Reading Success Is A Family Affair
In a recent issue of USA Today (05-23-2006), a research study by an independent, non-partisan group stated that today’s graduating education majors are under prepared to teach reading using the latest strategies and tools. Reading, a fundamental staple in the course of our lives and our commitment to continuous education, will not get the most advanced ideas for improvement because, apparently, something else in the college curriculum for education majors was more important. Does it seem like every time we turn around, “we shoot ourselves in the foot?”
Unless you have been living in isolation or out of the country for the last 5 years, reading and comprehension scores have been a focus of No Child Left Behind legislation. Poor test results will close schools (including terminating teachers) that don’t meet annual yearly progress standards (there’s that word again; see yesterday’s blog).
There’s an old story that asks why a worker spends all day fixing bent bumpers for automobiles. Why not find the source of the problem and fix the manufacturing process? One time fix and you’re done. While few things in education can be labeled as a one-time fix, it would help if schools were choosing from a pool of innovative individuals prepared to teach reading in every subject area.
And yes, I know about standardized testing that supposedly measures a future teacher’s ability to be an expert in the classroom. Unfortunately the test does not measure the individual’s passion. Give me an emotionally charged teacher that energizes his or her classroom any day over a good test taker.
If you think reading test scores have been horrible over the past few years, you may be seeing more of the same. There is a remedy; teaching good reading skills is not a teacher’s job alone. There is no excuse for parents to shirk their duty to promote reading at home. The best readers come from homes that read. You know, little things like a daily newspaper, weekly news or financial magazine or maybe, just maybe, a book. It works.
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