Category Archives: Blog

School Quality: High Outcomes and High Confidence

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“How good is your local school?” There was a time when that question would cause the person you asked to break out with a rendition of the Beach Boys’ “Be True to Your School” and tell you that their school is the “best.” How a person determines an answer to this question, however has changed greatly since the Beach Boys’ song aired in 1963. Today, the informed response is “Just a minute. Let me look at the latest School Report Card on the Internet.” Pause for several seconds for a 4G connection. “Our school is an 83. It exceeds expectations.” Smile and end of response.

School goodness can be an objectified value derived from a number of school data, such as test scores, graduation rates, daily attendance, and the trends of these data. School goodness or quality can be a number, a score that is a summary of the analysis of multi-measures that is placed on a comparative scale that tells an inquirer how “good” the school is and the relationship of the school’s score with the scores of all other schools. Want a high performing school? Pick a school with a high score.

There are many school purveyors who prefer the quantified descriptor. Proponents of school choice and voucher systems clamor for the transparency of school data so that parents can make informed choices regarding how their children will be educated. They, through their elected representatives, have caused state governments to create school report cards that display standardized data about the school district and its schools. Comparatively speaking, a parent can match a school’s quantified data with their educational wants for their children and enroll in their school of choice.

Let’s change the question.

“How do you feel about your local school?” Now is the time to sing the unique harmonies of Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson with Mike Love and Al Jardine. How you “feel” about your school asks an entirely different question than how “good” is your school. Probably, students in the high school wear their letter jackets or put on school colors because of how they feel about their school rather than the value of its goodness number. Feelings about a school can be quantified, but more often they are qualified. The result is a subjective response based upon experiences that are weighed against expectations. If this feeling response was placed on a scale, it probably would be a sliding scale that allows for a cluster of feeling responses.

Sadly, there is no governmental mandate for school districts to be transparent in sharing the feelings of their school constituents about their local schools.

But, there should be.

The mandate for School Report Cards that can inform parent choice and hold school districts accountable for the quantified outcomes of their schools also should inform the public about how the local people feel about their school. Regardless of the annual school data, there will many local people who have high, positive feelings about their local schools based upon their experiences with the School Board, administrators, teachers and staff. Likewise, there will be many local people who have low, negative feelings about their local schools based upon bad experiences regardless of how high the goodness number may be. The high quality of human interactions makes a school a good place for children to be educated just as much as the high quality of educational outcomes. Literature and Hollywood provide many stories about schools that abuse student and constituent trust behind a façade of high achievement and bravado.

There should be a dual index of values to describe school both sides of school quality.

  • One value should describe the ability of the school faculty and staff to cause children to attain high achievement on measured outcomes of education.
  • A second value should describe the confidence of the school constituents in the school leadership, faculty and staff to create and sustain a quality school as a place for education.

When a parent considers schools for their children, a discerning parent should be looking at both of these values – how good is the education in this place and how good is this place for educating my child. Anyone who is not looking at both of these values is looking with one eye closed. And, that person never will want to sing “Be True to Your School.”

Reading Proficiency Is A Must, Not A Matter of Priorities And Choices

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Priorities and choices. Many things in life involve assessing priorities and making choices. On a personal level, most choices involve one person or small groups of people. The scope of options and the effect of choices are limited. On a governmental scale, the scope of options widens and the effect of a choice can be huge. This is one of the differences between you and your state governor. Most of a governor’s choices are political in nature. Many are economic. Sadly, too few are educational. This article will examine what we know about success in school and career, one of the early indicators of academic success, and what leadership is doing to maximize every child’s success on that early indicator.

A recent headline read “Early Grades Crucial in Path to Reading Proficiency.” The authors of the Quality Counts 2015 article in Education Week created a very persuasive article regarding the importance of every child achieving a 3rd grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade. This is an informative piece that every parent and early child educator should read. Interestingly, the National Governor’s Association is very informed regarding the educational advantages that children accrue if their reading proficiency is at grade level prior to fourth grade. They also are informed regarding the educational programs that are most likely to assist every child in their state’s schools to achieve this watermark.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html

I can hear Yoda of Star Wars fame describing this situation. “If know you, do you not why?” Every choice is a matter of priorities. While 3rd grade reading proficiency should be a governor’s priority, politics and economics consistently appear to be higher priorities.

These are two bits of information that governors know regarding third grade reading proficiency. And, this information is very important if education is a governor’s priority. Governors love to tout graduation rates and ACT scores and improved academic achievement. But, if the governor is not talking about ALL children reading at grade level when they enter fourth grade, education for all children is not the governor’s priority.

The first bit is the importance of a third grade reading proficiency. “Children who are not reading proficiently by 3rd grade are widely seen as being in academic crisis. Educators are increasingly looking for actions they can take in the younger grades—even as early as preschool—to head off failure later in a child’s school career.

The stakes are clear: Studies have shown that absent effective intervention, children who read significantly below grade level by 3rd grade continue to struggle in school and eventually face a much higher likelihood of dropping out altogether.

By the time students are ready to move on to 4th grade, they are expected to have the reading skills they need to absorb information independently. A commonly used shorthand is that children will be “reading to learn,” instead of “learning to read,” though reading researchers note that children are reading for information early on in their school careers.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

The second bit is the crucial role that governors can play in assisting young children to become proficient readers. “The time is now to redesign this country’s approach to language and literacy instruction, and governors who choose to can lead the charge. The purpose of this guide is to examine the gap between research and policy and to describe the five policy actions that governors and other state policymakers can take to ensure that all children are reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

Governors can increase the number of children proficient in reading by third grade in their states by ensuring that their states’ efforts in early childhood and elementary education take account of three major and widely embraced results of educational research.

Starting at kindergarten is too late. Language and literacy development begins at birth, and gaps in achievement appear well before kindergarten entry. Effective early care and education programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers can help close the gap.

Reading proficiency requires three sets of interrelated skills and knowledge that are taught and cultivated over time. Many state policies and practices emphasize mechanics of reading (for example, matching letters to sounds and sounding out whole words) at the expense of other skills. However, proficiency requires more, notably development of oral language skills, an expanding vocabulary, the ability to comprehend what is read, and a rich understanding of real-world concepts and subject matter.

Parents, primary caregivers, and teachers have the most influence on children’s language and literacy development. An effective strategy to increase reading proficiency requires evidence-based policies that support those adults who are in the best position to support children’s learning and development.”

http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2013/1310NGAEarlyLiteracyReportWeb.pdf

The five policy actions identified by the National Governors Association are these.

 1. Adopt comprehensive language and literacy standards and curricula for early care and education programs and kindergarten through third grade (K-3).

2. Expand access to high-quality child care, pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten.

3. Engage and support parents as partners in early language and literacy development.

4. Equip professional providing care and education with the skills and knowledge to support early language and literacy development.

5. Develop mechanisms to promote continuous improvement and accountability.

The recommendations are taken from “A Governor’s Guide to Early Literacy: Getting Students Reading By Third Grade.” This is a publication of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “the only research and development firm that directly serves the nation’s governors and their key policy staff.

Knowing what should be done and doing what should be done often are worlds apart. Instruction and support in reading, language development, and literacy skills are essential for academic success in school and later life. By the time a child completes third grade, typically at age eight or nine, each child should have benefitted from several years of reading instruction in school and several years of language and literacy development at home. The quantity and quality of reading instruction and language and literacy development are significant variables of interest in considering whether all children will become proficient readers by fourth grade.

School Instruction

At a minimum, one would think that every child receives at least four years of reading and language instruction in school by the completion of third grade. That would be Kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade. In fact, some children receive five years of school-based reading instruction and others receive three. Reading proficiency by third grade may be a matter of where a child lives rather the child’s capacity to learn to read.

In 2015 we consider Kindergarten to be a usual and standardized beginning for every child’s elementary education. Not so. Kindergarten instruction remains the option of a state and a local school district as to whether Kindergarten is available to children and if attendance in Kindergarten is compulsory. Forty-three (43) states require school districts to offer kindergarten programs for local enrollment. Seven (7) states still do not require their schools to even offer kindergarten programming.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

However, being in a state that requires schools to offer kindergarten does not mean that all children enroll in kindergarten and receive a first of four years of reading instruction. Thirty-five (35) states are wafflers; they require schools to offer kindergarten but enrollment is not compulsory. Only fifteen states require children to attend Kindergarten. Even if required, only two states require children to attend a full-day program; thirteen (13) states require children to attend half-day or alternating day programs.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

Some states get close to compulsory Kindergarten attendance, but maintain parental discretions. Beginning with the 2011-12 school year, Wisconsin required a child to complete five-year old Kindergarten as a pre-requisite to being admitted to first grade. The statute does not indicate the provider, the learner outcomes, or whether the program is half-day or full-day. In Wisconsin, almost any five-year old education will suffice as a requirement of admission to first grade.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec-entr-admiss

Parents control Kindergarten enrollment for the majority of five-year old children. If a family lives in one of the 35 states where Kindergarten enrollment is not compulsory, parental choice comes into play. Many parents do not believe their child is ready for school. Some parents want to delay school entry so that their child will have the advantage of one more year’s development. Some parents have aspirations for their child’s athletic potential and delay school entry for a “red shirt” year. Other parents suffer from separation anxiety and keep their children at home. And, some parents believe that school is not a physically or emotionally safe place for their child and elect home schooling to being their child’s education.

The upshot is that in any national cadre of children who are age-ready for Kindergarten, many do not attend. First grade is the first common educational experience for all children.

Four-year old Kindergarten

Four-year old Kindergarten is relatively new to public education where K-12 is the traditional grade span. Historically, pre-school was day care and most day care operations were provided by churches or by co-operatives of parents. However, whether it is pre-school or four-year old Kindergarten, children who participate in reading and language development have an advantage over children who do not.

“The Brookings Institution research found that, ‘Children who attend some form of preschool program at age four are nine percentage points more likely to be school-ready than other children.’ This outcome is largely due to ‘early math and reading skills and, to a lesser extent, positive learning-related behaviors acquired in preschool.’ This study simulated the effects on school readiness of three interventions, ‘preschool, smoking cessation programs for pregnant women and nurse-home visiting programs for new mothers — and found that preschool programs ‘offer the most promise for increasing children’s school readiness.’”

http://eyeonearlyeducation.com/2013/07/09/new-research-confirms-third-grade-readings-importance/

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), for the 2012-2013 school year, pre-K enrollment was 28 percent at age 4 as the total across all states decreased by nearly 9,000 children. Let’s say that differently. Sixty-two percent of four-year olds are not enrolled in pre-K schooling. This, when we know that pre-Kindergarten instruction in reading and language development can be essential for children if they are to achieve reading proficiency by fourth grade.

http://www.data-first.org/data/what-percent-of-our-children-are-enrolled-in-prekindergarten/

Many states leave four-year old Kindergarten and other pre-K programming to the discretion of local school districts. A local district’s first look at pre-K programming may be with Head Start, a federally-funded program begun in 1965 to meet the needs of families with economic and parent-support needs. Head Start serves more than a million children each year and remains a major player in urban/suburban communities with a density of population, but has difficulty serving rural families that are remote from its service centers..

In 2013-14, 106 of 386 school districts in Wisconsin offer 4-year old Kindergarten. Wisconsin encourages community-based pre-school calling it a “school-community interface.” The Department of Public Instruction provides Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Grants with funding of up to $3,000 for each pupil in the first year and $1,500 in the second year. In 2013 three districts were approved for 2014 funding. Funding for four-year old Kindergarten in Wisconsin, as in most states, is a part of the state’s annual budgeting process and if education is not a priority funding dies with budget reductions. The three districts approved for funding in 2014 will receive $200 per pupil.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec4yr-old-kind-grants

The dilemma regarding four-year old Kindergarten and the goal of each child achieving a third-grade reading proficiency by the start of fourth grade is that school law and traditions make first grade the real first year of school for most children. As a non-mandated program, 4-K funding is a very low legislative priority. If a state requires schools to offer four-year old Kindergarten, the state would be compelled to provide a new level of funding to school districts. That new level increases greatly if a state included 4-K as compulsory school attendance. In states controlled by conservative, cost-cutting legislators, the growth of 4K programs is at a standstill.

Politics and Educational Goals

Reporters Perez-Pena and Rich have captured the relationship between knowing what to do and doing what should be done in their New York Times article, “Preschool Push Moving Ahead in Many States. “With a growing body of research pointing to the importance of early child development and its effect on later academic and social progress, enrollment in state-funded preschool has more than doubled since 2002, to about 30 percent of all 4-year-olds nationwide.

For generations, it was largely Democrats who called for government-funded preschool — and then only in fits and starts — and that remains the case in Congress, where proposals have yet to gain traction among Republicans. But outside Washington, it has become a bipartisan cause, uniting business groups and labor unions, with Republican governors like Rick Snyder of Michigan and Robert Bentley of Alabama pushing some of the biggest increases in preschool spending.

‘It’s a human need and an economic need,’ said Mr. Snyder, who raised preschool spending by $65 million last year and will propose a similar increase this year, doubling the size of the state program in two years. He called the spending an investment whose dividends ‘will show up for decades to come.’

Analysts also see politics behind the shift at the state level, with preschool appealing particularly to women and minorities, groups whose votes are needed by Republicans.

Few government programs have broader appeal than preschool. A telephone poll conducted in July for the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit group that advocates early education programs, found that 60 percent of registered Republicans and 84 percent of Democrats supported a proposal to expand public preschool by raising the federal tobacco tax.

Not that any of these factors will necessarily change things in Congress, where Republicans have steadfastly opposed the proposal by Mr. Obama, who has called for a $75 billion federal investment in preschool over 10 years, paid for with an increased tobacco tax.

Preschool advocates say that Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is one of the Republicans most receptive to their arguments, but he rejected the president’s plan as a top-down mandate from Washington. ‘Early childhood education is important and we should try to make it available to the largest number of children possible,’ he said in an email. ‘But most of that should be done by local communities and state governments.’

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, has introduced a prekindergarten bill that would cost $34 billion over five years. In a nod to conservative resistance to a tobacco tax, Mr. Harkin has said he is open to any funding mechanism, but he has found no Republican co-sponsors.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/us/push-for-preschool-becomes-a-bipartisan-cause-outside-washington.html?_r=0

At the national level, if President Obama supports federal investment to make pre-school a universal educational program for all children in the United States, the Republican Congress will be opposed. Federal investment is dead in the water because it is a partisan issue. If the federal government offers states incentives to grow pre-school programs in their states, it will be attacked by state Republicans as a “top down” program or an attempt to “nationalize public education.” The majority of statehouses are controlled by Republicans and they will treat these incentives as they treated incentives to expand Medicaid – with a partisan refusal.

At the state level, most annual budgets are either deficits or barely balanced. In Republican statehouses, education is traditionally supported by Democrats and reductions in educational spending is traditionally supported by Republicans. It is very unlikely that these statehouses will voluntarily increase state spending to increase pre-school programs, especially as pre-school is perceived in their eyes as an unnecessary and costly addition to the burden of K-12 spending.

So what are we to do?

The research tells us that children who have access to four-year old Kindergarten and five-year old Kindergarten are more likely to achieve third grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade than children who do not have access to one or both. Leadership by the governor and state legislators is essential if every child is to become a proficient reader. Use the power of your vote to influence their political and economic decisions. Use the power of your vote to assure that they make decisions based upon educational priorities.

1. Look at your local school data. To what extent are current fourth graders at grade level in their reading proficiency? If your data provides categories of proficiency, such as “Advanced”, “Proficient”, “Basic”, or “Minimal Performance”, as the School Reports Cards in Wisconsin do, consider only the number of children who have achieved Advanced plus Proficient. Only these two categories approximate grade level reading skills.

Every child whose reading proficiency is not in the Advanced or Proficient category in the display of fourth grade reading is academically at risk from this point forward in their K-12 schooling.

2. Begin with your state legislators.

If your state does not have rigorous reading standards that are congruent through all grade levels, assure that your legislators support and consistently vote in support of rigorous academic state standards. Supporting rigorous local school district standards is not the same thing. This stance waffles on standards consistency. Local school boards may bow to local pressures for less than rigorous standards and leave your local children with reading standards that will not achieve grade level reading proficiency by fourth grade.

If your legislators do not support rigorous statewide reading standards, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

3. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer full-day, school year Kindergarten. Every family should have the option of Kindergarten instruction for their children.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for full-day, school year Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

4. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer four-year old Kindergarten.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for four-year old Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time your vote for a state legislator.

5. Apply the same protocol to your state governor.

If the governor does not support rigorous statewide reading standards or if the governor does not support requiring local school districts to offer full-day, school year Kindergarten and requiring local school districts to offer four-year old Kindergarten, consider the governor’s lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a governor.

Helping every child to achieve a third grade reading proficiency by fourth grade is a matter of priorities and choices. Education priorities can be shaped by assuring that governors and legislators understand and vote in support of every child. Local educational advocates also have priorities and make choices – voting for governors and legislators who also advocate for education.

A Charlie Brown Take on Protecting Student Data

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The adults say, “Millenial children. You intuit the use of technology. Bravo! It is difficult to imagine your generation without your ubiquitous connection to the digital universe.”

The children raise their eyebrows without taking their eyes from the screens they study and nod.

The adults say, “Now that you are engaged with the digital universe 24/7, we will take steps to protect your identity from unscrupulous people who could do you harm.”

This pronouncement causes the children to quickly glance at who is speaking to perceive if that person is credible. But, just a glance.

The children say, “And, how will you protect us?”

The adults say, “We will not allow the unscrupulous people to have access to your Internet identity.”

The children say again without looking away from their screens, “Like you won’t let them know our e-mail addresses, our cell phone numbers, our social media handles, and our Face Book addresses.” They say it as a statement but with the inflection of a question.

The adults say, “Yes, like that. And, we’ll protect your sacred school performance data so that they cannot prey upon you with Internet ads and solicitations. We don’t want them to sell your identities for unapproved purposes.”

This has piqued the children’s attention. “Will you protect our identities as well as you protect your own?”

The adults say, “You have our word.”

The children slowly turn their hands so that the adults can read their screens.

The closest screen read

In 2014 alone, financial institutions and major retail outlets reported the theft of more than 400 million customer identities. The thieves gained access to the customer names, credit card numbers, banking information and electronic identities. These corporations suffered the greatest number of identity losses.

TK/TJ Maxx                    94,000,000

JP Morgan/Chase          76,000,000

Target                            76,000,000

Home Depot                  56,000,000

Citigroup                          3,900,000

Countrywide                    2,600,000

Another screen displayed twenty-five examples of cyber terrorism in which sovereign nations have been invaded with malware and records thefts. No government is immune.

Another screen steamed the movie Identity Theft.

One of the children said, “And, you will protect us this well.”

The adults did not respond. Now and again, adult hypocrisy knows no bounds.

“Arrrrgh!”

The Political Importance of “Sally, Down the Street”

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“Sally” is the name we give to a local person who lives “down the street.” She is our figurative representation of the public at large. Often, when we are considering a proposition we want to present to the public we ask this question as a litmus test to check the verity and clarity of our thinking: “Can Sally down the street understand this?” If this was a partisan blog, she would be a plumber named Joe.

Interestingly, Sally has changed. From neighborhood Sally, she has become community, Wisconsin, and “I’m here to tell you, Mr. President” Sally. It used to be that when Sally didn’t understand something, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself so she allowed herself to fade into the background. She let those who understood, or at least said they understood, form a group opinion and she would nod in agreement. Sally and the non-understanding followed along behind those who understood. Not so much anymore. Today, when Sally, especially “Consumer Sally”, doesn’t understand something, she demands that someone explain the proposal again and as many times as it takes so that she can understand it. Sally “down the street” is no longer a passive citizen.

And, it used to be that when Sally looked at the source of new information and, if that source was known and previously trusted, then she would trust the new information without too much examination. “You’ve trusted me in the past; you can trust me now,” carried many accepting Sallys along in a speaker’s wake. Today, how many television advertisements use well-recognized celebrities or retired politicians who always smile when they say “Trust me.” Not so much anymore for Sally in the trusting department either. Trustworthiness for Sally is a short-lived effect today.

Public leaders have come to the realization that if Sally “down the street” doesn’t understand what they are talking about, their proposition is dead in the water. Sally no longer goes along to get along. Because of her importance, the need for Sally to understand now dictates both the substance and the form of every contemporary public conservation. Sally is who local politics is all about and everything today is political.

“Sallys” everywhere have changed the dynamic of acceptance and acceptability in our society. Consumer Sallys, individually and collectively, rise up today to demand safer products, higher quality products, more cost-efficient products, and to give product-providers everywhere fair notice that “no one shall take a consumer around here for granted.”

Sallys also have risen up to demand consumerism in education. Sally is the large and growing group of mothers who demand choice in education. Some started as home schooling Sallys, but the education choice market has exploded. She has formed the new political dynamic in most states. Governors and state party leaders know that they must have the Sallys on their side at the polls, because the Sallys have become a large voter bloc. For this reason, many governors favor school voucher plans, open enrollment, charter schools, more and more transparency in school governance, and any option that satisfies a parent’s opportunity to control their child’s schooling.

Local school leaders have become savvy about the Sally Moms. At least those leaders who will still be in their leadership positions next year have become savvy. They must, because everything about school and education is now political. In a local school issue, the number of children in fourth grade grew from the anticipated 21 per section to 26 per section. The increase in enrollment is good for this small, rural school district. However, a tradition of keeping elementary sections to a very small student to teacher ratio, usually around 20 to 1, set off the fourth grade Sallys. The number of community members who regularly attend board meetings can be counted on one hand minus the thumb. The fourth grade enrollment issue brought out more than two dozen Sallys, several with children in second and third grade who wanted to assure no such bad decisions in the future. Whereas, most school districts in Wisconsin would be pleased with only 26 children in its fourth grade sections, the local board was faced with demands to hire an additional fourth grade teacher – immediately. An administrative survey indicated that, should an additional section be formed, only a handful of the 52 children in fourth grade would voluntarily move to the new section. The reframed issue moved from a lower student-t0-teacher ratio to maintaining child friendships. The problem was settled with the employment of a teacher-licensed classroom aide to assist with reading and math instruction in each of the two fourth grade sections. Sally became satisfied with a lower student to teacher ratio in essential academic areas and child happiness.

So, why the local interest in satisfying Sally? The local School Board, as with each of the other school districts in this county, relies upon taxpayer support of frequent referenda that allow the school boards to exceed the state-imposed revenue limit of school levy amounts. Keeping Sallys satisfied better assures that the community will support these necessary referenda for additional tax revenues. Satisfied Sallys causes community support and that equals fully funded school programs.

Keeping Sally satisfied is not limited to local officials. Colleges and universities have learned the importance of Sally. In the past, they would publish their academic studies knowing that only those in the field would understand that material. Now, their publications must be written so that Sally “the state funding taxpayer” understands what she is paying for as well as the findings of the study that the colleges and universities hope will create new and important public information.

“Those who are involved in funding academic research are really keen to see that it’s going to lead to something practical,” said James Ryan, the education school’s dean, who was trained not as an academic but as a lawyer. “If faculty are interested in their work having influence, paying attention to the language that they use is really important.”

As an example, he cites research about the benefits of pre-kindergarten education that someone thought to explain in the simplest possible way: by calculating that providing it would save more money than it would cost.

“That was genius,” Ryan said. “It’s a brilliant way of making the research not only accessible, but compelling.” And compared to a dense treatise advocating for pre-kindergarten using terms such as cognitive development and holistic instruction, “which one is going to make a better case?”

Another strategy is assuring that those communicating with Sally are really focused upon her as an information consumer and not their own egos as communicators. Too often those talking with Sally focus upon themselves, their organization, and a self-importance that forgets Sally.

Stony Brook University has established an entire center for Communication Science, named for the actor and director Alan Alda, who inspired it out of frustration with the scientists he met as host for 13 years of the public-television series Scientific American Frontiers.

“I must have interviewed about 700 scientists,” said Alda. “I just listened and tried to understand what they were saying. But they were in lecture mode most of the time.”

The actor remains involved in the center—there he’s called Professor Alda—and uses improv and other techniques to teach graduate students how to better convey their findings.

“The improvising games and exercises we do force you to pay attention to the person you’re communicating with,” he said. “That contact, that intensified observation, and being forced to play by a set of rules forces you to concentrate on the other person and forget about yourself.”

http://hechingerreport.org/content/needing-public-support-academics-try-make-work-clear_18397/

A third strategy in making Sally understand is finding the right words that tie into her emotional understanding. Frank Luntz is a pollster and international political consultant. His specialty is “testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate.” Luntz uses focus groups and interviews to “cause audiences “to react based upon emotion.” He says, “80% of our life is emotion and only 20% is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than what you think.”

Luntz suggested and helped the G. W. Bush administration policy to craft the right words regarding environmental issues. It was his idea that administration communications reframe “global warming” as “climate change” since “climate change” was thought to sound less severe.

http://www.luntzglobal.com/

Luntz and every national, state and local political opinion-maker understands that Sally “down the street” has become the modern political play maker. The world of political decision-making has changed from wondering if Sally understands to assuring that Sally understands to sculpting her understanding and finally to changing the political agenda based upon what Sally wants and needs. Sally has become “the Man.”

Certified Reading Teachers in Every K-3 Classroom = A Good Decision

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Put strong instructional resources where they can maximize later school success. School leaders in fourteen states are doing this by ensuring that all K-3 classroom teachers not only are highly qualified in elementary instruction but also are certified to teach reading.

When teachers of my generation were hired to their first classroom positions, it was accurate to say that elementary teachers were generalists and secondary teachers were specialists. Teachers in grades K-5 majored in general education and teachers in grades 6 – 12 majored in a subject area, like math or English/language arts. This statement remained accurate for the vast majority of regular education teachers in K-12 public ed through the first decade of the 21st century. Generalists were responsible for teaching reading to all children during their formative years, K – 3. For most of the adults who attended public school in the 20th century, the level of reading required for an industrial-age career was adequately met by an elementary reading instruction taught by generalists. However, the demands of the information-age require adults to have better developed reading comprehension, analysis and application skills.

A growing number of state departments of public education are recognizing the need for all elementary classroom teachers to be specifically certified in reading instruction. “Reading proficiently by the end of third grade (as measured by NAEP at the beginning of fourth grade) can be a make-or-break benchmark in a child’s educational development. Up until the end of third grade, most children are learning to read. Beginning in fourth grade, however, they are reading to learn, using their skills to gain information in subjects such as math and science, to solve problems, to think critically about what they are learning, and to act upon and share that knowledge in the world around them. Up to half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible to students who read below that grade level, according to the Children’s Reading Foundation. And, three quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school, according to researchers at Yale University.”

http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf

These states are making the right move to strengthen K-3 reading, and several are going beyond to ensure reading expertise in K-5 instruction.

State-Developed or Unspecified Test of Reading Instruction Foundations of Reading Test Praxis Teaching Reading Test

  • California (EC, EM, SE)
  • Mississippi (EM)
  • New Mexico (EM)
  • Ohio (EC, EM)
  • Oklahoma (EC, EM, SE)
  • Virginia (EC, EM, SE)

 Foundations of Reading Test

  • Connecticut (EC, EM, SE)
  • Massachusetts (EC, EM)
  • New Hampshire (EC, EM)
  • North Carolina (EC, EM, SE)
  • Wisconsin (EC, EM, SE)

Praxis Teaching Reading Test

  • Alabama (EC, EM)
  • Tennessee (EC, EM, SE)
  • West Virginia (EC, EM)

The following shows how Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin have added reading requirements to their statutory language for teacher licensure.

Indiana: IND. CODE § 20-28-5-12(b)

“The department may not grant an initial practitioner license to an individual unless the individual has demonstrated proficiency in the following areas on a written examination or through other procedures prescribed by the department:

(1) Basic reading, writing, and mathematics.

(2) Pedagogy.

(3) Knowledge of the areas in which the individual is required to have a license to teach.

(4) If the individual is seeking to be licensed as an elementary school teacher, comprehensive scientifically based reading instruction skills, including:

(A) phonemic awareness

(B) phonics instruction

(C) fluency

(D) vocabulary

(E) comprehension.”

Ohio: OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 3319.233(A)

“Beginning July 1, 2017, all new educator licenses issued for grades pre-kindergarten through three or four through nine shall require the applicant to attain a passing score on a rigorous examination of principles of scientifically research-based reading instruction that is aligned with the reading competencies adopted by the state board of education.”

Wisconsin: WIS. STAT. ANN. 118.19(14)(a)

“The department may not issue an initial teaching license that authorizes the holder to teach in grades kindergarten to 5 or in special education, an initial license as a reading teacher, or an initial license as a reading specialist, unless the applicant has passed an examination identical to the Foundations of Reading test administered in 2012 as part of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure. The department shall set the passing cut score on the examination at a level no lower than the level recommended by the developer of the test, based on this state’s standards.”

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/16/81/11681.pdf

Prior to 2014, a reading specialist was a unique assignment in a school. Students with significant reading deficits were assigned time with the specialist, but for most, this time was small and sporadic. Specialists were itinerants in the schools and could not spend enough time with the most reading-needy children. Wisconsin’s DPI has taken significant steps to ensure that all children, especially those with special needs, get consistent instructional attention to their reading needs from teachers who are trained in reading.

“Beginning on January 31, 2014, candidates in Wisconsin applying for an initial teaching license in grades Kindergarten through 5 or special education, or for a license as a reading teacher or reading specialist, as listed below, will be required to take and pass the Foundations of Reading test:

• Early Childhood – Regular Education (70–777)

• Early Childhood – Special Education (70–809)

• Early Childhood – Middle Childhood (71–777)

• Middle Childhood – Early Adolescence (72–777)

• Middle Childhood – Early Adolescence Cross Categorical (72–801)

• Middle Childhood – Early Adolescence Specific Learning Disabilities (72–811)

• Middle Childhood – Early Adolescence Emotional Behavioral Disabilities (72–830)

• Middle Childhood – Early Adolescence Cognitive Disabilities (72–810)

• Early Adolescence – Adolescence Cross Categorical (73–801)

• Early Adolescence – Adolescence Specific Learning Disabilities (73–811)

• Early Adolescence – Adolescence Emotional Behavioral Disabilities (73–830)

• Early Adolescence – Adolescence Cognitive Disabilities (73–810)

• Early Childhood – Adolescence Visual Impairments (74–825)

• Reading Teacher (316)

• Reading Specialist (17)

http://www.wi.nesinc.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_FOR.html

These are the academic objectives of the Foundations of Reading test.

Foundations of Reading Development

1 Understand phonological and phonemic awareness

2 Understand concepts of print and alphabetic principle

3 Understand the role of phonics in promoting reading development

4 Understand word analysis and strategies

Development of Reading Comprehension

5 Understand vocabulary development

6 Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills and strategies to imaginative/literary tests

7 Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills and strategies to informational/expository texts

Reading Assessment and Instruction

8 Understand formal and informal methods for assessing reading development

9 Understand multiple approaches to reading instruction

Integration of Knowledge and Understanding

10 Prepare an organized, developed analysis on a topic related to one or more of the following: foundations of reading development, development of reading comprehension; reading assessment and instruction

http://docs.nesinc.com/SA/SA_090_FW.pdf

Given these new credentials, a new hire to an elementary classroom will have the instructional tools to cause all children to be better readers by the completion of third grade.