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The Beacon Spring 2022
Turning the Tide
Science of Reading Smugglers
By Annie Stutzman, MS, Associate Director of The Windward Institute
T
he Science of Reading (SoR) is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. And yet, educators in classrooms nationally and internationally are having to sneak and smuggle in the proven components of literacy instruction with the hope of counterbalancing the antiquated and harmful reading instruction methodologies practiced within their schools and districts. SoR research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The Science of Reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform: • how proficient reading and writing develop • why some have difficulty • how we can most effectively assess and teach • improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties (A Defining Movement, 2021). This clear and concise definition of SoR has guided many educators in literacy instruction with proven positive outcomes for students with and without language-based learning disabilities, and yet, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), or The Nation’s Report Card, continues to highlight the deficit of students acquiring the skills needed to be proficient readers. Where is the disconnect? Educators should be able to focus on the practice of pedagogy and being advocates for their students. They should not have to fight to implement the scientifically-proven methods for literacy instruction within their classrooms. Scarborough’s Reading Rope should not be viewed as contraband. Smuggling in the Science of Reading in pieces dilutes the potential outcomes for students and furthers the divide within the educational community. It only takes one visit to one of the hundreds of list-servs or social media pages with names like, “The Science Reading: What I Should Have Learned in College”, which has 136,000+ members,
to see the critical demand that swaths of educators need to fill in the gaps of their pre-service programs. These online communities are a harbor for frustrated educators who feel disappointed by their teacher training and not supported by their school administration. Their main resource for access to effective professional development is in the hands of school leaders, whose background in scientificallybased literacy instruction is also comparably lacking as the teachers in-need in their community. Sadly, as populations of principals and superintendents continue to silo their schools and districts, the advocacy for access to resources and implementation of practices based in SoR falls on teachers. Many of these educators not only spend precious, personal time navigating research articles, books, and webinars but they must then brave applying this knowledge in their classrooms with fear of pushback from colleagues and supervisors who still hold fast to antiquated and unfounded pedagogical practices such as Whole Language. Theories in the medical and hardscience research world are tested and re-tested with rigor. Those theories that cannot be proven true by presenting clear and consistent data are considered dispelled, and the research findings are considered unfounded. Yet, the theories of two prominent, if not infamous, literacy researchers, Smith and Goodman, who are considered two of the leading generals in the Reading Wars, on the side of Whole Language, continue to permeate reading science and methodology. It is pertinent to remember that in education they are theoretical zombies that cannot be stopped by conventional weapons such as empirical disconfirmation, leaving them free to roam the educational landscape (Seidenberg, 2017). A return to the question: Where is the disconnect? When more than a third of the nation's fourth-graders can't read at a proficient level (NAEP, 2019), schools and administrators must let go of the notion that their reading programs are working for most of their students.
The casualties of the Reading Wars are the children, and the toll rises each day. There is no room for ego in education and now is the time to reflect, not deflect.