measures that directly assess
  reading proficiency
• Published in peer-reviewed journals

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http//www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publicat
ions/science_research.pdf
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Scientifically Based Reading Research Findings

• Essential components of reading instruction
• Phonemic awareness,
• Phonics,
• Fluency,
• Vocabulary, and
• Text comprehension
• Instructional characteristics
• Systematic,
• Explicit instruction,
• Based on student data,
• In the 5 components of reading, and
• The relationships among these 5 components

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Five Components of Reading
Kameenui, Simmons, Coyne, Harn, 2003
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Phonemic Awareness The ability to manipulate
sounds.
Phonological Awareness An awareness of the
structures of spoken language, sentences, words,
rhymes and sounds.
Phonics The letter/sound relationship
Orthographic Knowledge Spelling patterns of a
language
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Oral and Written Relationship

• The oral rendition of
• /a/ /s/ /k/ /t/

The written equivalent A S K E D
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Reading Fluency
A consequence of fluency rather than a component
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Vocabulary
Beauty
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Comprehension
Preview/Predict Summarize Monitor/Clarify Evalua
te Generate Questions
Strategies
Sequence
Drawing Conclusions
Skills
Main Idea
Noting Details
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Changing Emphasis of Big Ideas
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Instructional characteristics

• Systematic,
• Explicit instruction,
• Based on student data,
• In the 5 components of reading, and
• The relationships among these 5 components

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Teaching Reading is URGENT

• The probability of remaining a poor reader at
  the end of 4th grade, given a child was a poor
  reader at the end of 1st grade was 88. (Juel,
  1994)
• Research shows that of the children who are
  reading disabled in the 3rd grade, 74 remain
  disabled in the 9th grade! (National Institute of
  Child Health Human Development)

Therefore, we need to be sure instructional time
is spent using the most effective practices.
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(No Transcript)
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Teacher Knowledge of Scientific Reading Research

• Research convergence on what teachers need to
  know
• Current inservice teachers do not have this
  knowledge base
• Preservice teacher candidates are not receiving
  the foundation they need in the findings of
  scientific research on reading instruction

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Research convergence on what teachers need to know
Fluency
Vocabulary
Text comprehension
Phonemic awareness
Phonic decoding
Scope and Sequence of Instruction
Knowledge of English language structures
Morphology
Phonology
Syntax
Orthography
Semantics
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II. Inservice Teacher Knowledge

• Scientific studies of teacher knowledge of the
  structure of English and preparedness to teach
  reading consistently found
• Inservice teachers have limited knowledge of
  English language structures and they feel only
  somewhat prepared to teach reading
• Teacher training in language structures and how
  to provide students with explicit reading
  instruction resulted in both increased teacher
  knowledge and increased student reading
  achievement

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What do Teachers in Colorado Know?

• A Study of Colorado Teachers (Cornier, 2005)
• 183 Colorado Teachers were assessed
• 46 were K-3 teachers
• 24 were special education teachers
• 12 were elementary reading teachers
• 11 were speech/language specialists
• 7 were other (4-5 teachers or admin)
• 35 item assessment
• 20 multiple choice
• 15 true or false

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What do Teachers in Colorado Know?

• Alphabetic Principle Phonics Instruction
• Teachers need to know the difference between
  speech sounds and the letters that represent them
  in order to teach them to children and to assess
  reading and spelling difficulties.

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What do Teachers in Colorado Know?

• How many phonemes or distinct speech sounds are
  in this word?
• Explain /e//k//s//p//l//a//n/ 7
• Only 13 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
  answered this item correctly.

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What do Teachers in Colorado Know?

• Which of the following words has an adjective
  suffix?

natural excitement capacity envision
carelessness
adjective noun noun verb noun

• Only 13 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
• answered this item correctly.

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What do Teachers in Colorado Know?

• True or False?
• Students who decode fluently and who also have
  marked difficulty comprehending the ideas in a
  passage are atypical or unusual in the overall
  population of struggling readers?
• Only 16 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
  answered this item correctly.

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Teachers learn dated methodsFINAL Edition
USA TODAY - McLean, Va.Author Greg
ToppoDate May 23, 2006Start
Page D.10Section LIFEABSTRACT Many
educators have embraced the phonics approach, but
many others -- especially older teachers -- say
it offers children an incomplete picture of
reading and leads to heavily scripted lessons.
But Kate Walsh says that if education schools
embraced scientifically designed programs and
rigorous teacher training, "there would be far
less need for a scripted curriculum."
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III. Preservice Teacher Preparation

• The National Council on Teacher Quality, in May
  2006, examined course syllabi and textbooks of
  required reading courses from 72 randomly
  selected schools of education
• Only 15 of syllabi indicated basic exposure to
  the scientifically based reading research and the
  five components of reading
• Only 4 of the 226 textbooks were found to address
  the scientifically based reading research and the
  five components of reading

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III. Preservice Teacher Preparation

• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
  Education (NCATE) Accreditation ? SBRR
• National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)
  matched 13 NCATE accredited schools with 13 who
  did not have NCATE accreditation and found no
  significant differences in the schools of
  educations inclusion of the scientifically based
  reading research and the essential 5 components
  of reading

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Where are we? What is our goal? What course
should we follow? How are we doing?
Our goal
Desired Course
We are Here
Actual Course
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Leverage Points for Change

• How do we get students what they need?
• Employ knowledgeable and effective teachers
• How do we get teachers to become knowledgeable
  and effective?
• Seek training in scientifically based reading
  research practices through any institutions that
  will provide it
• How do we get parents and administrators to
  expect their teachers to have the expertise to
  teach students to read?
• Disseminate information about the findings of
  scientifically based reading research
• If kids win, the adults win too!

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Thank you!