National Reading Panel

[Bob <BDeBuhr@EXCITE.COM>]

The postings about tests and big business leads me to sharing a few things
I've had on my mind recently as a result of a "grant opporunity" our school
has been "invited" to apply for - Because we have a high percentage of
poverty.
The national program America Reads comes down to our state as Washington
Reads.  The grant process is very-very specific, right down to the point of
having identified a specific number of programs that you can "adopt/use"
based upon them meaning criteria from the National Reading Panel (more on
that one later). In our state they identifed only a half dozen "base
programs" and several "supplemental" - designed to "fundimentally change the
way you teach reading".  Well I've been around a long time and I recognize
Distar when I see it - even when it's being called something else. Didn't
work then and ---well I get carried away.  They even identify the specific
training you must attend and when you attend over the course of the grant.
Oh, and of course how it is evaluated - guess what, a primary reading test
from Texas!

This research would support the Bush Head Start program I am sure. It even
address parent programs.

What this "feels" like to me is mandated controlled state/national
curriculum. But when your working "in the system" and in a era where for
some districts survival means grants, you get caught between the rock and a
hard place.

A specific questions is - and I think I saw somebody address this hear
earlier - is the research from the National Reading Panel the "last word"?
It appears to read (several hundres of pages in this big green book) like
research that has been identified by a very selected measure.  Like - if we
use the programs they tell us to and evalate with the test they tells us to
- guess what?  Our scores will rise. But I question we will be creating
"readers" - we will have a heck of a lot of "decorders"!
Does someone know the history of this "panel"?  Any other stores about this
grant program?





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