State Board of Education August 12, 2009

Madam President, Members of the Board

I am here today with concerns about student learning and achievement.

Immediate corrective action is necessary.

Lincoln education issues were recently brought to my attention and prompted me to attend a Lincoln Public Schools budget forum to ask specific questions. Two months later, I received answers to some of those questions. My forum questions and Lincoln Public Schools response are in your packet

I read in the Lincoln Journal Star, reading is also being taught at the middle school level in public schools here. LPS confirmed the existence of middle school reading programs. Research shows that children who can not read at grade level by the fourth grade “face an ongoing struggle to learn and a lifetime of diminished success.”[1] Children that are not taught how to read are denied access to information. They are forced to get meaning from pictures and what others tell them.

I remarked to a grandparent I enjoyed sharing a luncheon table with her obviously highly gifted grandchild. The grandparent appeared distraught and expressed worry that her grandchild had difficulty learning how to read; behavior was deteriorating, and may be referred for medication.[2] It is estimated “80 percent of children in special education are there simply because they haven’t learned how to read.”[3]

I became aware of problems with reading curriculum and instruction 6 years ago.

A Black elementary school principal described how she raised reading scores in a trajectory that mirrored the Tetons when she took over a reconstituted Title 1 school. Her speech began “I found out that new teachers do not know how to teach children how to read. The first thing I had to do was teach the teachers how to teach children how to read.”[4] In colleges of education, “85% of elementary education classes don’t teach the principles of phonics and scientific reading instruction.”[5] From a phone conversation with a renowned national expert on reading instruction; nine words that account, in my opinion, for 80% of the societal and cultural issues faced by America today[6]: “Teacher preparation is not aligned with the reading research.”[7]

It was explained to me; if colleges of education taught phonics in regular Ed classes, they would lose funding. I spoke with a Dean at one of the top research colleges of education. They receive Federal funding to research phonics as a special education intervention.

In 1955, Rudolph Flesch[8] described how the brain is easily and quickly taught to read English using phonics.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging has affirmed Flesch’s hypothesis. [9] We now have the ability to monitor how the brain tackles its work. Fluent readers use the left side of the brain to decode (sound out). Following repeated accurate decoding of a word, an exact neural model of the word is built, the way it is pronounced, the way it is spelled and what it means. Recognition becomes automatic and instant. The repetitive accurate sounding- outs create the firm links necessary to facilitate automaticity.

On the other hand, struggling readers use the right side of the brain when confronted with text. They look at words as though they were pictures. Little activity and less blood flow are observed in the left (language center) of the brain. The brain imaging studies show how difficult and exhausting reading is for struggling students, often shown to use up to five times as much energy as fluent readers.

Compounding the problem, between the ages of 5-10 the brain prunes the neural cells that are underutilized and unconnected. If phonics and only phonics is not taught first and well, the reading task has been made unnecessarily difficult for the child. Rich or poor, dark skinned or light, we all gain literacy skills in the same manner.

In Lincoln Public Schools, reading instruction includes phonics.[10]

LPS cites “societal factors” influencing learning. Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln certainly experienced “societal factors” at a young age. To suggest societal factors influence learning is elitist and racist. The infamous “gap” in scores is a testimonial to the caste system developed in our schools by low expectations.[11]

Reading First is the most effective federal early reading initiative in our nation’s history.[12] However, LPS has chosen Reading Recovery for struggling students.

A Lincoln parent complained to me that students retake the same tests until they achieve a satisfactory score. Lincoln Public Schools confirmed students do, indeed, retake tests “until they demonstrate they have reached proficiency”. That is incorrect. That describes mastery of test questions In order to prove mastery of content; the student would be presented with a different set of test questions at each testing.

An educator advised me that teachers no longer teach subjects, they teach state test questions. [13] If your students had not been taught how to read, what else could you do?

Students, regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic factors are entering school smarter than ever before. [14] If appropriately challenged, some students would be taking Advanced Placement courses in middle school and passing the AP exams. This practice would demonstrate a sound foundation in basic skills and intellectual challenge offered to all students; continuous progress upon mastery of content.[15] Lincoln Public Schools do not offer Advanced Placement classes in middle school.

According to the National Assessment for Educational Progress, roughly two thirds of Nebraska’s and the nation’s children are being left behind. It is no wonder nonresidents received 70% of computer engineering doctorate degrees at North American Universities in 2005.[16]

The time for discussion is long past; I recommend implementation of the following reforms:

Charter school option

Voucher option

Ombudsman at the state level

Districts are stripped of accreditation unless 90% of students are reading by the end of first grade

If new teachers do not know how to teach children how to read, the sending college of education is stripped of accreditation.

If no students have progressed to AP courses and successful exams by middle school, the district should be held accountable.

Districts should be held accountable for any gap between local and federal scores.

“A free society should be prepared to recognize the patterns in front of it and do something about them.”[17]

Deborah L. Andrews

1235 A Street

Lincoln, NE 68502

402-598-0738

dlrn9583@aol.com

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[1] Geoffrey D. Cronin CEO Edvocacy Research “Reading Comes First” The Washington Times 10/31/2006

[2] Fred Baughman Jr. MD ADHD Fraud 2006

[3] Chester Finn Education Matters March 2005

[4] Judy Bryant address Portland City Club 2003

[5] Sol Stern City Journal Winter 2007

[6] Michael Brunner Retarding America The Imprisonment of Potential 1993

[7] “What Education Schools Aren’t Teaching About Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren’t Learning” National Council on Teacher Quality May 2006

[8] Rudolph Flesch Why Johnny Can’t Read 1955

[9] Kerry Hempenstall “What Brain Research Can Tell Us About Reading Instruction.”

Learning Difficulties Australia Bulletin , 38 (1) 15-16 2006

[10] Louisa Cook Moats “Whole Language Lives On, the Illusion of Balanced Reading Instruction” Thomas B. Fordham Foundation 10/1/2000

[11] Dr. Robert Rosenthal University of California, Riverside “Expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy” Wall Street Journal 11/7/2003

[12] United States Department of Education, Reading First Data April 2007

[13]John Jacob Cannell, MD “Lake Wobegon, Twenty Years Later” Third Education Group Review Volume 1, 2005 No.1

[14] American Psychological Association Rising Curve edited by Neisser 1998

[15] “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students” The Templeton National Report on Acceleration 2004

[16] Computing Research Association 6/4/06

[17] Ayann Hirsi Ali Wall Street Journal 3/10/2007