: June 4, 2008: Results Of Reading First Analysis Unclear/Vision therapy

[Guest guest]

Results of Reading First analysis unclear.

Education Week (6/3) reported, " With the end of the six-year period of

Reading First on the horizon, no clear empirical picture has emerged of how

well the federal program is doing at a national level in bringing struggling

readers to proficiency. " Initial data from the Reading First Impact Study

has been used by both proponents and critics of the federal program " to

claim, alternately, that Reading First is a wholesale failure and a

qualified success. " While the study itself indicates that Reading First " has

had no impact on students' reading comprehension, " advocates of the program

argue that " [f]laws in the research design...may skew the findings against

the program. " And, Education Week noted, the study's " findings did not

answer many of the research questions that lawmakers required the evaluation

of the program to address. ... Those questions...include whether the program

and the research base undergirding it have been effective, and which

approaches, programs, and assessments for teaching struggling readers are

the most promising. "

In the Classroom

D.C.-area schools accelerating math studies.

In a front-page story, the Washington Post (6/4, A1, de Vise) reports that

while " [p]ublic schools nationwide are working to increase the number of

students who study Algebra I...in eighth grade, " a large number of

Washington, D.C.-area " schools have gone further, pushing large numbers of

students two or three years ahead of the grade-level curriculum. " The Post

notes that " at least two-fifths of students complete algebra in middle

school in most...Washington area systems, " and in some areas the

" [a]cceleration...begins in kindergarten. " Parents in these areas have

generally supported the accelerated courses, and " [a]dvocates for gifted

education point to the initiative as the best example of a separate course

of study for advanced students at most schools. " Further, a larger number of

" low-income and minority students are engaged in advanced math than ever

before. " A backlash has developed among some educators and parents,

particularly when a " district creates a quota for [a] school, " but

" [o]fficials predict that parents and teachers will grow more comfortable

over time with the accelerated approach. "

Growing number of schools use experimental therapies to retrain students'

vision.

USA Today (6/4, 7D, Toppo) reports that a " growing number of schools are

using experimental therapies to retrain students'...vision " in a " bid to

reverse problems with the ability to focus and learn brought on by years of

excessive TV, poor nutrition and, for some, in vitro drug exposure. " For

example, " [a]t Gordon Parks Elementary School...in Kansas City, Mo., 60

percent of kindergartners in 2004 failed a visual-skills test, " even though

most of the children had " 20/20 vision. " The youngsters " struggled to focus

on moving objects, track lines of print, and refocus from near to far. "

That autumn, the school " began regular lessons in visual skills " to make up

for the fact that many children no longer partake in activities " that help

develop visual and motor skills, " including " climbing trees, jumping, and

running. " Flynn, executive director of Learning Insights, said that

nearly " 42 percent of Missouri kindergartners have inadequate vision. " To

address this problem, schools in " 27 districts in Missouri " have adopted

similar vision retraining programs.