Alis in Wonderland

The problem isn't that schools aren't improving test scores and meeting their annual yearly improvement as defined by NCLB. The bigger concern should be that schools have been reduced to institutions where children are viewed as objects and instruction is relegated to a production-line state of mind.

Alis Headlam, education consultant

Dr. Headlam's commentary in today's Rutland Herald is one more example of where prominent members of the education community fail to acknowledge the importance of reading to learn.  Yes, NCLB is limited in what it tests.  But it tests the single most important factor in a child's learning -- the ability to read.  And one cannot teach to a reading test without teaching reading.  If schools are teaching more reading, that is an excellent use of their time.  History, science, the arts?  Students will learn all of those things better when they can read better.

Comments

[Lani Duke]

Vermont educational strategy is like the legislature, a hodge podge of warm fuzzy ideals with no practical strategy. Capstone was the hot program a few years ago. Students were encouraged to research a topic they found appealing and prepare a report on it, followed by a presentation of the report. As practiced, it set no standards for the finished project. Children may have researched their topics successfully, but the observer couldn't be sure because on some (just a few) there were words on the poster that neither student resarcher nor adult observer could figure out what they were. There was no pre-test or post-test to assess what a student had learned, not even an interview with a teacher coach. All evidence of learning was anecdotal. "My daughter used to be terrified to speak in public. Now she is a confident speaker."

Setting up even a checklist could be used to quantify the gained skills. capstone could have been a brilliant program. Instead, Capstone seems to have become a showcase for teacher disinvolvement with student projects and the value students have gained from it is nondiscernable.

[Karen Kerin]

I must agree with Mr. Hier. There are numerous ways to encourage reading skills as well as learning skills, but the average teacher has no clue how to do it.

[Jim Gatti]

This is not rocket science. By and large students learn only that which the teacher examines. The fundamental deficiency of today's high school graduates is an inability to read and master a basic vocabulary. My average junior and senior students at UVM demonstrate an appalling inability to read and write. Like anything else one learns to read by practice and evaluation. You study vocabulary, you read, you are evaluated on what you comprehend, and you read some more. In the process you learn to write by imitating those whom you have read. But absent repeated assignments and evaluation, no one can learn anything. The more they are tested the more they will learn. You simply must test them on what you want them to know.