[CALIBK12] Tomorrow in USA Today: Reading First debate

[Stephen Krashen]

Tomorrow (WEDNESDAY), USA Today will publish an editorial recommending that Reading First be fixed and renewed. I have been asked to represent the opposing view.

USA Today told me this about what they will say:  “our piece will argue that we have a real reading problem in this country, that the reading panel was mostly right and reading first can be patched up.”

My response attempts to address their points but I have not seen their version and will not until it is published. We have already had extensive negotiation, I hope they will print this final version. This is a good chance for others to respond, on the USA Today website, and letters to the editor, especially about the need to support libraries.


My response:

Reading First is an ineffective program based on an incorrect document, the National Reading Panel report. It takes time away from students and gives them nothing in return, and has wasted billions, money that could be spent in common-sense ways that can virtually eliminate literacy problems. 

Reading First ignored many legitimate criticisms of the Reading Panel in adopting their recommendations. The Panel, for example, recommended intensive systematic phonics, an approach that goes far beyond teaching basic letter-sound recognition, requiring teaching all major phonics rules in a strict order. California State University Professor Elaine Garan’s re-analysis demonstrated, however, that the studies the Panel reviewed show that intensive phonics has little to do with students’ ability to understand what they read. Distinguished literacy scholars Frank Smith and Kenneth Goodman have provided compelling evidence that comprehension is the basis for learning to read: We learn to read by understanding what is on the page. 

A recent government report confirmed that the criticisms were correct. Reading First children had the equivalent of six extra weeks per year of instruction on elements the Panel considered crucial but did no better than non-Reading First children on reading comprehension tests. 

What should we do?

Ninety-nine percent of the US adult population can read and write at a basic level. There is no crisis in basic literacy. The issue is how to achieve higher levels, the ability to read and write complex texts. The only way this happens is by extensive reading.

Studies show that if children have access to a plentiful supply of interesting and comprehensible books, nearly all read. The greater the exposure to books, the more they read and the better they read and write.   

The real problem is that children of poverty have little access to books at home, at school, and in their communities, preventing them from attaining high levels of literacy. 

Instead of wasting billions more on Reading First, let’s invest much more in libraries in low-income areas. Let’s make sure all children have access to books, and solve the real literacy crisis forever.