FILE – Books line the shelves of an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. A dispute over how to teach reading has ended up in court. As momentum shifts to support a research-backed strategy known as the “science of reading,” states and some school districts are abandoning once-popular programs out of concern that they may be ineffective. It is being abolished. (AP Photo/Hakim Wright Sr., File)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A battle over how reading is taught has reached court.
As momentum shifts to support a research-backed strategy known as the “science of reading,” states and some school districts are abandoning once-popular programs out of concern that they may be ineffective. It is being abolished.
The legal battle in Ohio centers on the state’s ban on material that uses a common technique called three-queuing. This includes asking students to identify words using meaning, sentence structure, and visual clues, asking questions such as “What happens next?” and “What is the first letter of the word?” ” and other questions. or “What clues can you get from the photo?”
This technology is an important part of a reading recovery program used in more than 2,400 elementary schools in the United States. The North American Reading Recovery Council filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that lawmakers usurped the authority of state and local school boards by using the budget proposal to ban tridentation.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) slammed the lawsuit, saying the evidence supporting the science of reading is “very clear.”
“People who just want to make money are filing lawsuits,” he told reporters this week. “They’re angry that they won’t be able to make money anymore. They don’t care about their kids and I think the people of Ohio should be very angry about this type of lawsuit. .”
The Reading Recovery Council, the nonprofit that runs the program, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But on the platform formerly known as Twitter, he said he would fight for evidence-based reading instruction “defined by educators and researchers, not politicians and corporate interests.”
Proponents of the science of reading argue that students need detailed instruction on the components of reading. The initiative was led by parents of dyslexic children who need structured reading instruction. The effort gained momentum as schools look for ways to regain the ground they lost during the pandemic.
Reading Recovery is not the only program at a disadvantage.
Last month, Columbia University’s Teachers College announced it would eliminate its reading program, which also used three cueing, created by education guru Lucy Calkins.
Calkins’ “units of learning,” once used in hundreds of New York City public schools and thousands of public schools across the country, has found itself under intense scrutiny. Calkins added more phonics to appease his critics, but it was too late.
New York City, where the mayor frequently talks about his personal struggle with dyslexia, canceled her program. Several other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, and Virginia, also prohibit schools from using three-queuing-based methods.
Mike McGovern, president of the International Dyslexia Association of Central Ohio, said the association is supporting the governor in the legal battle.
“It’s about money,” he said of the lawsuit. “Like any other business, they have to fight back.”
In Ohio, the latest state operating budget mandates that all schools must use a state-approved reading program by the next school year.
The North American Reading Recovery Council, based in Worthington, Ohio, argued in its lawsuit that budget proposals cannot determine policy. Under the state constitution, that role falls to the State Board of Education, some of whose members are suing the state over budget provisions that reorganize and reduce the authority of the state Department of Education.
Under state law, which the complaint calls “contradictory and indecipherable,” three-queueing is only allowed if the district obtains a waiver or if the approach is part of a student’s special education plan. Only if .
One of the most recent blows to the program came in a federally funded study in which struggling first-graders received the program’s intensive one-on-one support, while similar students who did not participate They found that their test scores several years later were lower than the group.
Henry May, lead author of the study, said he was “surprised” by the results.
“What this means to me, from an evaluation standpoint, is that this program is potentially harmful in the long run,” said May, director of the Center for Education and Social Policy Research at the University of Delaware. .
The main problem, said Jill Arroll, an education professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is that three-cueing emphasizes the use of clues other than the actual spelling of words, and students are encouraged to use pictures to help. The problem arises if you don’t have it. She said that students in the upper grades must get out of the habit of guessing.
“It also completely contradicts the science behind how reading develops and the evidence about which programs are most effective,” she said.
___
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. AP is solely responsible for all content.