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Another Curriculum That Comes Up Short

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

No wonder people are skeptical when educators claim some new whiz-bang program will help children do better in school.

The federal government spent $6 billion on "Reading First" over the past six years, a curriculum that promised to better teach disadvantaged students to read. Now a U.S. Department of Education study says students in the program did no better on reading comprehension than those who were not.

The interim findings are distressing on many levels, starting with the enormous cost of a promise not kept.

Reading First forced teachers to focus on reading, vocabulary and phonics - often at the expense of other subjects such as history, science and the humanities.

Some experts say the disappointing results reflect the need for a well-rounded curriculum.

They put it like this: If you asked a poor reader and a skilled reader to read a passage about a baseball game, the poor reader who's been to a game will have better comprehension than the stronger reader who has not.

Teachers at impoverished schools say their struggling readers show up not knowing the names of colors and shapes, or having ever been read a bedtime story. Some have never been to a zoo or a museum, or played on a computer. Some are children whose parents not only speak no English, they are illiterate in their native tongue.

Teaching the mechanics of reading does not solve their lack of understanding of the world around them.

Forcing teachers to focus on reading - at the expense of other subjects - shortchanges disadvantaged students.

No question, it's important for children to become strong readers in early grades. But the answer isn't to throw billions of dollars at a program that fails to help children understand the words on a page.

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