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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past decade, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/the-science-of-reading-in-2024-5-state-initiatives-to-watch/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">majority of states\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have passed new “science of reading” laws or implemented policies that emphasize phonics in classrooms. Yet the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/naep-test-2024-dismal-report/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 results\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of an important national test, released last month, showed that the reading scores of elementary and middle schoolers continued their long downward slide, hitting new lows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The emphasis on phonics in many schools is still relatively new and may need more time to yield results. But a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/events/the-knowledge-revival/?mkt_tok=NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGYdl0vHSBq7-XvUEtdwr_x5LJ4gfgDfMfrAPWnf6oK0A8pSmxo1Lp4eNuCuoxPvelQ1MMxtcIeCwgRa2uFQHyZIBzUdsOSpfRgMAW91y5dP6wa5g\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">growing chorus of education advocates\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been arguing that phonics isn’t enough. They say that being able to decode the letters and read words is critically important, but students also need to make sense of the words. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some educators are calling for schools to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://knowledgematterscampaign.org/post/webinar-knowledge-an-unsung-hero-of-reading-comprehension/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adopt a curriculum that emphasizes content\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> along with phonics. More schools around the country, from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimorecp.org/resources/core-knowledge-lessons/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baltimore\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-comprehension-hinges-on-building-knowledge-new-curricula-aim-to-help/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Michigan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.libertycommon.org/about/news-and-events/colorado-core-knowledge-network\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colorado\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are adopting these content-filled lessons to teach geography, astronomy and even art history. The theory, which has been documented in a small number of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-0663.80.1.16\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">laboratory experiments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is that the more students already know about a topic, the better they can understand a passage about it. For example, a passage on farming might make more sense if you know something about how plants grow. The brain gets overwhelmed by too many new concepts and unfamiliar words. We’ve all been there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>A ‘Knowledge Revival’\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2025 book by 10 education researchers in Europe and Australia, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-74661-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Revival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” makes the case that students cannot learn the skills of comprehension and critical thinking unless they know a lot of stuff first. These ideas have revived interest in E.D. Hirsch’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coreknowledge.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core Knowledge\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> curriculum, which gained popularity in the late 1980s. Hirsch, a professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, argues that democracy benefits when the citizenry shares a body of knowledge and history, which he calls cultural literacy. Now it’s a cognitive science argument that a core curriculum is also good for our brains and facilitates learning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Related: Our free \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cb>weekly newsletter\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea of forcing children to learn a specific set of facts and topics is controversial. It runs counter to newer trends of “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://lmcreadinglist.pbworks.com/f/Ladson-Billings%20%281995%29.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culturally relevant pedagogy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” or “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalequityproject.org/culturally-responsive-teaching\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culturally responsive teaching\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” in which critics contend that students’ identities should be reflected in what they learn. Others say learning facts is unimportant in the age of Google where we can instantly look anything up, and that the focus should be on teaching skills. Content skeptics also point out that there’s never been a study to show that increasing knowledge of the world boosts reading scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be nearly impossible for an individual teacher to create the kind of content-packed curriculum that this pro-knowledge branch of education researchers has in mind. Lessons need to be coordinated across grades, from kindergarten onward. It’s not just a random collection of encyclopedia entries or interesting units on, say, Greek myths or the planets in our solar system. The science and social studies topics should be sequenced so that the ideas build upon each other, and paired with vocabulary that will be useful in the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The big question is whether the theory that more knowledge improves reading comprehension applies to real schools where children are reading below grade level. Does a content-packed curriculum translate into higher reading achievement years later?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Putting knowledge to the test\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers have been testing content-packed lessons in schools to see how much they boost reading comprehension. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai23-755\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2023 study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Core Knowledge curriculum, which was not peer reviewed, received a lot of buzz. The students who attended nine schools that adopted the curriculum were stronger readers. But it was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-inside-the-latest-reading-study-that-everyone-is-talking-about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">impossible to tell whether the Core Knowledge curriculum itself made the difference\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or if the boost to reading scores could be attributed to the fact that all nine schools were highly regarded charter schools and were doing something else that made a difference. Perhaps they had hired great teachers and trained them well, for example. Also, the students at these charter schools were largely from middle and upper middle class families. What we really want to know is whether knowledge building at school helps the poorest children, who are less likely to be exposed to the world through travel, live performances, and other experiences that money can buy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another content-heavy curriculum developed by Harvard education professor James Kim produced a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-learning-science-might-help-kids-read-better/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">modest boost to reading scores in a randomized controlled trial\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, according to a paper \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-55174-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">published in 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Reading instruction was untouched, but the students received special science and social studies lessons that were intended to boost young children’s knowledge and vocabulary. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit in the middle of the experiment and many of the lessons had to be scrapped. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, for the 1,000 students who had received some of the special lessons in first and second grades, their reading and math scores on the North Carolina state tests were higher not only in third grade, but also in fourth grade, more than a year after the knowledge-building experiment ended. Most of the students were Black and Hispanic. Forty percent were from poor families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The latest study\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Core Knowledge curriculum was put to the test in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-46446-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by a team of eight researchers in two unidentified cities in the mid-Atlantic and the South, where the majority of children were Black and from low income families. More than 20 schools had been randomly assigned to give kindergarteners some lessons from the Core Knowledge curriculum. The schools continued with their usual phonics instruction, but “read aloud” time, when a teacher ordinarily reads a picture book to students, had been replaced with units on plants, farming and Native Americans, for example. More than 500 kindergarteners looked at pictures on a large screen, while a teacher discussed the topics and taught new vocabulary. Additional activities reinforced the lessons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-46446-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">paper published in the February 2025 issue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Journal of Education Psychology, the 565 children who received the Core Knowledge lessons did better on tests of the topics and words that were taught, compared with 626 children who had learned reading as usual and weren’t exposed to these topics. But they did no better in tests of general language, vocabulary development or listening comprehension. Reading itself was not evaluated. Unfortunately, the pandemic also interfered in the middle of this experiment and cut short the analysis of the students through first and second grades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead researcher Sonia Cabell, an associate professor at Florida State University, says she is looking at longer term achievement data from these students, who are now in middle school. But she said she isn’t seeing a clear “signal” that the students who had this Core Knowledge instruction for a few months in kindergarten are doing any better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Glimmers of hope\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cabell did see glimmers of hope. Students in the control group schools, who didn’t receive Core Knowledge instruction, also learned about plants. But the Core Knowledge students had much more to say when researchers asked them the question: “Tell me everything you know about plants.” The results of a test of general science knowledge came just shy of statistical significance, which would have demonstrated that the Core Knowledge students were able to transfer the specific knowledge they had learned in the lessons to a broader understanding of science. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are pieces of this that are promising and encouraging,” said Cabell, who says that it’s complicated to study the combination of conventional reading instruction, such as phonics and vocabulary, with content knowledge. “We need to better understand what the active ingredient is. Is it the knowledge?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the latest Core Knowledge study proves is that students are more likely to do well on a test of something they have been taught. Some observers errantly interpreted that as evidence that a knowledge rich curriculum is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fpsycnet.apa.org%2Ffulltext%2F2025-46446-001.html&src=typed_query\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">beneficial\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If your great new curriculum reads articles about penguins to the kids and your old stupid curriculum reads articles about walruses to them, one of these is going to look more successful when the kids are evaluated with a penguin test,” explained Tim Shanahan, a literacy expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was not involved in this research.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Widening achievement gaps\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And distressingly, students who arrived at kindergarten with stronger language skills absorbed a lot more from these content-rich lessons than lower achieving students. Instead of helping low achieving kids catch up, achievement gaps widened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People with more knowledge tend to be better readers. That’s not proof that increasing knowledge improves reading. It could be that higher achieving kids like learning about the world and enjoy reading. And if you stuff a child with more knowledge, it’s possible that his reading skills may not improve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The long view\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shanahan speculates that if knowledge building does improve reading comprehension, it would take many, many years for it to manifest. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If these efforts aren’t allowed to elbow sound reading instruction aside, they cannot hurt and, in the long run, they might even help,” he wrote in a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/why-doesnt-increasing-knowledge-improve-reading-achievement\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2021 blog post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers are still in the early stages of designing and testing the content students need to boost literacy skills. We are all waiting for answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-content-knowledge-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core Knowledge \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past decade, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/the-science-of-reading-in-2024-5-state-initiatives-to-watch/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">majority of states\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have passed new “science of reading” laws or implemented policies that emphasize phonics in classrooms. Yet the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/naep-test-2024-dismal-report/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 results\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of an important national test, released last month, showed that the reading scores of elementary and middle schoolers continued their long downward slide, hitting new lows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The emphasis on phonics in many schools is still relatively new and may need more time to yield results. But a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/events/the-knowledge-revival/?mkt_tok=NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGYdl0vHSBq7-XvUEtdwr_x5LJ4gfgDfMfrAPWnf6oK0A8pSmxo1Lp4eNuCuoxPvelQ1MMxtcIeCwgRa2uFQHyZIBzUdsOSpfRgMAW91y5dP6wa5g\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">growing chorus of education advocates\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been arguing that phonics isn’t enough. They say that being able to decode the letters and read words is critically important, but students also need to make sense of the words. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some educators are calling for schools to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://knowledgematterscampaign.org/post/webinar-knowledge-an-unsung-hero-of-reading-comprehension/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adopt a curriculum that emphasizes content\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> along with phonics. More schools around the country, from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimorecp.org/resources/core-knowledge-lessons/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baltimore\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-comprehension-hinges-on-building-knowledge-new-curricula-aim-to-help/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Michigan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.libertycommon.org/about/news-and-events/colorado-core-knowledge-network\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colorado\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are adopting these content-filled lessons to teach geography, astronomy and even art history. The theory, which has been documented in a small number of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-0663.80.1.16\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">laboratory experiments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is that the more students already know about a topic, the better they can understand a passage about it. For example, a passage on farming might make more sense if you know something about how plants grow. The brain gets overwhelmed by too many new concepts and unfamiliar words. We’ve all been there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>A ‘Knowledge Revival’\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2025 book by 10 education researchers in Europe and Australia, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-74661-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Revival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” makes the case that students cannot learn the skills of comprehension and critical thinking unless they know a lot of stuff first. These ideas have revived interest in E.D. Hirsch’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coreknowledge.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core Knowledge\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> curriculum, which gained popularity in the late 1980s. Hirsch, a professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, argues that democracy benefits when the citizenry shares a body of knowledge and history, which he calls cultural literacy. Now it’s a cognitive science argument that a core curriculum is also good for our brains and facilitates learning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Related: Our free \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cb>weekly newsletter\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea of forcing children to learn a specific set of facts and topics is controversial. It runs counter to newer trends of “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://lmcreadinglist.pbworks.com/f/Ladson-Billings%20%281995%29.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culturally relevant pedagogy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” or “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalequityproject.org/culturally-responsive-teaching\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culturally responsive teaching\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” in which critics contend that students’ identities should be reflected in what they learn. Others say learning facts is unimportant in the age of Google where we can instantly look anything up, and that the focus should be on teaching skills. Content skeptics also point out that there’s never been a study to show that increasing knowledge of the world boosts reading scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be nearly impossible for an individual teacher to create the kind of content-packed curriculum that this pro-knowledge branch of education researchers has in mind. Lessons need to be coordinated across grades, from kindergarten onward. It’s not just a random collection of encyclopedia entries or interesting units on, say, Greek myths or the planets in our solar system. The science and social studies topics should be sequenced so that the ideas build upon each other, and paired with vocabulary that will be useful in the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The big question is whether the theory that more knowledge improves reading comprehension applies to real schools where children are reading below grade level. Does a content-packed curriculum translate into higher reading achievement years later?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Putting knowledge to the test\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers have been testing content-packed lessons in schools to see how much they boost reading comprehension. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai23-755\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2023 study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Core Knowledge curriculum, which was not peer reviewed, received a lot of buzz. The students who attended nine schools that adopted the curriculum were stronger readers. But it was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-inside-the-latest-reading-study-that-everyone-is-talking-about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">impossible to tell whether the Core Knowledge curriculum itself made the difference\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or if the boost to reading scores could be attributed to the fact that all nine schools were highly regarded charter schools and were doing something else that made a difference. Perhaps they had hired great teachers and trained them well, for example. Also, the students at these charter schools were largely from middle and upper middle class families. What we really want to know is whether knowledge building at school helps the poorest children, who are less likely to be exposed to the world through travel, live performances, and other experiences that money can buy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another content-heavy curriculum developed by Harvard education professor James Kim produced a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-learning-science-might-help-kids-read-better/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">modest boost to reading scores in a randomized controlled trial\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, according to a paper \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-55174-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">published in 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Reading instruction was untouched, but the students received special science and social studies lessons that were intended to boost young children’s knowledge and vocabulary. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit in the middle of the experiment and many of the lessons had to be scrapped. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, for the 1,000 students who had received some of the special lessons in first and second grades, their reading and math scores on the North Carolina state tests were higher not only in third grade, but also in fourth grade, more than a year after the knowledge-building experiment ended. Most of the students were Black and Hispanic. Forty percent were from poor families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The latest study\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Core Knowledge curriculum was put to the test in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-46446-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by a team of eight researchers in two unidentified cities in the mid-Atlantic and the South, where the majority of children were Black and from low income families. More than 20 schools had been randomly assigned to give kindergarteners some lessons from the Core Knowledge curriculum. The schools continued with their usual phonics instruction, but “read aloud” time, when a teacher ordinarily reads a picture book to students, had been replaced with units on plants, farming and Native Americans, for example. More than 500 kindergarteners looked at pictures on a large screen, while a teacher discussed the topics and taught new vocabulary. Additional activities reinforced the lessons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-46446-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">paper published in the February 2025 issue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Journal of Education Psychology, the 565 children who received the Core Knowledge lessons did better on tests of the topics and words that were taught, compared with 626 children who had learned reading as usual and weren’t exposed to these topics. But they did no better in tests of general language, vocabulary development or listening comprehension. Reading itself was not evaluated. Unfortunately, the pandemic also interfered in the middle of this experiment and cut short the analysis of the students through first and second grades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead researcher Sonia Cabell, an associate professor at Florida State University, says she is looking at longer term achievement data from these students, who are now in middle school. But she said she isn’t seeing a clear “signal” that the students who had this Core Knowledge instruction for a few months in kindergarten are doing any better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Glimmers of hope\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cabell did see glimmers of hope. Students in the control group schools, who didn’t receive Core Knowledge instruction, also learned about plants. But the Core Knowledge students had much more to say when researchers asked them the question: “Tell me everything you know about plants.” The results of a test of general science knowledge came just shy of statistical significance, which would have demonstrated that the Core Knowledge students were able to transfer the specific knowledge they had learned in the lessons to a broader understanding of science. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are pieces of this that are promising and encouraging,” said Cabell, who says that it’s complicated to study the combination of conventional reading instruction, such as phonics and vocabulary, with content knowledge. “We need to better understand what the active ingredient is. Is it the knowledge?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the latest Core Knowledge study proves is that students are more likely to do well on a test of something they have been taught. Some observers errantly interpreted that as evidence that a knowledge rich curriculum is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fpsycnet.apa.org%2Ffulltext%2F2025-46446-001.html&src=typed_query\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">beneficial\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If your great new curriculum reads articles about penguins to the kids and your old stupid curriculum reads articles about walruses to them, one of these is going to look more successful when the kids are evaluated with a penguin test,” explained Tim Shanahan, a literacy expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was not involved in this research.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Widening achievement gaps\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And distressingly, students who arrived at kindergarten with stronger language skills absorbed a lot more from these content-rich lessons than lower achieving students. Instead of helping low achieving kids catch up, achievement gaps widened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People with more knowledge tend to be better readers. That’s not proof that increasing knowledge improves reading. It could be that higher achieving kids like learning about the world and enjoy reading. And if you stuff a child with more knowledge, it’s possible that his reading skills may not improve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The long view\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shanahan speculates that if knowledge building does improve reading comprehension, it would take many, many years for it to manifest. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“If these efforts aren’t allowed to elbow sound reading instruction aside, they cannot hurt and, in the long run, they might even help,” he wrote in a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/why-doesnt-increasing-knowledge-improve-reading-achievement\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2021 blog post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers are still in the early stages of designing and testing the content students need to boost literacy skills. We are all waiting for answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-content-knowledge-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core Knowledge \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "reading-and-math-scores-in-latest-national-report-card-highlight-covid-and-pre-covid-trends",
"title": "Reading and Math Scores in Latest National Report Card Highlight COVID and Pre-COVID Trends",
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"headTitle": "Reading and Math Scores in Latest National Report Card Highlight COVID and Pre-COVID Trends | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Stay on top of articles like this one by subscribing to the weekly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/mindshift\">MindShift email newsletter\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAlmost five years have passed since COVID-19 first disrupted America’s schools, and new data, known as the Nation’s Report Card, offers cause for hope — and concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: In math, many students have made up at least some of the academic ground they lost during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bad news: In both reading and math, most fourth- and eighth-graders in 2024 still performed \u003cem>below\u003c/em> pre-pandemic 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, while these achievement declines were exacerbated by the pandemic, they appear to have begun even before COVID-19, raising important questions about why students are still struggling and what educators and policymakers can do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news arrives as the nation’s public schools have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/20/1239609135/the-190-billion-in-emergency-funds-given-to-schools-during-the-pandemic-is-endin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">largely spent the $190 billion\u003c/a> in federal emergency funding they received from Congress to help pay for, among other things, research-backed interventions, including summer school and tutoring. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/06/18/nx-s1-5010963/schools-aid-students-pandemic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Previous research\u003c/a> suggests that money did lead to modest academic gains, though this new data shows students still have a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which provides data for the Nation’s Report Card, is mandated by Congress and is the largest nationally representative test of student learning. NAEP tests were first administered \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/timeline.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in 1969\u003c/a>. Today, the assessments in math and reading are given every two years to a broad sample of students in fourth and eighth grades.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students held steady in math or even made up ground\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In fourth grade, the average math score ticked up slightly compared with 2022, ending a pandemic slide. In fact, white, Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students all showed modest gains, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In fourth grade, it seems that, regardless of where students were, they were improving,” says Lisa Ashe, a math consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets NAEP policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, fourth-grade math scores still remained \u003cem>below\u003c/em> pre-pandemic 2019 levels, with one exception: Alabama was the only state where fourth-graders’ average math scores surpassed 2019 scores. (In 2022, lawmakers there \u003ca href=\"https://www.the74million.org/article/principals-view-how-alabama-is-leading-the-way-in-solving-the-math-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> aimed at improving math proficiency for all K-5 students in the state.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But COVID-19 isn’t all to blame. A longer view of fourth-graders’ math scores — and student achievement more broadly — shows those scores began stagnating and even declining \u003cem>before\u003c/em> the pandemic. Math scores peaked around 2013. Multiple education researchers tell NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Testing-Theories-of-Why.pdf?x85095\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">they aren’t sure why\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width: 650px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024.jpg\" alt=\"A chart showing math and reading scores going up, then down, then holding steady.\" width=\"1924\" height=\"1424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024.jpg 1924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-800x592.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1020x755.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-768x568.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1536x1137.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1920x1421.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1924px) 100vw, 1924px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is the multitrillion-dollar question,” says Dan Goldhaber, an education researcher at the University of Washington who has studied pandemic learning loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we know is that fourth-grade math performance improved around the same time the old federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (signed in 2002) enforced strict new accountability requirements. When those requirements were \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/ten-states-get-nclb-waivers-new-mexico-has-to-wait/2012/02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">phased\u003c/a> out (beginning in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/26-states-plus-d-c-apply-for-nclb-waivers-in-second-round/2012/02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2012\u003c/a>) and ultimately replaced (in 2015), math performance, especially among lower-performers, fell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just one possible explanation for the slowdown that the pandemic worsened. Goldhaber suggests learning could also have been set back by the Great Recession, by kids’ increased access to smartphones and tablets or by the ripple effects of a decline in kids reading for fun. (Since 2017, fewer and fewer students have reported to NAEP that they enjoy reading.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to understand what caused that earlier stagnation if we’re going to get out of the mire of the pandemic,” Goldhaber says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For eighth-graders, math scores held steady in 2024 compared with 2022. But as with fourth-graders, they remained below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, the Nation’s Report Card highlights some worrying divergence happening within those scores. The highest-performing eighth-graders \u003cem>improved\u003c/em> in math compared with 2022, but the lowest-performing students moved in the opposite direction, losing ground in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That actually caused alarm,” Ashe says of the widening achievement gap. “We need to meet the needs of these students that are in the lower percentiles, because something that we’re doing is not working for those students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, 39% of fourth-graders and 28% of eighth-graders scored at or above NAEP’s standard for proficiency in math. That’s a little better than in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The NAEP report warns against comparing these results to state-reported numbers, as “the NAEP standard for proficiency represents competency over challenging subject matter, a standard that exceeds most states’ standards for proficient or grade-level achievement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reading: The bad news got worse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The results in reading weren’t nearly as hopeful as they were in math:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fourth-graders continued to lose ground in 2024, with reading scores slightly lower, on average, than they were in 2022 and much lower than they were in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, 35% of fourth-graders scored at or above the test’s reading proficiency standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That figure dropped to 33% in 2022 and, further, to 31%, in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with math, these declines aren’t entirely the fault of the pandemic. Fourth-grade reading scores began falling years earlier, around 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only one state, Louisiana, saw its 2024 fourth-grade reading scores surpass 2019 scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024.jpg\" alt=\"Graph showing reading scores that peak in 2017 and then gradually decline. \" width=\"1970\" height=\"1454\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024.jpg 1970w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-800x590.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1020x753.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-768x567.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1536x1134.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1920x1417.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1970px) 100vw, 1970px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth remembering: This current round of fourth-graders, from the 2023-2024 school year, were in kindergarten when the pandemic first closed schools, and many spent some or all of first grade learning \u003cem>remotely\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighth-graders’ 2024 reading scores also dropped compared with 2022, with just 30% of students performing at or above NAEP’s proficient standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NAEP classifies students at one of three skill levels: advanced, proficient or the lowest, basic. According to the results, the share of eighth-graders reading \u003cem>below\u003c/em> NAEP’s basic standard “was the largest in the assessment’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only that, but the worst-performing readers in 2024 scored “lower than our lower performers did 30 years ago for fourth \u003cem>and\u003c/em> eighth grade. That’s how low these scores historically have dropped,” says Peggy Carr, commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not one state improved its eighth-grade reading scores compared with 2022, let alone 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The connection between poverty and performance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year’s NAEP results include a new, more precise index for determining students’ socioeconomic status (SES), and the results show, in stark detail, what teachers and researchers have long understood: That poverty and performance are deeply connected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the overwhelming majority (77%) of fourth-grade students in the highest SES category — the wealthiest kids — performed above the national average in reading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the fourth-graders in the lowest SES category, though, the results are nearly flipped, with just 34% performing above the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results in math performance were similarly disparate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a positive note, while many big-city districts made important gains in fourth-grade math with their economically disadvantaged students, a handful of districts did \u003cem>exceptionally\u003c/em> well, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, Guilford County Schools (also in North Carolina), Baltimore City Public Schools and the San Diego Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Missing school is getting in the way of learning\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When students took the latest NAEP assessments, in early 2024, they were asked how many days they had been absent the previous month. The results are slightly encouraging: A smaller percentage of fourth- and eighth-graders reported missing five or more days of school in the past month compared with 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across the board, lower-performing students were more likely to report missing five or more days of school in the previous month, compared with higher-performing students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, missing school means missing learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/06/14/1247805147/solutions-kindergarten-attendance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">miss 10% or more of a school year\u003c/a>, they’re considered “chronically absent,” and as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160358099/school-attendance-chronic-absenteeism-covid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NPR has previously reported\u003c/a>, the rates of chronic absenteeism doubled during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link that NAEP shows between missing school and lower academic achievement doesn’t surprise Hedy Chang, head of Attendance Works, an organization devoted to fighting chronic absenteeism. “It’s not just affecting academics,” she says of absenteeism. “It’s affecting social development and executive functioning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To continue on the path of improving attendance and in turn student achievement, Chang suggests that districts look at the students who are missing the most school and the hurdles they’re facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You might not be able to take it all, tackle it all, at once,” Chang says. “You might have to tackle it in bits and pieces, either by barrier or by grade or by this subset of schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says making sure \u003cem>all \u003c/em>students are going to school could go a long way in bolstering student achievement.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Stay on top of articles like this one by subscribing to the weekly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/mindshift\">MindShift email newsletter\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nAlmost five years have passed since COVID-19 first disrupted America’s schools, and new data, known as the Nation’s Report Card, offers cause for hope — and concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: In math, many students have made up at least some of the academic ground they lost during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bad news: In both reading and math, most fourth- and eighth-graders in 2024 still performed \u003cem>below\u003c/em> pre-pandemic 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, while these achievement declines were exacerbated by the pandemic, they appear to have begun even before COVID-19, raising important questions about why students are still struggling and what educators and policymakers can do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news arrives as the nation’s public schools have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/20/1239609135/the-190-billion-in-emergency-funds-given-to-schools-during-the-pandemic-is-endin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">largely spent the $190 billion\u003c/a> in federal emergency funding they received from Congress to help pay for, among other things, research-backed interventions, including summer school and tutoring. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/06/18/nx-s1-5010963/schools-aid-students-pandemic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Previous research\u003c/a> suggests that money did lead to modest academic gains, though this new data shows students still have a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which provides data for the Nation’s Report Card, is mandated by Congress and is the largest nationally representative test of student learning. NAEP tests were first administered \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/timeline.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in 1969\u003c/a>. Today, the assessments in math and reading are given every two years to a broad sample of students in fourth and eighth grades.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students held steady in math or even made up ground\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In fourth grade, the average math score ticked up slightly compared with 2022, ending a pandemic slide. In fact, white, Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students all showed modest gains, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In fourth grade, it seems that, regardless of where students were, they were improving,” says Lisa Ashe, a math consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets NAEP policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, fourth-grade math scores still remained \u003cem>below\u003c/em> pre-pandemic 2019 levels, with one exception: Alabama was the only state where fourth-graders’ average math scores surpassed 2019 scores. (In 2022, lawmakers there \u003ca href=\"https://www.the74million.org/article/principals-view-how-alabama-is-leading-the-way-in-solving-the-math-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> aimed at improving math proficiency for all K-5 students in the state.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But COVID-19 isn’t all to blame. A longer view of fourth-graders’ math scores — and student achievement more broadly — shows those scores began stagnating and even declining \u003cem>before\u003c/em> the pandemic. Math scores peaked around 2013. Multiple education researchers tell NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Testing-Theories-of-Why.pdf?x85095\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">they aren’t sure why\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width: 650px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024.jpg\" alt=\"A chart showing math and reading scores going up, then down, then holding steady.\" width=\"1924\" height=\"1424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024.jpg 1924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-800x592.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1020x755.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-768x568.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1536x1137.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-scores-1990-2024-1920x1421.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1924px) 100vw, 1924px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is the multitrillion-dollar question,” says Dan Goldhaber, an education researcher at the University of Washington who has studied pandemic learning loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we know is that fourth-grade math performance improved around the same time the old federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (signed in 2002) enforced strict new accountability requirements. When those requirements were \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/ten-states-get-nclb-waivers-new-mexico-has-to-wait/2012/02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">phased\u003c/a> out (beginning in \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/26-states-plus-d-c-apply-for-nclb-waivers-in-second-round/2012/02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2012\u003c/a>) and ultimately replaced (in 2015), math performance, especially among lower-performers, fell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just one possible explanation for the slowdown that the pandemic worsened. Goldhaber suggests learning could also have been set back by the Great Recession, by kids’ increased access to smartphones and tablets or by the ripple effects of a decline in kids reading for fun. (Since 2017, fewer and fewer students have reported to NAEP that they enjoy reading.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to understand what caused that earlier stagnation if we’re going to get out of the mire of the pandemic,” Goldhaber says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For eighth-graders, math scores held steady in 2024 compared with 2022. But as with fourth-graders, they remained below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, the Nation’s Report Card highlights some worrying divergence happening within those scores. The highest-performing eighth-graders \u003cem>improved\u003c/em> in math compared with 2022, but the lowest-performing students moved in the opposite direction, losing ground in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That actually caused alarm,” Ashe says of the widening achievement gap. “We need to meet the needs of these students that are in the lower percentiles, because something that we’re doing is not working for those students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, 39% of fourth-graders and 28% of eighth-graders scored at or above NAEP’s standard for proficiency in math. That’s a little better than in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The NAEP report warns against comparing these results to state-reported numbers, as “the NAEP standard for proficiency represents competency over challenging subject matter, a standard that exceeds most states’ standards for proficient or grade-level achievement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reading: The bad news got worse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The results in reading weren’t nearly as hopeful as they were in math:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fourth-graders continued to lose ground in 2024, with reading scores slightly lower, on average, than they were in 2022 and much lower than they were in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, 35% of fourth-graders scored at or above the test’s reading proficiency standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That figure dropped to 33% in 2022 and, further, to 31%, in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with math, these declines aren’t entirely the fault of the pandemic. Fourth-grade reading scores began falling years earlier, around 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only one state, Louisiana, saw its 2024 fourth-grade reading scores surpass 2019 scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024.jpg\" alt=\"Graph showing reading scores that peak in 2017 and then gradually decline. \" width=\"1970\" height=\"1454\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024.jpg 1970w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-800x590.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1020x753.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-768x567.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1536x1134.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2025/01/NPR-NAEP-Reading-Scores-1992-2024-1920x1417.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1970px) 100vw, 1970px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth remembering: This current round of fourth-graders, from the 2023-2024 school year, were in kindergarten when the pandemic first closed schools, and many spent some or all of first grade learning \u003cem>remotely\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighth-graders’ 2024 reading scores also dropped compared with 2022, with just 30% of students performing at or above NAEP’s proficient standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NAEP classifies students at one of three skill levels: advanced, proficient or the lowest, basic. According to the results, the share of eighth-graders reading \u003cem>below\u003c/em> NAEP’s basic standard “was the largest in the assessment’s history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only that, but the worst-performing readers in 2024 scored “lower than our lower performers did 30 years ago for fourth \u003cem>and\u003c/em> eighth grade. That’s how low these scores historically have dropped,” says Peggy Carr, commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not one state improved its eighth-grade reading scores compared with 2022, let alone 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The connection between poverty and performance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year’s NAEP results include a new, more precise index for determining students’ socioeconomic status (SES), and the results show, in stark detail, what teachers and researchers have long understood: That poverty and performance are deeply connected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the overwhelming majority (77%) of fourth-grade students in the highest SES category — the wealthiest kids — performed above the national average in reading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the fourth-graders in the lowest SES category, though, the results are nearly flipped, with just 34% performing above the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results in math performance were similarly disparate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a positive note, while many big-city districts made important gains in fourth-grade math with their economically disadvantaged students, a handful of districts did \u003cem>exceptionally\u003c/em> well, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, Guilford County Schools (also in North Carolina), Baltimore City Public Schools and the San Diego Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Missing school is getting in the way of learning\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When students took the latest NAEP assessments, in early 2024, they were asked how many days they had been absent the previous month. The results are slightly encouraging: A smaller percentage of fourth- and eighth-graders reported missing five or more days of school in the past month compared with 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across the board, lower-performing students were more likely to report missing five or more days of school in the previous month, compared with higher-performing students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, missing school means missing learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/06/14/1247805147/solutions-kindergarten-attendance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">miss 10% or more of a school year\u003c/a>, they’re considered “chronically absent,” and as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160358099/school-attendance-chronic-absenteeism-covid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NPR has previously reported\u003c/a>, the rates of chronic absenteeism doubled during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link that NAEP shows between missing school and lower academic achievement doesn’t surprise Hedy Chang, head of Attendance Works, an organization devoted to fighting chronic absenteeism. “It’s not just affecting academics,” she says of absenteeism. “It’s affecting social development and executive functioning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To continue on the path of improving attendance and in turn student achievement, Chang suggests that districts look at the students who are missing the most school and the hurdles they’re facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You might not be able to take it all, tackle it all, at once,” Chang says. “You might have to tackle it in bits and pieces, either by barrier or by grade or by this subset of schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says making sure \u003cem>all \u003c/em>students are going to school could go a long way in bolstering student achievement.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ten years ago \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/english_roy?lang=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roy F. Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher at Round Rock High School in Texas, was inspired by the idea of putting a text under a microscope while reading “The Art of X-Ray Reading” by Roy Peter Clark. Smith, who has been teaching for 24\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">years, developed what he calls “spotlight reading,” a quick activity used at the start of class to get students to engage with written language without worrying about a grade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spotlight reading puts a magnifying glass to a single sentence or short poem and encourages students to analyze the small bit of text without worrying about a grade. “I wanted them to be able to read critically because too many times in high school, kids are reading for a grade, and they’re not really interacting with the text in an authentic way,” Smith said. “[Spotlight reading] engages all of their skills for reading, writing and thinking within the first ten minutes of class.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith uses the activity once or twice per week throughout the school year in his AP literature and composition and dual-credit American literature classes. He said he’s seen an improvement in AP exam scores since he introduced the activity. The practice is now widely used at Round Rock High School, and has been \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/heymrsbond/status/1823314691751379061\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">picked up by teachers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> elsewhere, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is spotlight reading?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith starts spotlight reading by putting a short excerpt from a book, essay or poem on the board before students enter the classroom. His first excerpt of the year is usually a complex sentence from Truman Capote’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Cold Blood\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that contains cumulative ideas. Smith reads the quote for his students and asks them some questions, which they answer by writing in their notebooks for three to four minutes. He said it doesn’t matter if the students have read the complete text or not. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of Smith’s favorite questions to ask is, “What do you notice first?” Every student can notice something, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64036/each-student-has-a-different-reading-journey-many-fall-into-these-3-categories\">regardless of background knowledge or skill level\u003c/a>, he said. Other questions might have to do with the broader lesson that students are learning that day, such as, “What literary elements or techniques do you see?” or “What do you think the overall meaning is?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith encourages students to “just write” and go with their first ideas without overthinking. Then, students talk in small groups about their ideas for two minutes. Smith listens in on conversations, but is careful not to interject. If he hears a particularly interesting idea, he taps that student on the shoulder and asks them to share it with the class after the small group discussion.\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\nhttps://twitter.com/heymrsbond/status/1823314691751379061\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spotlight reading works best when done every week and for the entire school year. “The kids get into routines and thinking, seeing and responding,” Smith said. According to him, after the first few spotlight readings, students know exactly what to do when they enter the classroom and see a quote on the board. Spotlight reading also helps to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62841/7-strategies-to-ignite-active-learning-and-help-students-see-its-benefits\">set the tone for the rest of the class period\u003c/a>. Especially for Smith’s fourth period class for seniors, which falls after lunch. “Spotlight focuses those kids quick,” he said. And it “starts the day with all three things that I teach: thinking, writing and reading.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes Smith uses spotlight reading to catapult the class into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62119/how-extroverted-teachers-can-engage-introverted-students\">a bigger discussion\u003c/a> or lesson for the rest of the class period. Other days, spotlight reading fulfills the practice of what Smith calls “risky writing,” which de-emphasizes grammar and polished ideas. During spotlight reading, “I just want them to get used to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61361/using-poetry-to-sharpen-students-claims-for-argument-writing\">responding to a text or a poem\u003c/a>,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This lesson segment is designed to take 10 to 13 minutes at the beginning of a class period, and for students, gradually builds their ability to respond quickly to texts. At the end of each grading period, if students have completed each spotlight reading, they earn 100% credit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Greater impact\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith’s Round Rock colleague Meredith Lawrence collaborated with him to introduce spotlight reading schoolwide. According to Lawrence, “these short bursts of shining a light on [challenging texts] could be more powerful sometimes than spending an entire class period” on that text. By writing without scrutiny during spotlight reading, they learn to trust their literary instincts. “I call them reckless writings because…I want [students] to be reckless and excited for doing just like the activity itself, and not worrying about rules,” Lawrence said. “The reckless writing breaks them out of their own heads a little bit,” she continued. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After students write, Lawrence asks them to highlight all of the places that they feel they’ve developed an interesting idea or thoughts that they want to explore more. This practice of highlighting key moments “starts to build up [the students’] confidence and you start to see, as the year goes on, there’s more and more highlighted and there are fewer moments” of uncertainty, said Lawrence. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Lawrence, spotlight reading also allows students to explore a text that she otherwise would not get to teach. Her hope is that students are exposed to authors and texts that “they end up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">choosing for independent reading\u003c/a> some other time.” Throughout the years of spotlight reading, Lawrence has seen students’ confidence in their academic discussions. “It helps them be more engaged and comfortable with their own thought process,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For AP literature and composition, Smith’s students have to be able to write an essay in 40 minutes. That’s hard, he said. “So I need them to be able to read and recognize and find places to enter in quickly … I credit spotlight reading for all the gains we’ve had in our [AP] scores over the years.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said spotlight reading is particularly helpful for English language learners because he does not emphasize grammar. The important part is that the students are writing down their thoughts. The form can come later.. For students who may not understand the exercise right away, spotlight reading allows them to hear what their peers are saying. “They’re learning from each other,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ten years ago \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/english_roy?lang=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roy F. Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher at Round Rock High School in Texas, was inspired by the idea of putting a text under a microscope while reading “The Art of X-Ray Reading” by Roy Peter Clark. Smith, who has been teaching for 24\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">years, developed what he calls “spotlight reading,” a quick activity used at the start of class to get students to engage with written language without worrying about a grade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spotlight reading puts a magnifying glass to a single sentence or short poem and encourages students to analyze the small bit of text without worrying about a grade. “I wanted them to be able to read critically because too many times in high school, kids are reading for a grade, and they’re not really interacting with the text in an authentic way,” Smith said. “[Spotlight reading] engages all of their skills for reading, writing and thinking within the first ten minutes of class.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith uses the activity once or twice per week throughout the school year in his AP literature and composition and dual-credit American literature classes. He said he’s seen an improvement in AP exam scores since he introduced the activity. The practice is now widely used at Round Rock High School, and has been \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/heymrsbond/status/1823314691751379061\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">picked up by teachers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> elsewhere, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is spotlight reading?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith starts spotlight reading by putting a short excerpt from a book, essay or poem on the board before students enter the classroom. His first excerpt of the year is usually a complex sentence from Truman Capote’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Cold Blood\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that contains cumulative ideas. Smith reads the quote for his students and asks them some questions, which they answer by writing in their notebooks for three to four minutes. He said it doesn’t matter if the students have read the complete text or not. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of Smith’s favorite questions to ask is, “What do you notice first?” Every student can notice something, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64036/each-student-has-a-different-reading-journey-many-fall-into-these-3-categories\">regardless of background knowledge or skill level\u003c/a>, he said. Other questions might have to do with the broader lesson that students are learning that day, such as, “What literary elements or techniques do you see?” or “What do you think the overall meaning is?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spotlight reading works best when done every week and for the entire school year. “The kids get into routines and thinking, seeing and responding,” Smith said. According to him, after the first few spotlight readings, students know exactly what to do when they enter the classroom and see a quote on the board. Spotlight reading also helps to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62841/7-strategies-to-ignite-active-learning-and-help-students-see-its-benefits\">set the tone for the rest of the class period\u003c/a>. Especially for Smith’s fourth period class for seniors, which falls after lunch. “Spotlight focuses those kids quick,” he said. And it “starts the day with all three things that I teach: thinking, writing and reading.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes Smith uses spotlight reading to catapult the class into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62119/how-extroverted-teachers-can-engage-introverted-students\">a bigger discussion\u003c/a> or lesson for the rest of the class period. Other days, spotlight reading fulfills the practice of what Smith calls “risky writing,” which de-emphasizes grammar and polished ideas. During spotlight reading, “I just want them to get used to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61361/using-poetry-to-sharpen-students-claims-for-argument-writing\">responding to a text or a poem\u003c/a>,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This lesson segment is designed to take 10 to 13 minutes at the beginning of a class period, and for students, gradually builds their ability to respond quickly to texts. At the end of each grading period, if students have completed each spotlight reading, they earn 100% credit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Greater impact\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith’s Round Rock colleague Meredith Lawrence collaborated with him to introduce spotlight reading schoolwide. According to Lawrence, “these short bursts of shining a light on [challenging texts] could be more powerful sometimes than spending an entire class period” on that text. By writing without scrutiny during spotlight reading, they learn to trust their literary instincts. “I call them reckless writings because…I want [students] to be reckless and excited for doing just like the activity itself, and not worrying about rules,” Lawrence said. “The reckless writing breaks them out of their own heads a little bit,” she continued. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After students write, Lawrence asks them to highlight all of the places that they feel they’ve developed an interesting idea or thoughts that they want to explore more. This practice of highlighting key moments “starts to build up [the students’] confidence and you start to see, as the year goes on, there’s more and more highlighted and there are fewer moments” of uncertainty, said Lawrence. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Lawrence, spotlight reading also allows students to explore a text that she otherwise would not get to teach. Her hope is that students are exposed to authors and texts that “they end up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">choosing for independent reading\u003c/a> some other time.” Throughout the years of spotlight reading, Lawrence has seen students’ confidence in their academic discussions. “It helps them be more engaged and comfortable with their own thought process,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For AP literature and composition, Smith’s students have to be able to write an essay in 40 minutes. That’s hard, he said. “So I need them to be able to read and recognize and find places to enter in quickly … I credit spotlight reading for all the gains we’ve had in our [AP] scores over the years.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said spotlight reading is particularly helpful for English language learners because he does not emphasize grammar. The important part is that the students are writing down their thoughts. The form can come later.. For students who may not understand the exercise right away, spotlight reading allows them to hear what their peers are saying. “They’re learning from each other,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "They Weren’t Yet in School When COVID Hit. The Pandemic Still Set Back the Youngest Students.",
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"headTitle": "They Weren’t Yet in School When COVID Hit. The Pandemic Still Set Back the Youngest Students. | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/07/03/pandemic-left-younger-students-struggling-to-make-academic-progress/\" rel=\"canonical\">originally published\u003c/a> by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at \u003ca href=\"https://ckbe.at/newsletters\">ckbe.at/newsletters\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While older children are showing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64116/congress-poured-billions-of-dollars-into-schools-did-it-help-students-learn\">encouraging signs of academic recovery\u003c/a>, younger children are not making that same progress, and are sometimes falling even further behind, especially in math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.bfldr.com/LS6J0F7/at/4rqc5wtpxqf85mk4pxj6rm7/ca-2024-summer-research-student-growth-technical-report.pdf\">New data released Monday\u003c/a> points to the pandemic’s profound and enduring effects on the nation’s youngest public school children, many of whom were not yet in a formal school setting when COVID hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s showing that these students — who were either toddlers or maybe in preschool — that their learning was disrupted somehow,” said Kristen Huff, the vice president for research and assessment at Curriculum Associates, which provides math and reading tests to millions of students each year and authored the new report. “It’s striking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and other experts have suggested several potential reasons for this trend. One is that the pandemic disrupted early childhood education and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57373/why-we-need-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-youngest-children-right-now-and-their-parents\">made it harder for many kids to learn foundational skills\u003c/a> — gaps that can compound over time. Fewer children enrolled in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-04-26/the-pandemic-erased-a-decade-of-public-preschool-gains\">preschool\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/9/22/21451625/kindergarten-enrollment-decline-coronavirus-pandemic-shift/\">kindergarten\u003c/a>, and many young children struggled with remote learning. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/01/upshot/pandemic-children-school-performance.html\">Increased parental stress and screen time\u003c/a> may also be factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also possible that schools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63826/these-teens-were-missing-too-much-school-heres-what-it-took-to-get-them-back\">targeted more academic support to older children and teens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can see it as a call to action to make sure that we, as an educational community, are prioritizing those early grades,” Huff said. Those are critical years when children learn their letters and numbers and start reading and counting. “These are all the basics for being able to move along that learning trajectory for the rest of your schooling career.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64123/pandemic-aid-to-schools-paid-off-but-we-dont-know-how\">A slew of recent reports\u003c/a> have examined students’ academic progress post-pandemic. \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/02/05/learning-loss-study-finds-surprising-academic-recovery-growing-inequality/\">Some researchers found\u003c/a> that students in third to eighth grade are making larger-than-usual gains, but that most kids are still behind their pre-pandemic peers. Meanwhile, academic gaps between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers have widened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new Curriculum Associates report, which analyzed results from some 4 million students, is unique in that it includes data points for younger children who haven’t yet taken state tests. Researchers looked at how students who entered kindergarten to fourth grade during the 2021-22 school year performed in math and reading over three years, and compared that against kids who started the same grades just prior to the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children who began kindergarten in the fall of 2021, for example, scored close to what kindergartners did prior to the pandemic in reading. But over the last few years, they’ve fallen behind their counterparts. Kids who started first grade in the fall of 2021 have been consistently behind children who started first grade prior to the pandemic in reading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In math, meanwhile, students who started kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in the fall of 2021 all started off scoring lower than their counterparts did prior to the pandemic. And they’ve consistently made less progress — putting them “significantly behind” their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Younger children made less progress than their pre-pandemic peers regardless of whether they went to schools in cities, suburbs or rural communities. And the students who started off further behind had the most difficulty catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools may want to consider changing up their academic interventions to focus more on early elementary schoolers, researchers said. It will be especially important to pinpoint exactly which missing skills kids need to master so they can follow along with lessons in their current grade, Huff added. This year, many of the report’s struggling students will be entering third and fourth grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Charleston County, South Carolina, where \u003ca href=\"https://screportcards.com/overview/academics/academic-achievement/details/?q=eT0yMDIyJnQ9RCZzaWQ9MTAwMTAwMA\">younger students are outperforming\u003c/a> others \u003ca href=\"https://ed.sc.gov/data/test-scores/state-assessments/sc-ready/2023/state-scores-by-grade-level/?districtCode=9999&districtName=Statewide&schoolCode=999\">in their state\u003c/a>, especially in math, the district is using a few strategies that officials think have helped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district made \u003ca href=\"https://www.live5news.com/2024/04/24/charleston-co-school-district-working-improve-reading-performance-levels/\">improving reading instruction a top priority\u003c/a>. Officials purchased a new curriculum to better align with the science of reading, gave teachers \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/letrs-program-teacher-training\">extensive literacy skills training\u003c/a>, and started providing families more information about their kids’ academic performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crucially, said Buffy Roberts, who oversees assessments for Charleston County schools, the district identified groups of kids who were very behind and what it would take to catch them up over several years. Taking a longer view helped teachers break down a big job and ensured kids who needed a lot of help got more support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really helped people understand that if our students were already behind, making typical growth is great, but it’s not going to cut it,” Roberts said. “It was really thinking very strategically and being very targeted about what a child needs in order to get out of that, I hate to call it a hole, but it is a hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"mailto:kbelsha@chalkbeat.org\">\u003ci>kbelsha@chalkbeat.org\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/07/03/pandemic-left-younger-students-struggling-to-make-academic-progress/\" rel=\"canonical\">Chalkbeat\u003c/a> is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/07/03/pandemic-left-younger-students-struggling-to-make-academic-progress/\" rel=\"canonical\">originally published\u003c/a> by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at \u003ca href=\"https://ckbe.at/newsletters\">ckbe.at/newsletters\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While older children are showing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64116/congress-poured-billions-of-dollars-into-schools-did-it-help-students-learn\">encouraging signs of academic recovery\u003c/a>, younger children are not making that same progress, and are sometimes falling even further behind, especially in math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.bfldr.com/LS6J0F7/at/4rqc5wtpxqf85mk4pxj6rm7/ca-2024-summer-research-student-growth-technical-report.pdf\">New data released Monday\u003c/a> points to the pandemic’s profound and enduring effects on the nation’s youngest public school children, many of whom were not yet in a formal school setting when COVID hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s showing that these students — who were either toddlers or maybe in preschool — that their learning was disrupted somehow,” said Kristen Huff, the vice president for research and assessment at Curriculum Associates, which provides math and reading tests to millions of students each year and authored the new report. “It’s striking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and other experts have suggested several potential reasons for this trend. One is that the pandemic disrupted early childhood education and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57373/why-we-need-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-youngest-children-right-now-and-their-parents\">made it harder for many kids to learn foundational skills\u003c/a> — gaps that can compound over time. Fewer children enrolled in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-04-26/the-pandemic-erased-a-decade-of-public-preschool-gains\">preschool\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/9/22/21451625/kindergarten-enrollment-decline-coronavirus-pandemic-shift/\">kindergarten\u003c/a>, and many young children struggled with remote learning. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/01/upshot/pandemic-children-school-performance.html\">Increased parental stress and screen time\u003c/a> may also be factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also possible that schools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63826/these-teens-were-missing-too-much-school-heres-what-it-took-to-get-them-back\">targeted more academic support to older children and teens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can see it as a call to action to make sure that we, as an educational community, are prioritizing those early grades,” Huff said. Those are critical years when children learn their letters and numbers and start reading and counting. “These are all the basics for being able to move along that learning trajectory for the rest of your schooling career.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64123/pandemic-aid-to-schools-paid-off-but-we-dont-know-how\">A slew of recent reports\u003c/a> have examined students’ academic progress post-pandemic. \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/02/05/learning-loss-study-finds-surprising-academic-recovery-growing-inequality/\">Some researchers found\u003c/a> that students in third to eighth grade are making larger-than-usual gains, but that most kids are still behind their pre-pandemic peers. Meanwhile, academic gaps between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers have widened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new Curriculum Associates report, which analyzed results from some 4 million students, is unique in that it includes data points for younger children who haven’t yet taken state tests. Researchers looked at how students who entered kindergarten to fourth grade during the 2021-22 school year performed in math and reading over three years, and compared that against kids who started the same grades just prior to the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children who began kindergarten in the fall of 2021, for example, scored close to what kindergartners did prior to the pandemic in reading. But over the last few years, they’ve fallen behind their counterparts. Kids who started first grade in the fall of 2021 have been consistently behind children who started first grade prior to the pandemic in reading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In math, meanwhile, students who started kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in the fall of 2021 all started off scoring lower than their counterparts did prior to the pandemic. And they’ve consistently made less progress — putting them “significantly behind” their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Younger children made less progress than their pre-pandemic peers regardless of whether they went to schools in cities, suburbs or rural communities. And the students who started off further behind had the most difficulty catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools may want to consider changing up their academic interventions to focus more on early elementary schoolers, researchers said. It will be especially important to pinpoint exactly which missing skills kids need to master so they can follow along with lessons in their current grade, Huff added. This year, many of the report’s struggling students will be entering third and fourth grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Charleston County, South Carolina, where \u003ca href=\"https://screportcards.com/overview/academics/academic-achievement/details/?q=eT0yMDIyJnQ9RCZzaWQ9MTAwMTAwMA\">younger students are outperforming\u003c/a> others \u003ca href=\"https://ed.sc.gov/data/test-scores/state-assessments/sc-ready/2023/state-scores-by-grade-level/?districtCode=9999&districtName=Statewide&schoolCode=999\">in their state\u003c/a>, especially in math, the district is using a few strategies that officials think have helped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district made \u003ca href=\"https://www.live5news.com/2024/04/24/charleston-co-school-district-working-improve-reading-performance-levels/\">improving reading instruction a top priority\u003c/a>. Officials purchased a new curriculum to better align with the science of reading, gave teachers \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/letrs-program-teacher-training\">extensive literacy skills training\u003c/a>, and started providing families more information about their kids’ academic performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crucially, said Buffy Roberts, who oversees assessments for Charleston County schools, the district identified groups of kids who were very behind and what it would take to catch them up over several years. Taking a longer view helped teachers break down a big job and ensured kids who needed a lot of help got more support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really helped people understand that if our students were already behind, making typical growth is great, but it’s not going to cut it,” Roberts said. “It was really thinking very strategically and being very targeted about what a child needs in order to get out of that, I hate to call it a hole, but it is a hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"mailto:kbelsha@chalkbeat.org\">\u003ci>kbelsha@chalkbeat.org\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/07/03/pandemic-left-younger-students-struggling-to-make-academic-progress/\" rel=\"canonical\">Chalkbeat\u003c/a> is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studies show that students of all ages, from elementary school to college, tend to absorb more when they’re reading on paper rather than screens. The advantage for paper is a small one, but it’s been replicated in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9817.12269\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dozens of laboratory experiments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, particularly when students are reading about science or other nonfiction texts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Experts debate why comprehension is worse on screens. Some think the glare and flicker of screens tax the brain more than ink on paper. Others conjecture that students have a tendency to skim online but read with more attention and effort on paper. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63519/distracted-students-understanding-these-3-myths-of-attention-span-can-help\">Digital distraction\u003c/a> is an obvious downside to screens. But internet browsing, texting or TikTok breaks aren’t allowed in the controlled conditions of these laboratory studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neuroscientists around the world are trying to peer inside the brain to solve the mystery. Recent studies have begun to document salient differences in brain activity when reading on paper versus screens. None of the studies I discuss below is definitive or perfect, but together they raise interesting questions for future researchers to explore. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One Korean research team documented that young adults had lower concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin in a section of the brain called the prefrontal cortex when reading on paper compared with screens. The prefrontal cortex is associated with working memory and that could mean the brain is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/14/1/76\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">more efficient\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in absorbing and memorizing new information on paper, according to a study published in January 2024 in the journal Brain Sciences. An experiment in Japan, published in 2020, also noticed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050920320457?via%3Dihub\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">less blood flow in the prefrontal cortex \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when readers were recalling words in a passage that they had read on paper, and more blood flow with screens.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s not clear what that increased blood flow means. The brain needs to be activated in order to learn and one could also argue that the extra brain activation during screen reading could be good for learning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of looking at blood flow, a team of Israeli scientists analyzed electrical activity in the brains of 6- to 8-year-olds. When the children read on paper, there was more power in high-frequency brainwaves. When the children read from screens, there was more energy in low-frequency bands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Israeli scientists interpreted these frequency differences as a sign of better concentration and attention when reading on paper. In their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283863\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2023 paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, they noted that attention difficulties and mind wandering have been associated with lower frequency bands – exactly the bands that were elevated during screen reading. However, it was a tiny study of 15 children and the researchers could not confirm whether the children’s minds were actually wandering when they were reading on screens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another group of neuroscientists in New York City has also been looking at electrical activity in the brain. But instead of documenting what happens inside the brain while reading, they looked at what happens in the brain just after reading, when students are responding to questions about a text. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290807#pone.0290807.ref033\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE in May 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, was conducted by neuroscientists at Teachers College, Columbia University, where The Hechinger Report is also based. My news organization is an independent unit of the college, but I am covering this study just like I cover other educational research. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the study, 59 children, age 10 to 12, read short passages, half on screens and half on paper. After reading the passage, the children were shown new words, one at a time, and asked whether they were related to the passage they had just read. The children wore stretchy hair nets embedded with electrodes. More than a hundred sensors measured electrical currents inside their brains a split second after each new word was revealed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For most words, there was no difference in brain activity between screens and paper. There was more positive voltage when the word was obviously related to the text, such as the word “flow” after reading a passage about volcanoes. There was more negative voltage with an unrelated word like “bucket,” which the researchers said was an indication of surprise and additional brain processing. These brainwaves were similar regardless of whether the child had read the passage on paper or on screens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, there were stark differences between paper and screens when it came to ambiguous words, ones where you could make a creative argument that the word was tangentially related to the reading passage or just as easily explain why it was unrelated. Take for example, the word “roar” after reading about volcanoes. Children who had read the passage on paper showed more positive voltage, just as they had for clearly related words like “flow.” Yet, those who had read the passage on screens showed more negative activity, just as they had for unrelated words like “bucket.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the researchers, the brainwave difference for ambiguous words was a sign that students were engaging in “deeper” reading on paper. According to this theory, the more deeply information is processed, the more associations the brain makes. The electrical activity the neuroscientists detected reveals the traces of these associations and connections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite this indication of deeper reading, the researchers didn’t detect any differences in basic comprehension. The children in this experiment did just as well on a simple comprehension test after reading a passage on paper as they did on screens. The neuroscientists told me that the comprehension test they administered was only to verify that the children had actually read the passage and wasn’t designed to detect deeper reading. I wish, however, the children had been asked to do something involving more analysis to buttress their argument that students had engaged in deeper reading on paper.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Virginia Clinton-Lisell, a reading researcher at the University of North Dakota who was not involved in this study, said she was “skeptical” of its conclusions, in part because the word-association exercise the neuroscientists created hasn’t been validated by outside researchers. Brain activation during a word association exercise may not be proof that we process language more thoroughly or deeply on paper.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One noteworthy result from this experiment is speed. Many reading experts have believed that comprehension is often worse on screens because students are skimming rather than reading. But in the controlled conditions of this laboratory experiment, there were no differences in reading speed: 57 seconds on the laptop compared to 58 seconds on paper – statistically equivalent in a small experiment like this. And so that raises more questions about why the brain is acting differently between the two media. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m not sure why one would process some visual images more deeply than others if the subjects spent similar amounts of time looking at them,” said Timothy Shanahan, a reading research expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of this work settles the debate over reading on screens versus paper. All of them ignore the promise of interactive features, such as glossaries and games, which can \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2021.1943453\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">swing the advantage to electronic texts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Early research can be messy, and that’s a normal part of the scientific process. But so far, the evidence seems to be corroborating conventional reading research that something different is going on when kids log in rather than turn a page.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-neuroscience-paper-v-screens-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reading on screens vs. paper\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studies show that students of all ages, from elementary school to college, tend to absorb more when they’re reading on paper rather than screens. The advantage for paper is a small one, but it’s been replicated in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9817.12269\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dozens of laboratory experiments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, particularly when students are reading about science or other nonfiction texts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Experts debate why comprehension is worse on screens. Some think the glare and flicker of screens tax the brain more than ink on paper. Others conjecture that students have a tendency to skim online but read with more attention and effort on paper. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63519/distracted-students-understanding-these-3-myths-of-attention-span-can-help\">Digital distraction\u003c/a> is an obvious downside to screens. But internet browsing, texting or TikTok breaks aren’t allowed in the controlled conditions of these laboratory studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neuroscientists around the world are trying to peer inside the brain to solve the mystery. Recent studies have begun to document salient differences in brain activity when reading on paper versus screens. None of the studies I discuss below is definitive or perfect, but together they raise interesting questions for future researchers to explore. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One Korean research team documented that young adults had lower concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin in a section of the brain called the prefrontal cortex when reading on paper compared with screens. The prefrontal cortex is associated with working memory and that could mean the brain is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/14/1/76\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">more efficient\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in absorbing and memorizing new information on paper, according to a study published in January 2024 in the journal Brain Sciences. An experiment in Japan, published in 2020, also noticed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050920320457?via%3Dihub\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">less blood flow in the prefrontal cortex \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when readers were recalling words in a passage that they had read on paper, and more blood flow with screens.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s not clear what that increased blood flow means. The brain needs to be activated in order to learn and one could also argue that the extra brain activation during screen reading could be good for learning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of looking at blood flow, a team of Israeli scientists analyzed electrical activity in the brains of 6- to 8-year-olds. When the children read on paper, there was more power in high-frequency brainwaves. When the children read from screens, there was more energy in low-frequency bands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Israeli scientists interpreted these frequency differences as a sign of better concentration and attention when reading on paper. In their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283863\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2023 paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, they noted that attention difficulties and mind wandering have been associated with lower frequency bands – exactly the bands that were elevated during screen reading. However, it was a tiny study of 15 children and the researchers could not confirm whether the children’s minds were actually wandering when they were reading on screens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another group of neuroscientists in New York City has also been looking at electrical activity in the brain. But instead of documenting what happens inside the brain while reading, they looked at what happens in the brain just after reading, when students are responding to questions about a text. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290807#pone.0290807.ref033\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE in May 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, was conducted by neuroscientists at Teachers College, Columbia University, where The Hechinger Report is also based. My news organization is an independent unit of the college, but I am covering this study just like I cover other educational research. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the study, 59 children, age 10 to 12, read short passages, half on screens and half on paper. After reading the passage, the children were shown new words, one at a time, and asked whether they were related to the passage they had just read. The children wore stretchy hair nets embedded with electrodes. More than a hundred sensors measured electrical currents inside their brains a split second after each new word was revealed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For most words, there was no difference in brain activity between screens and paper. There was more positive voltage when the word was obviously related to the text, such as the word “flow” after reading a passage about volcanoes. There was more negative voltage with an unrelated word like “bucket,” which the researchers said was an indication of surprise and additional brain processing. These brainwaves were similar regardless of whether the child had read the passage on paper or on screens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, there were stark differences between paper and screens when it came to ambiguous words, ones where you could make a creative argument that the word was tangentially related to the reading passage or just as easily explain why it was unrelated. Take for example, the word “roar” after reading about volcanoes. Children who had read the passage on paper showed more positive voltage, just as they had for clearly related words like “flow.” Yet, those who had read the passage on screens showed more negative activity, just as they had for unrelated words like “bucket.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the researchers, the brainwave difference for ambiguous words was a sign that students were engaging in “deeper” reading on paper. According to this theory, the more deeply information is processed, the more associations the brain makes. The electrical activity the neuroscientists detected reveals the traces of these associations and connections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite this indication of deeper reading, the researchers didn’t detect any differences in basic comprehension. The children in this experiment did just as well on a simple comprehension test after reading a passage on paper as they did on screens. The neuroscientists told me that the comprehension test they administered was only to verify that the children had actually read the passage and wasn’t designed to detect deeper reading. I wish, however, the children had been asked to do something involving more analysis to buttress their argument that students had engaged in deeper reading on paper.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Virginia Clinton-Lisell, a reading researcher at the University of North Dakota who was not involved in this study, said she was “skeptical” of its conclusions, in part because the word-association exercise the neuroscientists created hasn’t been validated by outside researchers. Brain activation during a word association exercise may not be proof that we process language more thoroughly or deeply on paper.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One noteworthy result from this experiment is speed. Many reading experts have believed that comprehension is often worse on screens because students are skimming rather than reading. But in the controlled conditions of this laboratory experiment, there were no differences in reading speed: 57 seconds on the laptop compared to 58 seconds on paper – statistically equivalent in a small experiment like this. And so that raises more questions about why the brain is acting differently between the two media. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m not sure why one would process some visual images more deeply than others if the subjects spent similar amounts of time looking at them,” said Timothy Shanahan, a reading research expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of this work settles the debate over reading on screens versus paper. All of them ignore the promise of interactive features, such as glossaries and games, which can \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2021.1943453\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">swing the advantage to electronic texts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Early research can be messy, and that’s a normal part of the scientific process. But so far, the evidence seems to be corroborating conventional reading research that something different is going on when kids log in rather than turn a page.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-neuroscience-paper-v-screens-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reading on screens vs. paper\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Excerpted from \u003ca href=\"https://us.corwin.com/books/just-read-it-279383\">Just Read It: Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms\u003c/a> by Jarred Amato. Copyright (c) 2024 by Corwin Press, Inc. All rights reserved.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every fall, I look forward to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60515/matching-students-with-books-is-a-sacred-task-how-educators-can-select-stories-that-boost-belonging\">challenge of matching\u003c/a> our students with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61018/want-kids-to-love-reading-authors-grace-lin-and-kate-messner-share-how-to-find-wonder-in-books\">books they don’t want to put down\u003c/a>. However, even with comfortable seating, ample book access, consistent time, supportive classmates and a knowledgeable teacher offering recommendations, not all students embrace our reading routine right away. Each student is at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61287/beyond-reading-logs-and-lexile-levels-supporting-students-multifaceted-reading-lives\">different point in their reading journey\u003c/a>. While we can all agree that labels suck, in my experience, many (but certainly not all) students fall into one of three reading categories: instant starters, bike riders and smart skeptics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Instant starters\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-64041 alignright\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"138\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1.jpg 630w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1-160x229.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 138px) 100vw, 138px\">\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Students in this group take off immediately. In fact, they don’t even wait for the timer to begin reading. They know what genres and authors they like, and they have a plan. They can read … and read … and read without getting bored or tired. Students in this group pick up a new book during first-period English, sneak pages during their math lesson (I have to pretend to support the math teacher when they complain that a student “never puts their book down”), stop by my room to read more at lunch and then continue reading at home. When they return the following morning, our conversation sounds like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “How’s the book?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Student: “I already finished it!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “What?! I assume you loved it?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Student: “Yup. It was so good.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “Did you even sleep?!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Occasionally, the instant starters will ask for a recommendation: “Amato, what should I read next?” And we will head to the shelves and discuss their options. After a few minutes of browsing and chatting, they will return to their seat with a stack of three or four titles. Students in this group also join me in giving impromptu book talks and “selling” their favorites to friends and classmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“You have to read this one!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Oh, if you liked , then you’re going to love … !”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bike riders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many students in this group will tell you they enjoyed reading at one point. They can happily recall positive reading experiences from their childhood. However, as they got older and busier (and reading, for a variety of reasons, became laborious), \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56900/when-kids-say-im-not-a-reader-how-librarians-can-disrupt-traumatic-reading-practices\">books no longer fit into their lives\u003c/a>. Therefore, it doesn’t take much time for the bike riders to get back into a reading routine. The conversations, although different for each student, tend to have a similar rhythm. We will walk over to the bookshelves where I will ask a few questions:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What books did you like last year? Or maybe the year before that?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What are some of your favorite books of all-time?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“OK, so what are some of your favorite movies or TV series?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62597/curlfriends-new-in-town-reminds-us-that-there-can-be-positives-of-middle-school\">Graphic novels\u003c/a> or\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57806/how-teaching-the-work-of-living-poets-can-make-english-class-more-exciting-and-inclusive\"> poetry\u003c/a>?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Realistic fiction or\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56580/how-fan-fiction-inspires-kids-to-read-and-write-and-write-and-write\"> fantasy\u003c/a>?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What do you think you are in the mood to read now?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hmmm … OK. Here are three that I think you’ll like. Check out the summaries and let me know if any of them look interesting.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few minutes later:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Student: “I’m gonna go with this one.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Me: “Sweet! Great choice. Keep me posted. And if you end up changing your mind and want to grab another one, no worries.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It may take a few days or weeks, but eventually students in this group hit their stride. For them, reading is just like riding a bike, and hopefully we can push them to try longer and more challenging trails.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I forgot how much fun reading could be.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I haven’t read this much since fifth grade!”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62409/how-bibliocounseling-can-create-space-for-black-girls-and-girls-of-color-to-connect-in-school\">mental health\u003c/a> is so much better now that I’m not on my phone as much.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Smart skeptics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Students in this group are justifiably skeptical: Why? Why reading? Why are we doing this? What’s the point? When educators say that “reading is important,” they refuse to just take our word for it. They don’t buy “because I said so.” The smart skeptics need to see evidence. Students in this group, regardless of their reading ability, choose to spend their time in other ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“No offense, but I just don’t like reading.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“None of these books are interesting.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Can I do something else instead?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of getting frustrated, it’s important that we \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">remain patient and flexible with this group\u003c/a>. Let’s put our own egos aside and acknowledge that our students’ hesitation is valid. Let’s show our smart skeptics that reading is a worthwhile investment. Let’s continue to build relationships, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60088/using-a-strengths-based-approach-to-help-students-realize-their-potential\">offer support\u003c/a> and be ready when they finally come around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/jarredamato?lang=en\">Jarred Amato\u003c/a> is an award-winning English teacher and the cofounder of Project LIT Community, a national grassroots literacy movement. Jarred enjoys reading, writing and laughing alongside young people every day and collaborating with fellow educators to improve literacy access, attitudes and outcomes. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-64040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download-160x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download-160x212.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">Amato is a two-time Metro Nashville Public Schools Blue Ribbon teacher and the recipient of the Penguin Random House Teacher Award for Literacy and the Inspiring Educator Award from the Nashville Public Education Foundation. He received his bachelor’s degree in English and history from Vanderbilt University, his master’s in teaching from Belmont University and his doctoral degree from Lipscomb University. After 13 years of teaching middle and high school English in Nashville, Amato recently relocated to New Jersey, where he and his wife are attempting to keep up with their two-year-old son.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Excerpted from \u003ca href=\"https://us.corwin.com/books/just-read-it-279383\">Just Read It: Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms\u003c/a> by Jarred Amato. Copyright (c) 2024 by Corwin Press, Inc. All rights reserved.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every fall, I look forward to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60515/matching-students-with-books-is-a-sacred-task-how-educators-can-select-stories-that-boost-belonging\">challenge of matching\u003c/a> our students with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61018/want-kids-to-love-reading-authors-grace-lin-and-kate-messner-share-how-to-find-wonder-in-books\">books they don’t want to put down\u003c/a>. However, even with comfortable seating, ample book access, consistent time, supportive classmates and a knowledgeable teacher offering recommendations, not all students embrace our reading routine right away. Each student is at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61287/beyond-reading-logs-and-lexile-levels-supporting-students-multifaceted-reading-lives\">different point in their reading journey\u003c/a>. While we can all agree that labels suck, in my experience, many (but certainly not all) students fall into one of three reading categories: instant starters, bike riders and smart skeptics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Instant starters\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-64041 alignright\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"138\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1.jpg 630w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/Amato_Just-Read-It-1-160x229.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 138px) 100vw, 138px\">\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Students in this group take off immediately. In fact, they don’t even wait for the timer to begin reading. They know what genres and authors they like, and they have a plan. They can read … and read … and read without getting bored or tired. Students in this group pick up a new book during first-period English, sneak pages during their math lesson (I have to pretend to support the math teacher when they complain that a student “never puts their book down”), stop by my room to read more at lunch and then continue reading at home. When they return the following morning, our conversation sounds like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “How’s the book?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Student: “I already finished it!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “What?! I assume you loved it?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Student: “Yup. It was so good.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Me: “Did you even sleep?!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Occasionally, the instant starters will ask for a recommendation: “Amato, what should I read next?” And we will head to the shelves and discuss their options. After a few minutes of browsing and chatting, they will return to their seat with a stack of three or four titles. Students in this group also join me in giving impromptu book talks and “selling” their favorites to friends and classmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“You have to read this one!”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Oh, if you liked , then you’re going to love … !”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bike riders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many students in this group will tell you they enjoyed reading at one point. They can happily recall positive reading experiences from their childhood. However, as they got older and busier (and reading, for a variety of reasons, became laborious), \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56900/when-kids-say-im-not-a-reader-how-librarians-can-disrupt-traumatic-reading-practices\">books no longer fit into their lives\u003c/a>. Therefore, it doesn’t take much time for the bike riders to get back into a reading routine. The conversations, although different for each student, tend to have a similar rhythm. We will walk over to the bookshelves where I will ask a few questions:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What books did you like last year? Or maybe the year before that?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What are some of your favorite books of all-time?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“OK, so what are some of your favorite movies or TV series?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62597/curlfriends-new-in-town-reminds-us-that-there-can-be-positives-of-middle-school\">Graphic novels\u003c/a> or\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57806/how-teaching-the-work-of-living-poets-can-make-english-class-more-exciting-and-inclusive\"> poetry\u003c/a>?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Realistic fiction or\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56580/how-fan-fiction-inspires-kids-to-read-and-write-and-write-and-write\"> fantasy\u003c/a>?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What do you think you are in the mood to read now?”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hmmm … OK. Here are three that I think you’ll like. Check out the summaries and let me know if any of them look interesting.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few minutes later:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Student: “I’m gonna go with this one.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Me: “Sweet! Great choice. Keep me posted. And if you end up changing your mind and want to grab another one, no worries.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It may take a few days or weeks, but eventually students in this group hit their stride. For them, reading is just like riding a bike, and hopefully we can push them to try longer and more challenging trails.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I forgot how much fun reading could be.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I haven’t read this much since fifth grade!”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62409/how-bibliocounseling-can-create-space-for-black-girls-and-girls-of-color-to-connect-in-school\">mental health\u003c/a> is so much better now that I’m not on my phone as much.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Smart skeptics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Students in this group are justifiably skeptical: Why? Why reading? Why are we doing this? What’s the point? When educators say that “reading is important,” they refuse to just take our word for it. They don’t buy “because I said so.” The smart skeptics need to see evidence. Students in this group, regardless of their reading ability, choose to spend their time in other ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“No offense, but I just don’t like reading.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“None of these books are interesting.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Can I do something else instead?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of getting frustrated, it’s important that we \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">remain patient and flexible with this group\u003c/a>. Let’s put our own egos aside and acknowledge that our students’ hesitation is valid. Let’s show our smart skeptics that reading is a worthwhile investment. Let’s continue to build relationships, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60088/using-a-strengths-based-approach-to-help-students-realize-their-potential\">offer support\u003c/a> and be ready when they finally come around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/jarredamato?lang=en\">Jarred Amato\u003c/a> is an award-winning English teacher and the cofounder of Project LIT Community, a national grassroots literacy movement. Jarred enjoys reading, writing and laughing alongside young people every day and collaborating with fellow educators to improve literacy access, attitudes and outcomes. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-64040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download-160x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download-160x212.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/06/download.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">Amato is a two-time Metro Nashville Public Schools Blue Ribbon teacher and the recipient of the Penguin Random House Teacher Award for Literacy and the Inspiring Educator Award from the Nashville Public Education Foundation. He received his bachelor’s degree in English and history from Vanderbilt University, his master’s in teaching from Belmont University and his doctoral degree from Lipscomb University. After 13 years of teaching middle and high school English in Nashville, Amato recently relocated to New Jersey, where he and his wife are attempting to keep up with their two-year-old son.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Growing Up, He Struggled to Read. Then a Young Teacher Saw His Potential",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>Juleus Ghunta is a published children’s author and award-winning poet. But growing up, he could barely read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghunta and his three siblings lived in a rural part of Western Jamaica. They were raised by a single mother, and she often had to make tough choices about how to use their limited resources — including a decision to send his oldest sister to school, and to keep Ghunta at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life was very difficult for us,” he recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Ghunta finally went to school, he couldn’t catch up on his reading skills. Not only had he been kept home from school as a child, he had not been exposed to books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time he entered six grade, he could spell his name, but he still couldn’t make out words, spell, or read with understanding. The situation was made worse by a series of teachers who made him feel worthless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the teachers were not very patient, not very kind,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I struggled in school with a deep sense of loss and shame and humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63598\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-63598\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-160x120.jpe\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"120\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-160x120.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-800x600.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-1020x765.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-768x576.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-1536x1152.jpe 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f.jpe 1830w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juleus Ghunta \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juleus Ghunta)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Ghunta was about 12, a young teacher-in-training decided to start a special reading program for struggling students. Ghunta was the first student to sign up. That teacher, whose name he does not recall, would become Ghunta’s unsung hero — the person who changed his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The teacher was incredibly kind to me,” he sad. “She was patient. She was creative. She did not ask anything of me, except that I work hard and believe in myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under her guidance, Ghunta’s reading skills finally started to improve. And his sense of inadequacy began to lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She had left me with the gift of literacy,” he said. “And with a deeper appreciation of my personhood, and value as a human being.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Ghunta’s experience with the teacher, his life took a new direction. He graduated from elementary school with a number of academic awards, including one for “most improved in reading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on to college, and later, graduate school. Today, he is the author of two children’s books, including \u003cem>Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope, \u003c/em>about overcoming difficult experiences in childhood. He’s now working on his first full-length collection of poetry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, Ghunta went back to his old school, to ask the principal and teachers if they knew his old teacher’s name. But no one did. He still hopes to find her one day, so that he can tell her thank you for seeing his potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would love for her to see the significant impact that she has made on my life, and the ways in which I have carried this memory of her — the hope, the light, with me — and how it continues to be a source of joy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hiddenbrain.org/myunsunghero/\">\u003cem>My Unsung Hero is also a podcast\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Growing+up%2C+he+struggled+to+read.+Then+a+young+teacher+saw+his+potential&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time he entered six grade, he could spell his name, but he still couldn’t make out words, spell, or read with understanding. The situation was made worse by a series of teachers who made him feel worthless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the teachers were not very patient, not very kind,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I struggled in school with a deep sense of loss and shame and humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63598\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-63598\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-160x120.jpe\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"120\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-160x120.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-800x600.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-1020x765.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-768x576.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f-1536x1152.jpe 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/04/juleus-ghunta-500b7ea4991c0702c791037d85681dbe21e2c70f.jpe 1830w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juleus Ghunta \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juleus Ghunta)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Ghunta was about 12, a young teacher-in-training decided to start a special reading program for struggling students. Ghunta was the first student to sign up. That teacher, whose name he does not recall, would become Ghunta’s unsung hero — the person who changed his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The teacher was incredibly kind to me,” he sad. “She was patient. She was creative. She did not ask anything of me, except that I work hard and believe in myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under her guidance, Ghunta’s reading skills finally started to improve. And his sense of inadequacy began to lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She had left me with the gift of literacy,” he said. “And with a deeper appreciation of my personhood, and value as a human being.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Ghunta’s experience with the teacher, his life took a new direction. He graduated from elementary school with a number of academic awards, including one for “most improved in reading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on to college, and later, graduate school. Today, he is the author of two children’s books, including \u003cem>Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope, \u003c/em>about overcoming difficult experiences in childhood. He’s now working on his first full-length collection of poetry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, Ghunta went back to his old school, to ask the principal and teachers if they knew his old teacher’s name. But no one did. He still hopes to find her one day, so that he can tell her thank you for seeing his potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would love for her to see the significant impact that she has made on my life, and the ways in which I have carried this memory of her — the hope, the light, with me — and how it continues to be a source of joy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hiddenbrain.org/myunsunghero/\">\u003cem>My Unsung Hero is also a podcast\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Growing+up%2C+he+struggled+to+read.+Then+a+young+teacher+saw+his+potential&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp class=\"p7\">Education journalism is chock full of stories touting some brand new idea that could fix schools. Artificial intelligence is the current obsession. Philanthropic funders often say they want to see fewer stories about problems and more stories about solutions. But the truth is that lifting student achievement is really hard, and the vast majority of innovations don’t end up working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">A \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2024002/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">February 2024 report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> about a research-and-development program inside the Department of Education makes this truth crystal clear. The failure rate was 74%. Under this program, called Investing in Innovation or i3, the federal government gave out $1.4 billion between 2010 and 2016 to education nonprofits and researchers for the purpose of developing and testing new ideas in the classroom. But only 26% of the innovations yielded \u003ci>any\u003c/i> positive benefits for students and no negative harms, according to the program’s final report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Most of the 172 grants tested ideas about improving instruction or turning around low-performing schools. Almost 150 of them reported results with more than 20 still unfinished. Of the completed ones, a quarter of the innovations hadn’t been properly tested. Doing rigorous research isn’t easy; you need to set up a group of comparison students who don’t get the intervention and track everyone’s progress. Of the 112 properly evaluated grants, the most common result was a null finding, meaning that the intervention didn’t make a difference. Only a small handful left students worse off. The results for each program are hidden in pages 55 through 64 of a separate \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2024002/pdf/2024002_appendices.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">appendices document\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, but I have created a \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Appendix-results.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">pdf of them\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The low success rate for new ideas is “psychologically disappointing,” said Barbara Goodson, lead author of the report and an expert in educational research at the consulting firm Abt Global. “You would hope that all this [innovation] would pan out for students and that we would know better how to make education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>A 26% success rate\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63343\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 716px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"716\" height=\"822\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3.png 716w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-160x184.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Twenty-six percent of i3 evaluations found at least one positive effect and no negative effects on student academic outcomes (39 grants). WWC refers to the What Works Clearinghouse, a library of evidence-based teaching practices. \u003ccite>(IES, February 2024)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The original ideas all showed promise and outside reviewers rated applications. But when you try new things and put them to a rigorous test in real classrooms, human behavior and students achievement are influenced by so many things that you cannot control, from struggles at home and poverty to health issues and psychological stress. And it can be difficult to generate downstream results for students on a year-end achievement test when an intervention is targeting something else, such parent engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Some innovations did work well. \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/a-little-known-program-has-lifted-9th-grade-performance-in-virtually-every-type-of-school/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Building Assets, Reducing Risks\u003c/span>\u003c/a> (BARR) is the poster child for what this grant program had hoped to produce. The idea was an early warning system that detects when children are starting to stumble at school. Teachers, administrators or counselors intervene in this early stage and build relationships with students to get them back on track. It received a seed grant to develop the idea and implement it in schools. The results were good enough for BARR to receive a bigger federal grant from this R&D program three years later. Again it worked with different types of students in different parts of the country, and BARR received a \u003ca href=\"https://www.air.org/resource/report/building-assets-and-reducing-risks-barr-i3-scale-evaluation\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">third grant\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to scale it up across the nation in 2017. Now BARR is in more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minnesota-schools-awarded-funding-to-implement-evidence-based-barr-system-301955641.html\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">300 schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and Maine is adopting it statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Some ideas that were proven to work in the short term didn’t yield long-term benefits or backfired completely. One example is Reading Recovery, a tutoring program for struggling readers in first grade that costs $10,000 per student and was a recipient of one of these grants. A randomized control trial that began in 2011 produced a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373718764828\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">giant boost in reading achievement for first graders\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. However, three years later, Reading Recovery students subsequently fell behind and by \u003ca href=\"https://www.apmreports.org/story/2022/04/23/reading-recovery-negative-impact-on-children\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">fourth grade were far worse readers\u003c/span>\u003c/a> than similar students who hadn’t had the tutoring, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19345747.2023.2209092\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">follow-up study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The tutoring seemed to harm them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It can be hard to understand these contradictions. Henry May, an associate professor at the University of Delaware who conducted both the short-term and long-term Reading Recovery studies, explained that the assessment used in the first grade study was full of simple one-syllable words. The tutoring sessions likely exposed children to these words so many times that the students memorized them. But Reading Recovery hadn’t taught the phonics necessary to read more complex words in later grades, May said. Reading Recovery disputes the long-term study results, pointing out that three-fourths of the study participants had departed so data was collected for only 25% of them. A spokesperson for the nonprofit organization also says it does teach phonics in its tutoring program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I asked Abt’s Goodson to summarize the lessons learned from the federal program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"ul1\">\n\u003cli class=\"li10\">\u003cstrong>More students.\u003c/strong> It might seem like common sense to try a new idea on only a small group of students at first, but the Department of Education learned over time that it needed to increase the number of students in order to produce statistically significant results. There are two reasons that a study can end with a null result. One is because the intervention didn’t work, but it can also be a methodological quirk. When the achievement benefits are small, you need a large number of students to be sure that the result wasn’t a fluke. There were too many fluke signals in these evaluation studies. Over the years, sample sizes were increased even for ideas that were in the early development stage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli class=\"li10\">\u003cstrong>Implementation.\u003c/strong> Goodson still believes in the importance of randomized control trials to create credible evidence for what works, but she says one of the big lessons is that these trials alone are not enough. \u003cspan class=\"s2\">Documenting and studying the implementation\u003c/span> are just as important as evaluating the results, she said. Understanding the barriers in the classroom can help developers tweak programs and make them more effective. They might be too expensive or require too many weeks of teacher training. The disappointing results of the i3 program have helped spawn a new \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2023005/pdf/2023005.pdf\">“science of implementation”\u003c/a> to learn more about these obstacles.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli class=\"li11\">\u003cstrong>National scale up.\u003c/strong> Too much money was spent on expanding new ideas to more students across the nation, and some of these ideas ended up not panning out in research evaluations. In the successor program to i3, the scale up grants are much smaller. Instead of using the money to directly implement the intervention nationwide, the funds help innovators make practical adjustments so that it can be replicated. For example, instead of using expensive outside coaches, a program might experiment with training existing teachers at a school to run it.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Though the original i3 program no longer exists, its successor program, Education Innovation and Research (EIR), continues with the same mission of developing and evaluating new ideas. Currently, it is ramping up funding to deal with the post-pandemic crises of learning loss, mental health and teacher attrition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p12\">\u003cb>Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grants 2017-2023\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p6\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63344\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"904\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2.png 904w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-800x356.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-160x71.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-768x342.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It’s easy to feel discouraged that the federal government has invested around $3 billion in the last dozen years on educational innovation with so little to show for it. But we are slowly building a \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">good evidence database\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of some things that do work – ideas that are not just based on gut instincts and whim, but are scientifically proven with a relatively small investment compared to what the government spends on research in other areas. By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47564\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">defense research gets over $90 billion a year. Health research receives nearly $50 billion\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. I wonder how much further we might be in helping students become proficient in reading and math if we invested even a little bit more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-only-a-quarter-of-federally-funded-education-innovations-benefited-students-report-says/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>education R&D\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p7\">Education journalism is chock full of stories touting some brand new idea that could fix schools. Artificial intelligence is the current obsession. Philanthropic funders often say they want to see fewer stories about problems and more stories about solutions. But the truth is that lifting student achievement is really hard, and the vast majority of innovations don’t end up working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">A \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2024002/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">February 2024 report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> about a research-and-development program inside the Department of Education makes this truth crystal clear. The failure rate was 74%. Under this program, called Investing in Innovation or i3, the federal government gave out $1.4 billion between 2010 and 2016 to education nonprofits and researchers for the purpose of developing and testing new ideas in the classroom. But only 26% of the innovations yielded \u003ci>any\u003c/i> positive benefits for students and no negative harms, according to the program’s final report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Most of the 172 grants tested ideas about improving instruction or turning around low-performing schools. Almost 150 of them reported results with more than 20 still unfinished. Of the completed ones, a quarter of the innovations hadn’t been properly tested. Doing rigorous research isn’t easy; you need to set up a group of comparison students who don’t get the intervention and track everyone’s progress. Of the 112 properly evaluated grants, the most common result was a null finding, meaning that the intervention didn’t make a difference. Only a small handful left students worse off. The results for each program are hidden in pages 55 through 64 of a separate \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2024002/pdf/2024002_appendices.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">appendices document\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, but I have created a \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Appendix-results.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">pdf of them\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The low success rate for new ideas is “psychologically disappointing,” said Barbara Goodson, lead author of the report and an expert in educational research at the consulting firm Abt Global. “You would hope that all this [innovation] would pan out for students and that we would know better how to make education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>A 26% success rate\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63343\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 716px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"716\" height=\"822\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3.png 716w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-160x184.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Twenty-six percent of i3 evaluations found at least one positive effect and no negative effects on student academic outcomes (39 grants). WWC refers to the What Works Clearinghouse, a library of evidence-based teaching practices. \u003ccite>(IES, February 2024)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The original ideas all showed promise and outside reviewers rated applications. But when you try new things and put them to a rigorous test in real classrooms, human behavior and students achievement are influenced by so many things that you cannot control, from struggles at home and poverty to health issues and psychological stress. And it can be difficult to generate downstream results for students on a year-end achievement test when an intervention is targeting something else, such parent engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Some innovations did work well. \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/a-little-known-program-has-lifted-9th-grade-performance-in-virtually-every-type-of-school/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Building Assets, Reducing Risks\u003c/span>\u003c/a> (BARR) is the poster child for what this grant program had hoped to produce. The idea was an early warning system that detects when children are starting to stumble at school. Teachers, administrators or counselors intervene in this early stage and build relationships with students to get them back on track. It received a seed grant to develop the idea and implement it in schools. The results were good enough for BARR to receive a bigger federal grant from this R&D program three years later. Again it worked with different types of students in different parts of the country, and BARR received a \u003ca href=\"https://www.air.org/resource/report/building-assets-and-reducing-risks-barr-i3-scale-evaluation\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">third grant\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to scale it up across the nation in 2017. Now BARR is in more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minnesota-schools-awarded-funding-to-implement-evidence-based-barr-system-301955641.html\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">300 schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and Maine is adopting it statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Some ideas that were proven to work in the short term didn’t yield long-term benefits or backfired completely. One example is Reading Recovery, a tutoring program for struggling readers in first grade that costs $10,000 per student and was a recipient of one of these grants. A randomized control trial that began in 2011 produced a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373718764828\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">giant boost in reading achievement for first graders\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. However, three years later, Reading Recovery students subsequently fell behind and by \u003ca href=\"https://www.apmreports.org/story/2022/04/23/reading-recovery-negative-impact-on-children\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">fourth grade were far worse readers\u003c/span>\u003c/a> than similar students who hadn’t had the tutoring, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19345747.2023.2209092\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">follow-up study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The tutoring seemed to harm them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It can be hard to understand these contradictions. Henry May, an associate professor at the University of Delaware who conducted both the short-term and long-term Reading Recovery studies, explained that the assessment used in the first grade study was full of simple one-syllable words. The tutoring sessions likely exposed children to these words so many times that the students memorized them. But Reading Recovery hadn’t taught the phonics necessary to read more complex words in later grades, May said. Reading Recovery disputes the long-term study results, pointing out that three-fourths of the study participants had departed so data was collected for only 25% of them. A spokesperson for the nonprofit organization also says it does teach phonics in its tutoring program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I asked Abt’s Goodson to summarize the lessons learned from the federal program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"ul1\">\n\u003cli class=\"li10\">\u003cstrong>More students.\u003c/strong> It might seem like common sense to try a new idea on only a small group of students at first, but the Department of Education learned over time that it needed to increase the number of students in order to produce statistically significant results. There are two reasons that a study can end with a null result. One is because the intervention didn’t work, but it can also be a methodological quirk. When the achievement benefits are small, you need a large number of students to be sure that the result wasn’t a fluke. There were too many fluke signals in these evaluation studies. Over the years, sample sizes were increased even for ideas that were in the early development stage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli class=\"li10\">\u003cstrong>Implementation.\u003c/strong> Goodson still believes in the importance of randomized control trials to create credible evidence for what works, but she says one of the big lessons is that these trials alone are not enough. \u003cspan class=\"s2\">Documenting and studying the implementation\u003c/span> are just as important as evaluating the results, she said. Understanding the barriers in the classroom can help developers tweak programs and make them more effective. They might be too expensive or require too many weeks of teacher training. The disappointing results of the i3 program have helped spawn a new \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2023005/pdf/2023005.pdf\">“science of implementation”\u003c/a> to learn more about these obstacles.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli class=\"li11\">\u003cstrong>National scale up.\u003c/strong> Too much money was spent on expanding new ideas to more students across the nation, and some of these ideas ended up not panning out in research evaluations. In the successor program to i3, the scale up grants are much smaller. Instead of using the money to directly implement the intervention nationwide, the funds help innovators make practical adjustments so that it can be replicated. For example, instead of using expensive outside coaches, a program might experiment with training existing teachers at a school to run it.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Though the original i3 program no longer exists, its successor program, Education Innovation and Research (EIR), continues with the same mission of developing and evaluating new ideas. Currently, it is ramping up funding to deal with the post-pandemic crises of learning loss, mental health and teacher attrition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p12\">\u003cb>Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grants 2017-2023\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p6\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63344\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"904\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2.png 904w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-800x356.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-160x71.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-768x342.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It’s easy to feel discouraged that the federal government has invested around $3 billion in the last dozen years on educational innovation with so little to show for it. But we are slowly building a \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">good evidence database\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of some things that do work – ideas that are not just based on gut instincts and whim, but are scientifically proven with a relatively small investment compared to what the government spends on research in other areas. By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47564\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">defense research gets over $90 billion a year. Health research receives nearly $50 billion\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. I wonder how much further we might be in helping students become proficient in reading and math if we invested even a little bit more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-only-a-quarter-of-federally-funded-education-innovations-benefited-students-report-says/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>education R&D\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A growing chorus of education researchers, pundits and “science of reading” advocates are calling for young children to be taught more about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60793/gholdy-muhammad-wants-teachers-to-see-the-world-as-curriculum\">the world around them\u003c/a>. It’s an indirect way of teaching reading comprehension. The theory is that what we grasp from what we read depends on whether we can hook it to concepts and topics that we already know. Natalie Wexler’s 2019 best-selling book, \u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://nataliewexler.com/the-knowledge-gap/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Knowledge Gap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, championed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54452/why-deeply-diving-into-content-could-be-the-key-to-reading-comprehension\">knowledge-building curricula\u003c/a> and more schools around the country, from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimorecp.org/resources/core-knowledge-lessons/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baltimore\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-comprehension-hinges-on-building-knowledge-new-curricula-aim-to-help/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michigan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.libertycommon.org/about/news-and-events/colorado-core-knowledge-network\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colorado\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, are adopting these content-filled lesson plans to teach geography, astronomy and even art history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Makers of knowledge-building curricula say their lessons are based on research, but the truth is that there is scant classroom evidence that building knowledge first increases future reading comprehension. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2023, University of Virginia researchers promoted \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/index.php/ai23-755\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a study of Colorado charter schools that had adopted E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge curriculum\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Children who had won lotteries to attend these charter schools had higher reading scores than students who lost the lotteries. But it was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61475/what-the-latest-reading-study-thats-getting-a-lot-of-buzz-says-and-where-its-evidence-falls-short\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">impossible to tell whether the Core Knowledge curriculum itself made the difference\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or if the boost to reading scores could be attributed to other things that these charter schools were doing, such as hiring great teachers and training them well. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More importantly, the students at these charter schools were largely from middle and upper middle class families. And what we really want to know is whether knowledge building at school helps poorer children, who are less likely to be exposed to the world through travel, live performances and other experiences that money can buy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A new study, published online on Feb. 26, 2024, in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Psychology, now provides stronger causal evidence that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-55174-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">building background knowledge can translate into higher reading achievement for low-income children\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The study took place in an unnamed, large urban school district in North Carolina where most of the students are Black and Hispanic and 40% are from low-income families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2019, a group of researchers, led by James Kim, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, randomly selected 15 of the district’s 30 elementary schools to teach first graders special \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://scholar.harvard.edu/jameskim/pages/research-summary\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">knowledge-building lessons\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for three years, through third grade. Kim, a reading specialist, and other researchers had developed two sets of multi-year lesson plans, one for science and one for social studies. Students were also given related books to read during the summer. (\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This research was funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The remaining 15 elementary schools in the district continued to teach their students as usual, still delivering some social studies and science instruction, but not these special lessons. Regular reading class was untouched in the experiment. All 30 schools were using the same reading curriculum, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/el-education-k-5-language-arts-2017\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Expeditionary Learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which follows science of reading principles and teaches phonics. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">COVID-19 hit in the middle of the experiment. When schools shut down in the spring of 2020, the researchers scrapped the planned social studies units for second graders. In 2021, students were still not attending school in person. The researchers revised their science curriculum and decided to give an abridged online version to all 30 schools instead of just half. In the end, children in the original 15 schools received one year of social studies lessons and three years of science lessons compared to only one year of science in the comparison group. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, approximately 1,000 students who had received the special science and social studies lessons in first and second grades outperformed the 1,000 students who got only the abbreviated online science in third grade. Their reading and math scores on the North Carolina state tests were higher not only in third grade, but also in fourth grade, more than a year after the knowledge-building experiment ended. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t a huge boost to reading achievement, but it was significant and long-lasting. It cost about $400 per student in instructional materials and teacher training.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Timothy Shanahan, a literacy expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was not involved in this research or the development of these science lessons, praised the study. “The study makes it very clear (as have a few others recently) that it is possible to combine reading with social studies and science curriculum in powerful ways that can improve both literacy and content knowledge,” he said by email. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Connecting background knowledge to reading comprehension is not a new idea. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-0663.80.1.16\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">famous 1987 experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> documented that children who were weaker readers but knowledgeable about baseball understood a reading passage about baseball better than children who were stronger readers but didn’t know much about the sport. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Obviously, it’s not realistic for schools to attempt to familiarize students with every topic they might encounter in a book. And there is disagreement among researchers about how general knowledge of the world translates into higher reading performance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kim thinks that a knowledge-building curriculum doesn’t need to teach many topics. Random facts, he says, are not important. He argues for depth instead of breadth. He says it’s important to construct a thoughtful sequence of lessons over the years, allowing students to see how the same patterns crop up in different ways. He calls these patterns “schemas.” In this experiment, for example, students learned about animal survival in first grade and dinosaur extinction in second grade. In third grade, that evolved into a more general understanding of how living systems function. By the end of third grade, many students were able to see how the idea of functioning systems can apply to inanimate objects, such as skyscrapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the patterns that can be analogized to new circumstances, Kim explained. Once a student is familiar with the template, a new text on an unfamiliar topic can be easier to grasp.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kim and his team also paired the science lessons with clusters of vocabulary words that were likely to come up again in the future – almost like wine pairings with a meal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The full benefits of this kind of knowledge building didn’t materialize until after several years of coordinated instruction. In the first years, students were only able to transfer their ability to comprehend text on one topic to another if the topics were very similar. This study indicates that as their content knowledge deepened, their ability to generalize increased as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a lot going on here: a spiraling curriculum that revisits and builds upon themes year after year; an explicit teaching of underlying patterns; new vocabulary words, and a progression from the simple to the complex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are many versions of knowledge-rich curricula and this one isn’t about exposing students to a classical canon. It remains unclear if all knowledge-building curricula work as well. Other programs sometimes replace the main reading class with knowledge-building lessons. This one didn’t tinker with regular reading class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The biggest challenge with the approach used in the North Carolina experiment is that it requires schools to coordinate lessons across grades. That’s hard. Some teachers may want to keep their favorite units on, say, growing a bean plant, and may bristle at the idea of throwing away their old lesson plans.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also worth noting that students’ math scores improved as much as their reading scores did in this North Carolina experiment. It might seem surprising that a literacy intervention would also boost math. But math also requires a lot of reading; the state’s math tests were full of word problems. Any successful effort to boost reading skills is also likely to have positive spillovers into math, researchers explained.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">School leaders are under great pressure to boost test scores. To do that, they’ve often doubled time spent on reading and cut science and social studies classes. Studies like this one suggest that those cuts may have been costly, further undermining reading achievement instead of improving it. As researchers discover more about the science of reading, it may well turn out to be that more time on science itself is what kids need to become good readers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-learning-science-might-help-kids-read-better/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">background knowledge\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A growing chorus of education researchers, pundits and “science of reading” advocates are calling for young children to be taught more about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60793/gholdy-muhammad-wants-teachers-to-see-the-world-as-curriculum\">the world around them\u003c/a>. It’s an indirect way of teaching reading comprehension. The theory is that what we grasp from what we read depends on whether we can hook it to concepts and topics that we already know. Natalie Wexler’s 2019 best-selling book, \u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://nataliewexler.com/the-knowledge-gap/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Knowledge Gap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, championed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54452/why-deeply-diving-into-content-could-be-the-key-to-reading-comprehension\">knowledge-building curricula\u003c/a> and more schools around the country, from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimorecp.org/resources/core-knowledge-lessons/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baltimore\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-comprehension-hinges-on-building-knowledge-new-curricula-aim-to-help/2024/01\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michigan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.libertycommon.org/about/news-and-events/colorado-core-knowledge-network\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colorado\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, are adopting these content-filled lesson plans to teach geography, astronomy and even art history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Makers of knowledge-building curricula say their lessons are based on research, but the truth is that there is scant classroom evidence that building knowledge first increases future reading comprehension. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2023, University of Virginia researchers promoted \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/index.php/ai23-755\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a study of Colorado charter schools that had adopted E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge curriculum\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Children who had won lotteries to attend these charter schools had higher reading scores than students who lost the lotteries. But it was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61475/what-the-latest-reading-study-thats-getting-a-lot-of-buzz-says-and-where-its-evidence-falls-short\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">impossible to tell whether the Core Knowledge curriculum itself made the difference\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or if the boost to reading scores could be attributed to other things that these charter schools were doing, such as hiring great teachers and training them well. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More importantly, the students at these charter schools were largely from middle and upper middle class families. And what we really want to know is whether knowledge building at school helps poorer children, who are less likely to be exposed to the world through travel, live performances and other experiences that money can buy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A new study, published online on Feb. 26, 2024, in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Psychology, now provides stronger causal evidence that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-55174-001.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">building background knowledge can translate into higher reading achievement for low-income children\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The study took place in an unnamed, large urban school district in North Carolina where most of the students are Black and Hispanic and 40% are from low-income families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2019, a group of researchers, led by James Kim, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, randomly selected 15 of the district’s 30 elementary schools to teach first graders special \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://scholar.harvard.edu/jameskim/pages/research-summary\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">knowledge-building lessons\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for three years, through third grade. Kim, a reading specialist, and other researchers had developed two sets of multi-year lesson plans, one for science and one for social studies. Students were also given related books to read during the summer. (\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This research was funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The remaining 15 elementary schools in the district continued to teach their students as usual, still delivering some social studies and science instruction, but not these special lessons. Regular reading class was untouched in the experiment. All 30 schools were using the same reading curriculum, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/el-education-k-5-language-arts-2017\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Expeditionary Learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which follows science of reading principles and teaches phonics. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">COVID-19 hit in the middle of the experiment. When schools shut down in the spring of 2020, the researchers scrapped the planned social studies units for second graders. In 2021, students were still not attending school in person. The researchers revised their science curriculum and decided to give an abridged online version to all 30 schools instead of just half. In the end, children in the original 15 schools received one year of social studies lessons and three years of science lessons compared to only one year of science in the comparison group. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, approximately 1,000 students who had received the special science and social studies lessons in first and second grades outperformed the 1,000 students who got only the abbreviated online science in third grade. Their reading and math scores on the North Carolina state tests were higher not only in third grade, but also in fourth grade, more than a year after the knowledge-building experiment ended. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t a huge boost to reading achievement, but it was significant and long-lasting. It cost about $400 per student in instructional materials and teacher training.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Timothy Shanahan, a literacy expert and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was not involved in this research or the development of these science lessons, praised the study. “The study makes it very clear (as have a few others recently) that it is possible to combine reading with social studies and science curriculum in powerful ways that can improve both literacy and content knowledge,” he said by email. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Connecting background knowledge to reading comprehension is not a new idea. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-0663.80.1.16\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">famous 1987 experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> documented that children who were weaker readers but knowledgeable about baseball understood a reading passage about baseball better than children who were stronger readers but didn’t know much about the sport. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Obviously, it’s not realistic for schools to attempt to familiarize students with every topic they might encounter in a book. And there is disagreement among researchers about how general knowledge of the world translates into higher reading performance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kim thinks that a knowledge-building curriculum doesn’t need to teach many topics. Random facts, he says, are not important. He argues for depth instead of breadth. He says it’s important to construct a thoughtful sequence of lessons over the years, allowing students to see how the same patterns crop up in different ways. He calls these patterns “schemas.” In this experiment, for example, students learned about animal survival in first grade and dinosaur extinction in second grade. In third grade, that evolved into a more general understanding of how living systems function. By the end of third grade, many students were able to see how the idea of functioning systems can apply to inanimate objects, such as skyscrapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the patterns that can be analogized to new circumstances, Kim explained. Once a student is familiar with the template, a new text on an unfamiliar topic can be easier to grasp.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kim and his team also paired the science lessons with clusters of vocabulary words that were likely to come up again in the future – almost like wine pairings with a meal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The full benefits of this kind of knowledge building didn’t materialize until after several years of coordinated instruction. In the first years, students were only able to transfer their ability to comprehend text on one topic to another if the topics were very similar. This study indicates that as their content knowledge deepened, their ability to generalize increased as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a lot going on here: a spiraling curriculum that revisits and builds upon themes year after year; an explicit teaching of underlying patterns; new vocabulary words, and a progression from the simple to the complex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are many versions of knowledge-rich curricula and this one isn’t about exposing students to a classical canon. It remains unclear if all knowledge-building curricula work as well. Other programs sometimes replace the main reading class with knowledge-building lessons. This one didn’t tinker with regular reading class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The biggest challenge with the approach used in the North Carolina experiment is that it requires schools to coordinate lessons across grades. That’s hard. Some teachers may want to keep their favorite units on, say, growing a bean plant, and may bristle at the idea of throwing away their old lesson plans.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also worth noting that students’ math scores improved as much as their reading scores did in this North Carolina experiment. It might seem surprising that a literacy intervention would also boost math. But math also requires a lot of reading; the state’s math tests were full of word problems. Any successful effort to boost reading skills is also likely to have positive spillovers into math, researchers explained.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">School leaders are under great pressure to boost test scores. To do that, they’ve often doubled time spent on reading and cut science and social studies classes. Studies like this one suggest that those cuts may have been costly, further undermining reading achievement instead of improving it. As researchers discover more about the science of reading, it may well turn out to be that more time on science itself is what kids need to become good readers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-learning-science-might-help-kids-read-better/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">background knowledge\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "as-schools-embrace-the-science-of-reading-researchers-are-criticizing-an-overemphasis-on-auditory-skills",
"title": "As Schools Embrace the Science of Reading, Researchers are Criticizing an Overemphasis on Auditory Skills",
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"headTitle": "As Schools Embrace the Science of Reading, Researchers are Criticizing an Overemphasis on Auditory Skills | KQED",
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"content": "\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Educators around the country have embraced the “science of reading” in their classrooms, but that doesn’t mean there’s a truce in the reading wars. In fact, controversies are emerging about an important but less understood aspect of learning to read: phonemic awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the technical name for showing children how to break down words into their component letter sounds and then fuse the sounds together. In a phonemic awareness lesson, a teacher might ask how many sounds are in the word cat. The answer is three: “k,” “a,” and “t.” Then the class blends the sounds back into the familiar sounding word: from “kuh-aah-tuh” to “kat.” The 26 letters of the English alphabet produce \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/migrated/the-44-phonemes-of-english.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">44 phonemes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which include unique sounds made from combinations of letters, such as “ch” and “oo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many schools have purchased scripted oral phonemic awareness lessons that do not include the visual display of letters. The oral lessons are popular because they are easy to teach and fun for students. And that’s the source of the current debate. Should kids in kindergarten or first grade be spending so much time on sounds without understanding how those sounds correspond to letters? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AN2XIWFWJ3YZDJ3SIFPZ/full?target=10.1080/10888438.2024.2309386\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">new meta-analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> confirms that the answer is no. In January 2024, five researchers from Texas A&M University published their findings online in the journal Scientific Studies of Reading. They found that struggling readers, ages 4 to 6, no longer benefited after 10.2 hours of auditory instruction in small group or tutoring sessions, but continued to make progress if visual displays of the letters were combined with the sounds. That means that instead of just asking students to repeat sounds, a teacher might hold up cards with the letters C, A and T printed on them as students isolate and blend the sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meta-analyses sweep up all the best research on a topic and use statistics to tell us where the preponderance of the evidence lies. This newest 2024 synthesis follows three previous meta-analyses on phonemic awareness in the past 25 years. While there are sometimes shortcomings in the underlying studies, the conclusions from all the phonemic meta-analyses appear to be pointing in the same direction. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3050981118&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you teach phonemic awareness, students will learn phonemic awareness,” which isn’t the goal, said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://understandingreading.home.blog/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tiffany Peltier\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a learning scientist who consults on literacy training for teachers at NWEA, an assessment company. “If you teach blending and segmenting using letters, students are learning to read and spell.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Phonemic awareness has a complicated history. In the 1970s, researchers discovered that good readers also had a good \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/23769540\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sense of the sounds that constitute words\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This sound awareness helps students map the written alphabet to the sounds, an important step in learning to read and write. Researchers proved that these auditory skills could be taught and early studies showed that they could be taught as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/748042\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">purely oral exercise without letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But science evolved. In 2000, the National Reading Panel outlined the five pillars of evidence-based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This has come to be known as the science of reading. By then, more studies on phonemic awareness had been conducted and oral lessons alone were not as successful. The reading panel’s meta-analysis of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">52 studies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> showed that phonemic awareness instruction was almost twice as effective when letters were presented along with the sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many schools ignored the reading panel’s recommendations and chose different approaches that didn’t systematically teach phonics or phonemic awareness. But as the science of reading grew in popularity in the past decade, phonemic awareness lessons also exploded. Teacher training programs in the science of reading emphasized the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">importance of phonemic awareness\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://heggerty.org/curriculum/?utm_term=heggerty&utm_campaign=(D)+Branded+-+Search+(CORE)&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8080130874&hsa_cam=10845962543&hsa_grp=105585801103&hsa_ad=473028550698&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-315916039120&hsa_kw=heggerty&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA_tuuBhAUEiwAvxkgTrb7QXk6Q-sfzjdjbXZ0Slz4rS0CvAY10pE_vHsD2ggQe_OxB4Z-gxoCtAUQAvD_BwE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Companies sold phonemic programs to schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and told teachers to teach it every day. Many of these lessons were auditory, including chants and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDSGFUhCxjI\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">songs without letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers worried that educators were overemphasizing auditory training. A 2021 article, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ajxbv\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They Say You Can Do Phonemic Awareness Instruction ‘In the Dark’, But Should You?\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by nine prominent reading researchers criticized how phonemic awareness was being taught in schools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twenty years after the reading panel’s report, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-21-00160\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">second meta-analysis came out in 2022\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with even fresher studies but arrived at the same conclusion. Researchers from Baylor University analyzed over 130 studies and found twice the benefits for phonemic awareness when it was taught with letters. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.triplesr.org/sites/default/files/uploads/draft_program_6-18-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">third meta-analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was presented at a poster session of the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. It also found that instruction was more effective when sounds and letters were combined.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the surface, adding letters to sounds might seem identical to teaching phonics. But some reading experts say phonemic awareness with letters still emphasizes the auditory skills of segmenting words into sounds and blending the sounds together. The visual display of the letter is almost like a subliminal teaching of phonics without explicitly saying, “This alphabetic symbol ‘a’ makes the sound ‘ah’.” Others explain that there isn’t a bright line between phonemic awareness and phonics and they can be taught in tandem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The authors of the latest 2024 meta-analysis had hoped to give teachers more guidance on how much classroom time to invest on phonemic awareness. But unfortunately, the classroom studies they found didn’t keep track of the minutes. The researchers were left with only 16 high-quality studies, all of which were interventions with struggling students. These were small group or individual tutoring sessions on top of whatever phonemic awareness lessons children may also have been receiving in their regular classrooms, which was not documented. So it’s impossible to say from this meta-analysis exactly how much sound training students need. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lead author of the 2024 meta-analysis, Florina Erbeli, an education psychologist at Texas A&M, said that the 10.2 hours number in her paper isn’t a “magic number.” It’s just an average of the results of the 16 studies that met her criteria for being included in the meta-analysis. The right amount of phonemic awareness might be more or less, depending on the child. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erbeli said the bigger point for teachers to understand is that there are diminishing returns to auditory-only instruction and that students learn much more when auditory skills are combined with visible letters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I corresponded with Heggerty, the market leader in phonemic awareness lessons, which says its programs are in 70% of U.S. school districts. The company acknowledged that the science of reading has evolved, and that’s why it revised its phonemic awareness program in 2022 to incorporate letters and introduced a new program in 2023 to pair it with phonics. The company says it is working with outside researchers to keep improving the instructional materials it sells to schools. Because many schools cannot afford to buy a new instructional program, Heggerty says it also explains how teachers can modify older auditory lessons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company still recommends that teachers spend eight to 12 minutes a day on phonemic awareness through the end of first grade. This recommendation contrasts with the advice of many reading researchers who say the average kid doesn’t need this much. Many researchers say that phonemic awareness continues to develop automatically as the child’s reading skills improve without advanced auditory training. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NWEA literacy consultant Peltier, whom I quoted earlier, suggests that phonemic awareness can be tapered off by the fall of first grade. More phonemic awareness isn’t necessarily harmful, but there’s only so much instructional time in the day. She thinks that precious minutes currently devoted to oral phonemic awareness could be better spent on phonics, building vocabulary and content knowledge through reading books aloud, classroom discussions and writing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another developer of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.equippedforreadingsuccess.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">phonemic awareness program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> aimed at older, struggling readers is David Kilpatrick, professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Cortland. He told me that five minutes a day might be enough for the average student in a classroom, but some struggling students need a lot more. Kilpatrick disagrees with the conclusions of the meta-analyses because they lump different types of students together. He says severely dyslexic students need more auditory training. He explained that extra time is needed for advanced auditory work that helps these students build long-term memories, he said, and the meta-analyses didn’t measure that outcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another reading expert, Susan Brady, professor emerita at the University of Rhode Island, concurs that some of the more advanced manipulations can help some students. Moving a sound in and out of a word can heighten awareness of a consonant cluster, such as taking the “l” out of the word “plant” to get “pant,” and then inserting it back in again.* But she says this kind of sound substitution should only be done with visible letters. Doing all the sound manipulations in your head is too taxing for young children, she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brady’s concern is the misunderstanding that teachers need to teach all the phonemes before moving on to phonics. It’s not a precursor or a prerequisite to reading and writing, she says. Instead, sound training should be taught at the same time as new groups of letters are introduced. “The letters reinforce the phoneme awareness and the phoneme awareness reinforces the letters,” said Brady, speaking at a 2022 teacher training session. She said that researchers and teacher trainers need to help educators shift to integrating letters into their early reading instruction. “It’s going to take a while to penetrate the belief system that’s out there,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I once thought that the reading wars were about whether to teach phonics. But there are fierce debates even among those who support a phonics-heavy science of reading. I’ve come to understand that the research hasn’t yet answered all our questions about the best way to teach all the steps. Schools might be over-teaching phonemic awareness. And children with dyslexia might need more than other children. More importantly, the science of reading is the same as any other scientific inquiry. Every new answer may also raise new questions as we get closer to the truth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3050981118&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-controversies-within-the-science-of-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">phonemic awareness\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Clarification: An earlier version of this story suggested a different example of removing the “r” sound from “first,” but “r” is not an independent phoneme in this word. So a teacher would be unlikely to ask a student to do this particular sound manipulation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Welcome to MindShift where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Ki Sung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today we’re going to talk about a really important skill that’s at the root of learning how to read, phonemic awareness. How it’s taught in schools is hotly debated and reading is something too many students and adults still struggle with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our guest is education journalist Jill Barshay of the Hechinger Report. She has a weekly column about education research called “Proof Points.” She’s here to discuss her latest piece about phonemic awareness. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill Barshay I’m so glad you’re here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> It’s a pleasure to be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Your article about phonemic awareness is the most viewed on MindShift right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So clearly, there’s a lot of interest in this topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Really?! [laughs]\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nKi Sung:\u003c/strong> I mean, literally tens of thousands of people are reading about phonemic awareness right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d like to start by asking you to establish a glossary of terms related to learning how to read. Three terms I’d like for you to explain very simply are phonics, phonemes and phonemic awareness. And on phonemes, can you also spell the word out for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Sure, phone name, phoneme phoneme.\u003cbr>\nSo it’s sort of like the word phone with em at the end.\u003cbr>\nAnd what that is, I had a hard time grasping it for many years. It’s sort of sound awareness that you understand the sounds that words are made up of. So, for example, in the word cat, there are three phonemes and they are Cuh, aa, tuh. Phonics is about the letters that we see and what sounds they make. So when you see the circle shape that you know, that’s an O and that it makes the o sound like, as in pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, phonemic awareness is this awareness that words are made up of sounds. So just like I did cat before, that would be a segmenting or isolating skill cuh, aa , tuh. And then another phonemic awareness skill would be blending them back together, going from cuh aa, tuh to cat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> There are also some other fancy schmancy phonemic awareness skills, but maybe we’ll talk about those later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I appreciate how you said it took you some time to understand these because it took me some time to understand this too because it is so complex.And maybe that speaks to the fact that there are more phonemes than there are letters in the alphabet. And that makes learning how to teach kids how to read all the more challenging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Right, I just learned in reporting this story that while there are 26 letters to the English alphabet, there are 44 phonemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So every letter has a sound like, R is err, but IR is its own phoneme and CH makes the chuh sound that’s a phone name, OO, oooh, that’s a phoneme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so yes, there’s more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> So, what did you learn about how phonemic awareness is being taught in schools, especially for kids, age 4 to 6?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I had become aware from a bunch of reading researchers and also reading advocates that schools were embracing phonemic awareness lessons with the whole rise of the science of reading. And they’re spending many, many minutes in kindergarten and first grade, especially, with all kinds of oral exercises. There are songs that they can do to segment and blend the sounds. And there was a concern that maybe schools are going a little bit overboard with phonemic awareness. Maybe students don’t need so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Can you explain what educators’ understanding of phonemic awareness was? Was it just auditory or was it also how it connects to the visual experience of reading?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> My understanding is that many teachers were trained that there are two separate things to teach kids. One is phonemic awareness and another thing is phonics and in many teacher training sessions, they were saying this is auditory, an oral only skill and you don’t need letters to teach it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And one of the leading vendors of phonemic awareness lessons was encouraging teachers to teach it as an auditory only lesson. And the instructional materials were largely auditory until very recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what problem does that introduce when it’s just auditory?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> In my research, I learned that when phonemic awareness was first being talked about by education or reading experts, they first thought that it could be taught as an oral only exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so there were experiments in the 1970’s showing that students who were explicitly taught phonemic awareness became better readers just through these kind of songs and chants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then more and more researchers started to do studies in it. And by 2000, one of the first meta analysis, this is a kind of study where you sweep up lots of studies together and you use statistics to say where the evidence lies, Already over 20 years ago, they said it was much more effective if you combine these phonemic awareness exercises like Cuh aah tuh Cat, with visible displays of the letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So like a teacher could hold up a card or write it on the chalkboard and then the students would see the letters as they say the sounds and become aware of the sounds in their brains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what was funny was how even as this research was building and building, many schools weren’t teaching much phonemic awareness at all or phonics, phonics again, is putting the sounds to the visible letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many, many schools around the country were ignoring this and using different methods to teach reading, things that you may have heard of like balanced literacy or the reader’s workshop, reading recovery. And those were methods that didn’t emphasize phonemic awareness or phonics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then more recently, like in the last five years, the science of reading has really gained traction around the country and schools have been really embracing phonemic awareness and that’s where the concern came, that maybe they’re doing too much of it without the letters while all this research is showing, dating back to the year 2000, that if you do phonemic awareness with the letters, it’s much more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what was the connection you found or maybe the advice around how much time to spend on phonemic awareness?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Well, that was the study that really caught my attention. Just earlier this year, a group of researchers from Texas A&M University, they were really trying to like nail down the dosage.\u003cbr>\nLike how many minutes of this stuff do the kids really need? Is it two? Is it five, is it 10?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they collected all the studies that they could find that measured the minutes and they were so frustrated because none of the classroom studies documented the minutes well. And instead they were just left with 16 studies that looked at the amount of time that struggling kids were spending on phonemic awareness in extra sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So these might be like a special small group session for a child who’s at risk of dyslexia or a 1 to 1 tutoring session and there they measured the minutes and what they noticed was after 10 hours, phonemic awareness, the auditory only phonemic awareness topped out. Kids weren’t benefiting at all anymore after 10 hours of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the tutors or the small group teachers, if they combined it with letters, the kids kept getting better and better and better. And so it showed the researchers that if you combine phonemic awareness with the display of the letters, it’s so much more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> So it sounds like just the auditory lessons for this sample, 10 hours was fine, though like even just settling on that number is questionable because of the data the researchers have to work with.\u003cbr>\nOverall, the takeaway is connect the sound with the visual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Right. What they found is phonemic awareness, oral only can be effective in say a small dose or a medium dose of it, 10 hours, right? But if you want to keep children learning and if you want them to keep improving, that it needs to be connected with the letters after a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> You’ve explained a lot about phonemic awareness and we’ve talked about 4 to 6 year olds. But what, I guess there are also advanced phonemic awareness techniques that we should also be aware of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> This is where I thought I had went really deep down the rabbit hole. I couldn’t believe advanced phonemic awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in addition to the segmenting cuh aa tuh and blending cat that I discussed before, there are all these other manipulations like you could subtract a sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So instead of plant, you get pant and then you can add a sound. Let’s say you can add L back into pant and make it plant. Then there are substitutions. So you can take mat and, and substitute the M with a P and make it pat. And can you imagine doing all these in your head? They’re really hard. And so it, it actually takes many…That’s one of the reasons that so much class time is being spent on these advanced phonemic awareness skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what the research literature shows is that the two very simple ones of segmenting and blending, they give you the biggest benefits and some experts say just focus on those and just do them as a quick warm up exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> But there are other people, particularly experts in helping children with dyslexia that say no, these really, these advanced phonemic awareness skills can be really helpful in building long term memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And others have said to me, you know, it can really heighten awareness of a consonant cluster like the difference between Puh and Pula. But they say really these are very complicated exercises, they should only be done with letters, not as oral, only exercises and probably best for struggling students in you know, maybe a pull out session or a tutoring session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I hear a lot about the term phonological awareness. I know we’re adding a lot of we’re adding another term to our glossary list. But can you explain what phonological awareness is and its role in learning how to read?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I was really confused about this. And I personally used to use phonological awareness and phonemic awareness interchangeably. And in researching this story, I learned that they’re separate and that phonemic awareness is really the important ingredient in learning to read. And that this phonological awareness is not as important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phonological awareness is a much broader category that includes not just the sounds that letters and clusters of letters make, but also syllables like pantry that you would clap [claps] pan-try 1, 2 or rhymes like flight, night, sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there are probably zillions, more of these various sound exercises that are really disconnected from the letters and the sounds that they make. And the researchers are very concerned that teachers who have embraced the science of reading have been told to do too much of these broader phonological awareness exercises that are, you know, great for a poetry unit but not essential building blocks to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I want to ask you about curriculum because at the root of a lot of these issues, you know, you can maybe even call them mistakes, is curriculum. And ultimately teachers have to go along with the curriculum, the district purchases and sometimes it’s not up to date or not correct or not caught up with the latest research. So what can teachers do when they come across curriculum that goes against what they know works with students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I am not an expert in teaching and I don’t feel like my role is to give advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what I can say is that the leading purveyor of phonemic awareness lessons and curriculum, if you, you can call it, it’s called Haggerty and they themselves responded to the science and in 2022 they added letters to their phonemic awareness lessons. And then in 2023 they added a a phonics approach to show how to combine phonemic awareness and phonics together in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, there’s a misunderstanding, that a lot of teachers have, that you need to teach phonemic awareness first and students need to master it first before you move on to phonics. And the reading researchers, I talked to say, no, you kind of do them in tandem, like you can have a group of letters and simultaneously be teaching the phonemic awareness with them and the phonics with them and then move on to another group of letters. And you just, you keep teaching both together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> And so I was impressed that this leading seller of phonemic awareness programs has, has moved on and is now combining it with letters and also with phonics and it says for, it knows that many teachers in many schools cannot afford to buy brand new lesson plans and curriculum. And it says that it offers ideas on how teachers can modify their old books and their old printed lessons, and to do things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if that’s a good answer.I mean, it’s probably hard to do these modifications on the fly. And as a journalist from the outside it seems like if, like, when a company says our products not working well and they recall it and they, they put out a new product, they should probably, like, just give you the new product, I’m thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what have you heard from people, you know, especially on social media or maybe they’re reaching out to you by email, like what have people been telling you about your reporting?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I’ve seen two reactions to it. One is people are grateful that the science of reading isn’t a cult and that just because someone says you need a lot of phonemic awareness in order to do the science of reading, right, that isn’t necessarily correct. You have to look at what the studies actually say and also the science evolved. So we, we have more meta analysis now, more syntheses of the research confirming that auditory alone is not as effective today. Whereas in the seventies, it seemed like it was the best way to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we, I think people who are you know, hold up signs, science of reading, science of reading need to understand that the science of reading, like any science evolves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other reaction I’ve seen are for people who have been critics of the science of reading and say, “see the, the researchers are arguing. Who knows what’s right? This shows we should go back to something called balanced literacy.”\u003cbr>\nAnd so I’ve also, I’ve also seen people taking this as ammunition that,, the whole science of reading is perhaps misguided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And where’s the truth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Well, I think I tried to just express that, that science evolves. I mean, it, it, I think about it like, oh, masking and COVID, remember how first when COVID broke out, the federal authorities were saying, “well, you don’t need to wear masks. It’s not so important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then later, more studies came out and said, you know what, “we should really wear masks,” and I think we need to be comfortable with science evolving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so so maybe there was a time almost 50 years ago that oral only phonemic awareness was the way to go. And now we have a ton of confirmation that we need to combine it with letters and there are still questions out there. We still don’t know the exact right dosage in the classroom for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill, thank you for taking the time to talk through this complex issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, thanks for talking this through. It’s a complicated area and I appreciate another chance to talk about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill Barshay is a journalist with the Hechinger report. She has a weekly column about education research called Proof Points. Her latest piece is about phonemic awareness research. We’ll bring you ideas and innovations from experts in education and beyond. Hit follow on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> The MindShift team includes me, Ki Sung, Nimah Gobir, Kara Newhouse, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our editor is Chris Hambrick, Chris Hoff is our sound designer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional support from Jen Chien and Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Educators around the country have embraced the “science of reading” in their classrooms, but that doesn’t mean there’s a truce in the reading wars. In fact, controversies are emerging about an important but less understood aspect of learning to read: phonemic awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the technical name for showing children how to break down words into their component letter sounds and then fuse the sounds together. In a phonemic awareness lesson, a teacher might ask how many sounds are in the word cat. The answer is three: “k,” “a,” and “t.” Then the class blends the sounds back into the familiar sounding word: from “kuh-aah-tuh” to “kat.” The 26 letters of the English alphabet produce \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/migrated/the-44-phonemes-of-english.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">44 phonemes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which include unique sounds made from combinations of letters, such as “ch” and “oo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many schools have purchased scripted oral phonemic awareness lessons that do not include the visual display of letters. The oral lessons are popular because they are easy to teach and fun for students. And that’s the source of the current debate. Should kids in kindergarten or first grade be spending so much time on sounds without understanding how those sounds correspond to letters? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AN2XIWFWJ3YZDJ3SIFPZ/full?target=10.1080/10888438.2024.2309386\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">new meta-analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> confirms that the answer is no. In January 2024, five researchers from Texas A&M University published their findings online in the journal Scientific Studies of Reading. They found that struggling readers, ages 4 to 6, no longer benefited after 10.2 hours of auditory instruction in small group or tutoring sessions, but continued to make progress if visual displays of the letters were combined with the sounds. That means that instead of just asking students to repeat sounds, a teacher might hold up cards with the letters C, A and T printed on them as students isolate and blend the sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meta-analyses sweep up all the best research on a topic and use statistics to tell us where the preponderance of the evidence lies. This newest 2024 synthesis follows three previous meta-analyses on phonemic awareness in the past 25 years. While there are sometimes shortcomings in the underlying studies, the conclusions from all the phonemic meta-analyses appear to be pointing in the same direction. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3050981118&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you teach phonemic awareness, students will learn phonemic awareness,” which isn’t the goal, said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://understandingreading.home.blog/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tiffany Peltier\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a learning scientist who consults on literacy training for teachers at NWEA, an assessment company. “If you teach blending and segmenting using letters, students are learning to read and spell.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Phonemic awareness has a complicated history. In the 1970s, researchers discovered that good readers also had a good \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/23769540\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sense of the sounds that constitute words\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This sound awareness helps students map the written alphabet to the sounds, an important step in learning to read and write. Researchers proved that these auditory skills could be taught and early studies showed that they could be taught as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/748042\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">purely oral exercise without letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But science evolved. In 2000, the National Reading Panel outlined the five pillars of evidence-based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This has come to be known as the science of reading. By then, more studies on phonemic awareness had been conducted and oral lessons alone were not as successful. The reading panel’s meta-analysis of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">52 studies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> showed that phonemic awareness instruction was almost twice as effective when letters were presented along with the sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many schools ignored the reading panel’s recommendations and chose different approaches that didn’t systematically teach phonics or phonemic awareness. But as the science of reading grew in popularity in the past decade, phonemic awareness lessons also exploded. Teacher training programs in the science of reading emphasized the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">importance of phonemic awareness\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://heggerty.org/curriculum/?utm_term=heggerty&utm_campaign=(D)+Branded+-+Search+(CORE)&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8080130874&hsa_cam=10845962543&hsa_grp=105585801103&hsa_ad=473028550698&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-315916039120&hsa_kw=heggerty&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA_tuuBhAUEiwAvxkgTrb7QXk6Q-sfzjdjbXZ0Slz4rS0CvAY10pE_vHsD2ggQe_OxB4Z-gxoCtAUQAvD_BwE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Companies sold phonemic programs to schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and told teachers to teach it every day. Many of these lessons were auditory, including chants and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDSGFUhCxjI\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">songs without letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers worried that educators were overemphasizing auditory training. A 2021 article, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ajxbv\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They Say You Can Do Phonemic Awareness Instruction ‘In the Dark’, But Should You?\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by nine prominent reading researchers criticized how phonemic awareness was being taught in schools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twenty years after the reading panel’s report, a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-21-00160\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">second meta-analysis came out in 2022\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with even fresher studies but arrived at the same conclusion. Researchers from Baylor University analyzed over 130 studies and found twice the benefits for phonemic awareness when it was taught with letters. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.triplesr.org/sites/default/files/uploads/draft_program_6-18-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">third meta-analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was presented at a poster session of the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. It also found that instruction was more effective when sounds and letters were combined.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the surface, adding letters to sounds might seem identical to teaching phonics. But some reading experts say phonemic awareness with letters still emphasizes the auditory skills of segmenting words into sounds and blending the sounds together. The visual display of the letter is almost like a subliminal teaching of phonics without explicitly saying, “This alphabetic symbol ‘a’ makes the sound ‘ah’.” Others explain that there isn’t a bright line between phonemic awareness and phonics and they can be taught in tandem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The authors of the latest 2024 meta-analysis had hoped to give teachers more guidance on how much classroom time to invest on phonemic awareness. But unfortunately, the classroom studies they found didn’t keep track of the minutes. The researchers were left with only 16 high-quality studies, all of which were interventions with struggling students. These were small group or individual tutoring sessions on top of whatever phonemic awareness lessons children may also have been receiving in their regular classrooms, which was not documented. So it’s impossible to say from this meta-analysis exactly how much sound training students need. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lead author of the 2024 meta-analysis, Florina Erbeli, an education psychologist at Texas A&M, said that the 10.2 hours number in her paper isn’t a “magic number.” It’s just an average of the results of the 16 studies that met her criteria for being included in the meta-analysis. The right amount of phonemic awareness might be more or less, depending on the child. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erbeli said the bigger point for teachers to understand is that there are diminishing returns to auditory-only instruction and that students learn much more when auditory skills are combined with visible letters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I corresponded with Heggerty, the market leader in phonemic awareness lessons, which says its programs are in 70% of U.S. school districts. The company acknowledged that the science of reading has evolved, and that’s why it revised its phonemic awareness program in 2022 to incorporate letters and introduced a new program in 2023 to pair it with phonics. The company says it is working with outside researchers to keep improving the instructional materials it sells to schools. Because many schools cannot afford to buy a new instructional program, Heggerty says it also explains how teachers can modify older auditory lessons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company still recommends that teachers spend eight to 12 minutes a day on phonemic awareness through the end of first grade. This recommendation contrasts with the advice of many reading researchers who say the average kid doesn’t need this much. Many researchers say that phonemic awareness continues to develop automatically as the child’s reading skills improve without advanced auditory training. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NWEA literacy consultant Peltier, whom I quoted earlier, suggests that phonemic awareness can be tapered off by the fall of first grade. More phonemic awareness isn’t necessarily harmful, but there’s only so much instructional time in the day. She thinks that precious minutes currently devoted to oral phonemic awareness could be better spent on phonics, building vocabulary and content knowledge through reading books aloud, classroom discussions and writing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another developer of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.equippedforreadingsuccess.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">phonemic awareness program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> aimed at older, struggling readers is David Kilpatrick, professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Cortland. He told me that five minutes a day might be enough for the average student in a classroom, but some struggling students need a lot more. Kilpatrick disagrees with the conclusions of the meta-analyses because they lump different types of students together. He says severely dyslexic students need more auditory training. He explained that extra time is needed for advanced auditory work that helps these students build long-term memories, he said, and the meta-analyses didn’t measure that outcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another reading expert, Susan Brady, professor emerita at the University of Rhode Island, concurs that some of the more advanced manipulations can help some students. Moving a sound in and out of a word can heighten awareness of a consonant cluster, such as taking the “l” out of the word “plant” to get “pant,” and then inserting it back in again.* But she says this kind of sound substitution should only be done with visible letters. Doing all the sound manipulations in your head is too taxing for young children, she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brady’s concern is the misunderstanding that teachers need to teach all the phonemes before moving on to phonics. It’s not a precursor or a prerequisite to reading and writing, she says. Instead, sound training should be taught at the same time as new groups of letters are introduced. “The letters reinforce the phoneme awareness and the phoneme awareness reinforces the letters,” said Brady, speaking at a 2022 teacher training session. She said that researchers and teacher trainers need to help educators shift to integrating letters into their early reading instruction. “It’s going to take a while to penetrate the belief system that’s out there,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I once thought that the reading wars were about whether to teach phonics. But there are fierce debates even among those who support a phonics-heavy science of reading. I’ve come to understand that the research hasn’t yet answered all our questions about the best way to teach all the steps. Schools might be over-teaching phonemic awareness. And children with dyslexia might need more than other children. More importantly, the science of reading is the same as any other scientific inquiry. Every new answer may also raise new questions as we get closer to the truth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3050981118&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-controversies-within-the-science-of-reading/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">phonemic awareness\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Clarification: An earlier version of this story suggested a different example of removing the “r” sound from “first,” but “r” is not an independent phoneme in this word. So a teacher would be unlikely to ask a student to do this particular sound manipulation.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Welcome to MindShift where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Ki Sung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today we’re going to talk about a really important skill that’s at the root of learning how to read, phonemic awareness. How it’s taught in schools is hotly debated and reading is something too many students and adults still struggle with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our guest is education journalist Jill Barshay of the Hechinger Report. She has a weekly column about education research called “Proof Points.” She’s here to discuss her latest piece about phonemic awareness. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill Barshay I’m so glad you’re here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> It’s a pleasure to be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Your article about phonemic awareness is the most viewed on MindShift right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So clearly, there’s a lot of interest in this topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Really?! [laughs]\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nKi Sung:\u003c/strong> I mean, literally tens of thousands of people are reading about phonemic awareness right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d like to start by asking you to establish a glossary of terms related to learning how to read. Three terms I’d like for you to explain very simply are phonics, phonemes and phonemic awareness. And on phonemes, can you also spell the word out for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Sure, phone name, phoneme phoneme.\u003cbr>\nSo it’s sort of like the word phone with em at the end.\u003cbr>\nAnd what that is, I had a hard time grasping it for many years. It’s sort of sound awareness that you understand the sounds that words are made up of. So, for example, in the word cat, there are three phonemes and they are Cuh, aa, tuh. Phonics is about the letters that we see and what sounds they make. So when you see the circle shape that you know, that’s an O and that it makes the o sound like, as in pot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, phonemic awareness is this awareness that words are made up of sounds. So just like I did cat before, that would be a segmenting or isolating skill cuh, aa , tuh. And then another phonemic awareness skill would be blending them back together, going from cuh aa, tuh to cat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> There are also some other fancy schmancy phonemic awareness skills, but maybe we’ll talk about those later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I appreciate how you said it took you some time to understand these because it took me some time to understand this too because it is so complex.And maybe that speaks to the fact that there are more phonemes than there are letters in the alphabet. And that makes learning how to teach kids how to read all the more challenging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Right, I just learned in reporting this story that while there are 26 letters to the English alphabet, there are 44 phonemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So every letter has a sound like, R is err, but IR is its own phoneme and CH makes the chuh sound that’s a phone name, OO, oooh, that’s a phoneme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so yes, there’s more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> So, what did you learn about how phonemic awareness is being taught in schools, especially for kids, age 4 to 6?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I had become aware from a bunch of reading researchers and also reading advocates that schools were embracing phonemic awareness lessons with the whole rise of the science of reading. And they’re spending many, many minutes in kindergarten and first grade, especially, with all kinds of oral exercises. There are songs that they can do to segment and blend the sounds. And there was a concern that maybe schools are going a little bit overboard with phonemic awareness. Maybe students don’t need so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Can you explain what educators’ understanding of phonemic awareness was? Was it just auditory or was it also how it connects to the visual experience of reading?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> My understanding is that many teachers were trained that there are two separate things to teach kids. One is phonemic awareness and another thing is phonics and in many teacher training sessions, they were saying this is auditory, an oral only skill and you don’t need letters to teach it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And one of the leading vendors of phonemic awareness lessons was encouraging teachers to teach it as an auditory only lesson. And the instructional materials were largely auditory until very recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what problem does that introduce when it’s just auditory?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> In my research, I learned that when phonemic awareness was first being talked about by education or reading experts, they first thought that it could be taught as an oral only exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so there were experiments in the 1970’s showing that students who were explicitly taught phonemic awareness became better readers just through these kind of songs and chants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then more and more researchers started to do studies in it. And by 2000, one of the first meta analysis, this is a kind of study where you sweep up lots of studies together and you use statistics to say where the evidence lies, Already over 20 years ago, they said it was much more effective if you combine these phonemic awareness exercises like Cuh aah tuh Cat, with visible displays of the letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So like a teacher could hold up a card or write it on the chalkboard and then the students would see the letters as they say the sounds and become aware of the sounds in their brains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what was funny was how even as this research was building and building, many schools weren’t teaching much phonemic awareness at all or phonics, phonics again, is putting the sounds to the visible letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many, many schools around the country were ignoring this and using different methods to teach reading, things that you may have heard of like balanced literacy or the reader’s workshop, reading recovery. And those were methods that didn’t emphasize phonemic awareness or phonics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then more recently, like in the last five years, the science of reading has really gained traction around the country and schools have been really embracing phonemic awareness and that’s where the concern came, that maybe they’re doing too much of it without the letters while all this research is showing, dating back to the year 2000, that if you do phonemic awareness with the letters, it’s much more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what was the connection you found or maybe the advice around how much time to spend on phonemic awareness?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Well, that was the study that really caught my attention. Just earlier this year, a group of researchers from Texas A&M University, they were really trying to like nail down the dosage.\u003cbr>\nLike how many minutes of this stuff do the kids really need? Is it two? Is it five, is it 10?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they collected all the studies that they could find that measured the minutes and they were so frustrated because none of the classroom studies documented the minutes well. And instead they were just left with 16 studies that looked at the amount of time that struggling kids were spending on phonemic awareness in extra sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So these might be like a special small group session for a child who’s at risk of dyslexia or a 1 to 1 tutoring session and there they measured the minutes and what they noticed was after 10 hours, phonemic awareness, the auditory only phonemic awareness topped out. Kids weren’t benefiting at all anymore after 10 hours of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the tutors or the small group teachers, if they combined it with letters, the kids kept getting better and better and better. And so it showed the researchers that if you combine phonemic awareness with the display of the letters, it’s so much more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> So it sounds like just the auditory lessons for this sample, 10 hours was fine, though like even just settling on that number is questionable because of the data the researchers have to work with.\u003cbr>\nOverall, the takeaway is connect the sound with the visual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Right. What they found is phonemic awareness, oral only can be effective in say a small dose or a medium dose of it, 10 hours, right? But if you want to keep children learning and if you want them to keep improving, that it needs to be connected with the letters after a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> You’ve explained a lot about phonemic awareness and we’ve talked about 4 to 6 year olds. But what, I guess there are also advanced phonemic awareness techniques that we should also be aware of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> This is where I thought I had went really deep down the rabbit hole. I couldn’t believe advanced phonemic awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in addition to the segmenting cuh aa tuh and blending cat that I discussed before, there are all these other manipulations like you could subtract a sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So instead of plant, you get pant and then you can add a sound. Let’s say you can add L back into pant and make it plant. Then there are substitutions. So you can take mat and, and substitute the M with a P and make it pat. And can you imagine doing all these in your head? They’re really hard. And so it, it actually takes many…That’s one of the reasons that so much class time is being spent on these advanced phonemic awareness skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what the research literature shows is that the two very simple ones of segmenting and blending, they give you the biggest benefits and some experts say just focus on those and just do them as a quick warm up exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> But there are other people, particularly experts in helping children with dyslexia that say no, these really, these advanced phonemic awareness skills can be really helpful in building long term memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And others have said to me, you know, it can really heighten awareness of a consonant cluster like the difference between Puh and Pula. But they say really these are very complicated exercises, they should only be done with letters, not as oral, only exercises and probably best for struggling students in you know, maybe a pull out session or a tutoring session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I hear a lot about the term phonological awareness. I know we’re adding a lot of we’re adding another term to our glossary list. But can you explain what phonological awareness is and its role in learning how to read?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I was really confused about this. And I personally used to use phonological awareness and phonemic awareness interchangeably. And in researching this story, I learned that they’re separate and that phonemic awareness is really the important ingredient in learning to read. And that this phonological awareness is not as important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phonological awareness is a much broader category that includes not just the sounds that letters and clusters of letters make, but also syllables like pantry that you would clap [claps] pan-try 1, 2 or rhymes like flight, night, sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there are probably zillions, more of these various sound exercises that are really disconnected from the letters and the sounds that they make. And the researchers are very concerned that teachers who have embraced the science of reading have been told to do too much of these broader phonological awareness exercises that are, you know, great for a poetry unit but not essential building blocks to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> I want to ask you about curriculum because at the root of a lot of these issues, you know, you can maybe even call them mistakes, is curriculum. And ultimately teachers have to go along with the curriculum, the district purchases and sometimes it’s not up to date or not correct or not caught up with the latest research. So what can teachers do when they come across curriculum that goes against what they know works with students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I am not an expert in teaching and I don’t feel like my role is to give advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what I can say is that the leading purveyor of phonemic awareness lessons and curriculum, if you, you can call it, it’s called Haggerty and they themselves responded to the science and in 2022 they added letters to their phonemic awareness lessons. And then in 2023 they added a a phonics approach to show how to combine phonemic awareness and phonics together in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, there’s a misunderstanding, that a lot of teachers have, that you need to teach phonemic awareness first and students need to master it first before you move on to phonics. And the reading researchers, I talked to say, no, you kind of do them in tandem, like you can have a group of letters and simultaneously be teaching the phonemic awareness with them and the phonics with them and then move on to another group of letters. And you just, you keep teaching both together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> And so I was impressed that this leading seller of phonemic awareness programs has, has moved on and is now combining it with letters and also with phonics and it says for, it knows that many teachers in many schools cannot afford to buy brand new lesson plans and curriculum. And it says that it offers ideas on how teachers can modify their old books and their old printed lessons, and to do things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if that’s a good answer.I mean, it’s probably hard to do these modifications on the fly. And as a journalist from the outside it seems like if, like, when a company says our products not working well and they recall it and they, they put out a new product, they should probably, like, just give you the new product, I’m thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And what have you heard from people, you know, especially on social media or maybe they’re reaching out to you by email, like what have people been telling you about your reporting?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> I’ve seen two reactions to it. One is people are grateful that the science of reading isn’t a cult and that just because someone says you need a lot of phonemic awareness in order to do the science of reading, right, that isn’t necessarily correct. You have to look at what the studies actually say and also the science evolved. So we, we have more meta analysis now, more syntheses of the research confirming that auditory alone is not as effective today. Whereas in the seventies, it seemed like it was the best way to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we, I think people who are you know, hold up signs, science of reading, science of reading need to understand that the science of reading, like any science evolves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other reaction I’ve seen are for people who have been critics of the science of reading and say, “see the, the researchers are arguing. Who knows what’s right? This shows we should go back to something called balanced literacy.”\u003cbr>\nAnd so I’ve also, I’ve also seen people taking this as ammunition that,, the whole science of reading is perhaps misguided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> And where’s the truth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jill Barshay:\u003c/strong> Well, I think I tried to just express that, that science evolves. I mean, it, it, I think about it like, oh, masking and COVID, remember how first when COVID broke out, the federal authorities were saying, “well, you don’t need to wear masks. It’s not so important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then later, more studies came out and said, you know what, “we should really wear masks,” and I think we need to be comfortable with science evolving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so so maybe there was a time almost 50 years ago that oral only phonemic awareness was the way to go. And now we have a ton of confirmation that we need to combine it with letters and there are still questions out there. We still don’t know the exact right dosage in the classroom for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill, thank you for taking the time to talk through this complex issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, thanks for talking this through. It’s a complicated area and I appreciate another chance to talk about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> Jill Barshay is a journalist with the Hechinger report. She has a weekly column about education research called Proof Points. Her latest piece is about phonemic awareness research. We’ll bring you ideas and innovations from experts in education and beyond. Hit follow on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ki Sung:\u003c/strong> The MindShift team includes me, Ki Sung, Nimah Gobir, Kara Newhouse, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our editor is Chris Hambrick, Chris Hoff is our sound designer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional support from Jen Chien and Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"title": "A Diverse Classroom Library Includes and Respects Fat Characters, Too",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many teachers excel at stocking their shelves with books featuring characters of diverse \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62049/choosing-childrens-books-that-include-and-affirm-disability-experiences\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">abilities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57026/diversifying-your-classroom-book-collections-avoid-these-7-pitfalls\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">races\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and socioeconomic statuses. However, representation of size diversity, particularly with regard to fat main characters, is often overlooked. The absence of differently sized characters has far-reaching implications for students because \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/why-its-important-kids-to-see-themselves-books.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">students’ engagement and motivation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in reading are influenced by the presence of relatable protagonists. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23813377211028256#body-ref-bibr18-23813377211028256\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rudine Sims Bishop’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” framework underscores the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61018/want-kids-to-love-reading-authors-grace-lin-and-kate-messner-share-how-to-find-wonder-in-books\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roles books play\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for learning about others, reflecting aspects of oneself, and facilitating exploration.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Fat is viewed as profane,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.drdywannasmith.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dywanna Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a former English teacher who focused her dissertation on establishing safe spaces for Black girls to discuss body size. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She emphasized that when fat students lack representation or only encounter characters who reinforce fat bias, it sends the message that they do not belong. This bias, known as fatphobia, involves discrimination against people based on their overweight or obese body size. Experiencing weight stigma has lasting effects: A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2006.208\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2012 study in the journal Obesity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58357/why-focusing-on-healthy-habits-not-weight-gain-can-better-help-kids\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">weight stigma did not motivate weight loss\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> but can result in isolation and avoidance, among other coping strategies. Overweight or obese kids also are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54257/praise-dont-tease-and-other-tips-to-help-kids-with-their-weight\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">victims of bullying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/yv/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">correlated with increased suicide-related behavior\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every student deserves access to books with relatable stories that foster a sense of inclusivity and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cultivate a love for reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Teachers can explore ways to critically examine the presence of fat characters in literature and seek books that portray fat protagonists in all of their complexity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Not all representation is good representation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The literary landscape includes few fat characters who follow well-worn storylines. “Their size is one of the main conflicts of the story and typically it (has) to be resolved with that person losing weight,” said Smith. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/JustTeachingELA\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caitlin O’ Connor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a language arts teacher from New York who presented on fat positivity at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://convention.ncte.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Council of Teachers of English\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> conference last year, added that plot lines where fat characters lose weight can be harmful because it communicates fat characters are only likable if they are committed to getting smaller. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fat characters are often subject to harmful stereotypes. “It’s not just the presence of fat characters that we need. It’s the good representation of fat characters that we need. We need them to be represented as whole people with stories and lives that are full, that matter, that aren’t just a list of tropes,” said O’Connor. She cited Piggy, a character described as fat from Lord of the Flies, as an example. “He’s constantly called fat and framed as lesser than,” she said, adding that the way that Piggy is treated throughout the book suggests fat people are deserving of name calling and bullying. Other common tropes include framing fat characters as unable to decide what is best for themselves, having fraught relationships with food, or being uninterested in athletic activities. O’Connor emphasized that fat characters should not be confined to proving thin people’s physical superiority or serving as comic relief. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If a teacher has to explore a book with a fat main character that falls into reductive stereotypes, it can be a learning opportunity. O’Connor encouraged teachers to engage students in discussions about character portrayal and patterns across other books. “Having these discussions builds the critical thinking skills and perspectives we want our students to develop,” she said. “We can teach students to recognize and challenge stereotypes through literature.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Literature can debunk stereotypes and tropes\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teachers can curate diverse book collections that feature fat characters in multifaceted roles and that combat anti-fat bias. O’Connor emphasized the power of language, urging teachers to discuss words as a tool that can uplift or oppress. She suggested repositioning the word “fat” as a descriptor, not a derisive term.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When choosing a book with a fat character, Smith recommended that teachers ask whether the character’s portrayal contributes to existing harmful attitudes, prejudices or stereotypes. Additionally, it’s crucial to assess whether the character is allowed to grow and change throughout the narrative.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among Smith and O’Connor’s recommended books for students are Lisa Fipps’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608212/starfish-by-lisa-fipps/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Starfish\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Crystal Maldonado’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/648097/fat-chance-charlie-vega-by-by-crystal-maldonado/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fat Chance Charlie Vega\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Susan Vaught’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://susanvaught.com/book/big-fat-manifesto-2/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Big Fat Manifesto\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a collection titled \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.harvard.com/book/the_other_f_word/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat & Fierce\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by Angie Manfredi. These narratives explore themes of self-acceptance, challenging societal norms and celebrating diverse bodies. Other recommendations include the anthology \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/every-body-shines-9781547606078/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every Body Shines\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by Cassandra Newbould, Claire Kann’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250192677/ifitmakesyouhappy\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If It Makes You Happy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Paul Coccia’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.orcabook.com/Cub\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cub\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Gabby Rivera’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621079/juliet-takes-a-breath-by-gabby-rivera/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Juliet Takes a Breath\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, each contributing to a tapestry of stories that defy stereotypes and promote body positivity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Where teachers can start\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Addressing the needs of students, especially those experiencing fatphobia, begins with critical introspection, according to Smith. She suggested making a table with the days of the week and noting what you do to support students and colleagues who are fat. “Oftentimes very little is written down,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers may not know where to start and don’t want to say the wrong thing when broaching discussions about body size. Smith urged educators to familiarize themselves with fatphobia and read fat literature for adults, such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565139/the-body-is-not-an-apology-second-edition-by-sonya-renee-taylor/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Body Is Not an Apology\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Sonya Renee Taylor, which advocates for radical self-love to counteract harm caused by bias or fatphobia, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645819/what-we-dont-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-fat-by-aubrey-gordon/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Aubrey Gordon, which covers how to challenge cultural attitudes and advocate for social justice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Highlighting the historical intersections of race and body size, Smith considers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Sabrina Strings a keystone text. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Thickening-Fat-Fat-Bodies-Intersectionality-and-Social-Justice/Friedman-Rice-Rinaldi/p/book/9781138580039\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality, and Social Justice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by May Friedman, Carla Rice and Jen Rinaldi, explores fat oppression and activism through various perspectives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The worst thing teachers can do is to stay silent about fat characters or the lack thereof, Smith said. “Do we really want to be responsible for saying, ‘Because you are fat, you are unworthy of grace, dignity, love and to have your story heard?’” she asked. “In the absence of this discussion, isn’t that what we’re saying already?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many teachers excel at stocking their shelves with books featuring characters of diverse \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62049/choosing-childrens-books-that-include-and-affirm-disability-experiences\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">abilities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57026/diversifying-your-classroom-book-collections-avoid-these-7-pitfalls\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">races\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and socioeconomic statuses. However, representation of size diversity, particularly with regard to fat main characters, is often overlooked. The absence of differently sized characters has far-reaching implications for students because \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/why-its-important-kids-to-see-themselves-books.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">students’ engagement and motivation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in reading are influenced by the presence of relatable protagonists. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23813377211028256#body-ref-bibr18-23813377211028256\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rudine Sims Bishop’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” framework underscores the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61018/want-kids-to-love-reading-authors-grace-lin-and-kate-messner-share-how-to-find-wonder-in-books\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roles books play\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for learning about others, reflecting aspects of oneself, and facilitating exploration.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Fat is viewed as profane,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.drdywannasmith.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dywanna Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a former English teacher who focused her dissertation on establishing safe spaces for Black girls to discuss body size. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She emphasized that when fat students lack representation or only encounter characters who reinforce fat bias, it sends the message that they do not belong. This bias, known as fatphobia, involves discrimination against people based on their overweight or obese body size. Experiencing weight stigma has lasting effects: A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2006.208\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2012 study in the journal Obesity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58357/why-focusing-on-healthy-habits-not-weight-gain-can-better-help-kids\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">weight stigma did not motivate weight loss\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> but can result in isolation and avoidance, among other coping strategies. Overweight or obese kids also are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54257/praise-dont-tease-and-other-tips-to-help-kids-with-their-weight\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">victims of bullying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/yv/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">correlated with increased suicide-related behavior\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every student deserves access to books with relatable stories that foster a sense of inclusivity and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62154/proven-classroom-strategies-for-winning-over-reluctant-readers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cultivate a love for reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Teachers can explore ways to critically examine the presence of fat characters in literature and seek books that portray fat protagonists in all of their complexity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Not all representation is good representation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The literary landscape includes few fat characters who follow well-worn storylines. “Their size is one of the main conflicts of the story and typically it (has) to be resolved with that person losing weight,” said Smith. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/JustTeachingELA\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caitlin O’ Connor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a language arts teacher from New York who presented on fat positivity at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://convention.ncte.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Council of Teachers of English\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> conference last year, added that plot lines where fat characters lose weight can be harmful because it communicates fat characters are only likable if they are committed to getting smaller. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fat characters are often subject to harmful stereotypes. “It’s not just the presence of fat characters that we need. It’s the good representation of fat characters that we need. We need them to be represented as whole people with stories and lives that are full, that matter, that aren’t just a list of tropes,” said O’Connor. She cited Piggy, a character described as fat from Lord of the Flies, as an example. “He’s constantly called fat and framed as lesser than,” she said, adding that the way that Piggy is treated throughout the book suggests fat people are deserving of name calling and bullying. Other common tropes include framing fat characters as unable to decide what is best for themselves, having fraught relationships with food, or being uninterested in athletic activities. O’Connor emphasized that fat characters should not be confined to proving thin people’s physical superiority or serving as comic relief. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If a teacher has to explore a book with a fat main character that falls into reductive stereotypes, it can be a learning opportunity. O’Connor encouraged teachers to engage students in discussions about character portrayal and patterns across other books. “Having these discussions builds the critical thinking skills and perspectives we want our students to develop,” she said. “We can teach students to recognize and challenge stereotypes through literature.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Literature can debunk stereotypes and tropes\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teachers can curate diverse book collections that feature fat characters in multifaceted roles and that combat anti-fat bias. O’Connor emphasized the power of language, urging teachers to discuss words as a tool that can uplift or oppress. She suggested repositioning the word “fat” as a descriptor, not a derisive term.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When choosing a book with a fat character, Smith recommended that teachers ask whether the character’s portrayal contributes to existing harmful attitudes, prejudices or stereotypes. Additionally, it’s crucial to assess whether the character is allowed to grow and change throughout the narrative.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among Smith and O’Connor’s recommended books for students are Lisa Fipps’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608212/starfish-by-lisa-fipps/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Starfish\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Crystal Maldonado’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/648097/fat-chance-charlie-vega-by-by-crystal-maldonado/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fat Chance Charlie Vega\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Susan Vaught’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://susanvaught.com/book/big-fat-manifesto-2/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Big Fat Manifesto\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a collection titled \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.harvard.com/book/the_other_f_word/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat & Fierce\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by Angie Manfredi. These narratives explore themes of self-acceptance, challenging societal norms and celebrating diverse bodies. Other recommendations include the anthology \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/every-body-shines-9781547606078/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every Body Shines\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by Cassandra Newbould, Claire Kann’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250192677/ifitmakesyouhappy\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If It Makes You Happy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Paul Coccia’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.orcabook.com/Cub\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cub\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Gabby Rivera’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621079/juliet-takes-a-breath-by-gabby-rivera/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Juliet Takes a Breath\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, each contributing to a tapestry of stories that defy stereotypes and promote body positivity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Where teachers can start\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Addressing the needs of students, especially those experiencing fatphobia, begins with critical introspection, according to Smith. She suggested making a table with the days of the week and noting what you do to support students and colleagues who are fat. “Oftentimes very little is written down,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers may not know where to start and don’t want to say the wrong thing when broaching discussions about body size. Smith urged educators to familiarize themselves with fatphobia and read fat literature for adults, such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565139/the-body-is-not-an-apology-second-edition-by-sonya-renee-taylor/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Body Is Not an Apology\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Sonya Renee Taylor, which advocates for radical self-love to counteract harm caused by bias or fatphobia, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645819/what-we-dont-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-fat-by-aubrey-gordon/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Aubrey Gordon, which covers how to challenge cultural attitudes and advocate for social justice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Highlighting the historical intersections of race and body size, Smith considers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Sabrina Strings a keystone text. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Thickening-Fat-Fat-Bodies-Intersectionality-and-Social-Justice/Friedman-Rice-Rinaldi/p/book/9781138580039\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality, and Social Justice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by May Friedman, Carla Rice and Jen Rinaldi, explores fat oppression and activism through various perspectives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The worst thing teachers can do is to stay silent about fat characters or the lack thereof, Smith said. “Do we really want to be responsible for saying, ‘Because you are fat, you are unworthy of grace, dignity, love and to have your story heard?’” she asked. “In the absence of this discussion, isn’t that what we’re saying already?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the far, far suburbs of Houston, Texas, three teenagers are talking at a coffee shop about a clandestine bookshelf in their public school classroom. It’s filled with books that have been challenged or banned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the books that I’ve read are books like \u003cem>Hood Feminism\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Poet X\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Gabi, A Girl in Pieces\u003c/em>,” says one of the girls. She’s a 17-year-old senior with round glasses and long braids. The books, she says, sparked her feminist consciousness. “I just see, especially in my community, a lot of women being talked down upon and those books [were] really nice to read.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These students live in a state that has banned more books than nearly any other, \u003ca href=\"https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-joins-seven-other-groups-to-support-lawsuit-to-overturn-texas-book-ban-law-as-unconstitutional/\">according to PEN America\u003c/a>. The Texas State Board of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2023-04-19/texas-house-advances-bill-that-would-remove-sexually-explicit-books-from-school-libraries\">passed a policy in late 2023\u003c/a> prohibiting what it calls “sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable books in public schools.” Over the past two years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2023-09-21/a-teacher-in-texas-was-fired-for-reading-from-an-anne-frank-graphic-novel\">Texas teachers have lost jobs \u003c/a>or been \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/transgender-student-texas-grapevine-podcast-rcna118116\">pressured to resign\u003c/a> after making challenged books available to students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teacher who created this bookshelf could become a target for far right-wing groups. That’s why NPR is not naming her, nor her students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want to jeopardize our teacher in any way, or the bookshelf,” another teenager explains. Until recently, he says, he was not naturally inclined toward reading. But the secret bookshelf opened a world of characters and situations he immediately related to. “Just to see Latinos, like LGBTQ,” he says. “That’s not something you really see in our community, or it’s not very well represented at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secret bookshelf began in late 2021, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books\">then-state Rep. Matt Krause sent public schools a list of 850 books\u003c/a> he wanted banned from schools. They might, he said, “make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That made this teacher furious. “The books that make you uncomfortable are the books that make you think,” she told NPR. “Isn’t that what school is supposed to do? It’s supposed to make you think?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She swung into action, calling friends to support a bookshelf that would include all of the books Krause wanted banned. Then she enlisted a student to put it together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went through the list and found the ones that I thought were cool,” he recalled to NPR over a London Fog latte. “And then she gave me her [credit] card and I bought them. It was a lot of gay books, I remember that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same student came out as trans to his family while in high school. “I wouldn’t call them supportive, so I had to do a lot of sneaking around,” he said quietly. Now 19, he’s graduated and works as a host in a restaurant while deciding on his next move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having these books, having these stories out there meant a lot to me, because I felt seen,” he said. Especially meaningful, he added, during a fraught time when Texas lawmakers banned transition-related care for teenagers. “Because of the way the laws are going for trans people especially,” he said, “it could be assumed that [my teacher is] grooming kids. And that would be terrible because that’s not what she’s doing at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR repeatedly reached out to former Texas lawmaker Matt Krause for comment and got no response. He is currently running for county commissioner in the Fort Worth area. The chief of communications for the public school district thanked NPR for “highlighting this very important topic,” but said, “we’re going to pass on this opportunity,” when asked to comment on how administrators are implementing policies around books that have been challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been seeing a climate of fear — and a variety of self-censorship — going on by school leaders or librarians who do not understand the implications of the law or are fearful for their jobs,” said Carolyn Foote. She’s a retired English teacher and librarian who co-created the activist group \u003ca href=\"https://www.txfreadomfighters.us/\">Texas FReadom Fighters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kasey Meehan of the free speech advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://pen.org/\">PEN America\u003c/a> says she’s watched things in Texas escalate. She points to \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/20/texas-teacher-fired-anne-frank-book-ban\">a teacher fired last year\u003c/a> for sharing a graphic novel with her students that showed Anne Frank having a romantic daydream about another girl. Another teacher \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/transgender-student-texas-grapevine-podcast-rcna118116\">featured on an NBC podcast\u003c/a> left her job under pressure after making literature available to students featuring a positive transgender character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents are taking books from schools and bringing them to police or sheriff offices and accusing librarians and educators of providing sexually explicit material to students,” Meehan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does make me nervous,” admitted the Houston teacher with the secret bookshelf. “I mean, this is absolutely silly that I am not free to talk about books without giving my name and worrying about repercussions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point, she hopes, it will no longer have to be a secret. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals blocked part of a recently passed state bill, known as HB 900, that would have required booksellers and publishers to rate any books sold to schools for sexual content. This was seen as a victory for freedom-to-read activists, but some of them noted to NPR that HB 900 still contains dangerously vague language about material prohibited in school and no clear guidelines about enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do believe that book banning is going to go away,” the teacher says, firmly. But for now she adds, “I intend for this library to just keep growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+secret+shelf+of+banned+books+thrives+in+a+Texas+school%2C+under+the+nose+of+censors&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the far, far suburbs of Houston, Texas, three teenagers are talking at a coffee shop about a clandestine bookshelf in their public school classroom. It’s filled with books that have been challenged or banned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the books that I’ve read are books like \u003cem>Hood Feminism\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Poet X\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Gabi, A Girl in Pieces\u003c/em>,” says one of the girls. She’s a 17-year-old senior with round glasses and long braids. The books, she says, sparked her feminist consciousness. “I just see, especially in my community, a lot of women being talked down upon and those books [were] really nice to read.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These students live in a state that has banned more books than nearly any other, \u003ca href=\"https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-joins-seven-other-groups-to-support-lawsuit-to-overturn-texas-book-ban-law-as-unconstitutional/\">according to PEN America\u003c/a>. The Texas State Board of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2023-04-19/texas-house-advances-bill-that-would-remove-sexually-explicit-books-from-school-libraries\">passed a policy in late 2023\u003c/a> prohibiting what it calls “sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable books in public schools.” Over the past two years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2023-09-21/a-teacher-in-texas-was-fired-for-reading-from-an-anne-frank-graphic-novel\">Texas teachers have lost jobs \u003c/a>or been \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/transgender-student-texas-grapevine-podcast-rcna118116\">pressured to resign\u003c/a> after making challenged books available to students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teacher who created this bookshelf could become a target for far right-wing groups. That’s why NPR is not naming her, nor her students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want to jeopardize our teacher in any way, or the bookshelf,” another teenager explains. Until recently, he says, he was not naturally inclined toward reading. But the secret bookshelf opened a world of characters and situations he immediately related to. “Just to see Latinos, like LGBTQ,” he says. “That’s not something you really see in our community, or it’s not very well represented at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secret bookshelf began in late 2021, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books\">then-state Rep. Matt Krause sent public schools a list of 850 books\u003c/a> he wanted banned from schools. They might, he said, “make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That made this teacher furious. “The books that make you uncomfortable are the books that make you think,” she told NPR. “Isn’t that what school is supposed to do? It’s supposed to make you think?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She swung into action, calling friends to support a bookshelf that would include all of the books Krause wanted banned. Then she enlisted a student to put it together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went through the list and found the ones that I thought were cool,” he recalled to NPR over a London Fog latte. “And then she gave me her [credit] card and I bought them. It was a lot of gay books, I remember that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same student came out as trans to his family while in high school. “I wouldn’t call them supportive, so I had to do a lot of sneaking around,” he said quietly. Now 19, he’s graduated and works as a host in a restaurant while deciding on his next move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having these books, having these stories out there meant a lot to me, because I felt seen,” he said. Especially meaningful, he added, during a fraught time when Texas lawmakers banned transition-related care for teenagers. “Because of the way the laws are going for trans people especially,” he said, “it could be assumed that [my teacher is] grooming kids. And that would be terrible because that’s not what she’s doing at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR repeatedly reached out to former Texas lawmaker Matt Krause for comment and got no response. He is currently running for county commissioner in the Fort Worth area. The chief of communications for the public school district thanked NPR for “highlighting this very important topic,” but said, “we’re going to pass on this opportunity,” when asked to comment on how administrators are implementing policies around books that have been challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been seeing a climate of fear — and a variety of self-censorship — going on by school leaders or librarians who do not understand the implications of the law or are fearful for their jobs,” said Carolyn Foote. She’s a retired English teacher and librarian who co-created the activist group \u003ca href=\"https://www.txfreadomfighters.us/\">Texas FReadom Fighters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kasey Meehan of the free speech advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://pen.org/\">PEN America\u003c/a> says she’s watched things in Texas escalate. She points to \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/20/texas-teacher-fired-anne-frank-book-ban\">a teacher fired last year\u003c/a> for sharing a graphic novel with her students that showed Anne Frank having a romantic daydream about another girl. Another teacher \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/transgender-student-texas-grapevine-podcast-rcna118116\">featured on an NBC podcast\u003c/a> left her job under pressure after making literature available to students featuring a positive transgender character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents are taking books from schools and bringing them to police or sheriff offices and accusing librarians and educators of providing sexually explicit material to students,” Meehan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does make me nervous,” admitted the Houston teacher with the secret bookshelf. “I mean, this is absolutely silly that I am not free to talk about books without giving my name and worrying about repercussions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point, she hopes, it will no longer have to be a secret. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals blocked part of a recently passed state bill, known as HB 900, that would have required booksellers and publishers to rate any books sold to schools for sexual content. This was seen as a victory for freedom-to-read activists, but some of them noted to NPR that HB 900 still contains dangerously vague language about material prohibited in school and no clear guidelines about enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do believe that book banning is going to go away,” the teacher says, firmly. But for now she adds, “I intend for this library to just keep growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+secret+shelf+of+banned+books+thrives+in+a+Texas+school%2C+under+the+nose+of+censors&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
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},
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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