Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Schools Matter: Adventures on the Striving Readers Webinar

Schools Matter: Adventures on the Striving Readers Webinar

Adventures on the Striving Readers Webinar

I watched a Webinar on Striving Readers put on by the Alliance for Excellent Education. It was designed to strengthen support for the Striving Readers program, which the House of Representatives wants to eliminate. The participants (esp. prof Don Deshler, a specialist in special education, as is often the case with proponents of skills-based approaches) stated their belief that better educational achievement and literacy development will help the economy, and their belief that direct teaching of skills and strategies is the obvious way to go, and that we must raise the bar and insist on higher standards.

There was a brief mention of the importance of engagement in books.

THE DISMAL RESULTS ISSUE

I do not support Striving Readers: It is highly skill-based. Many of the programs use READ 180 and Xtreme Reading. And the results are very disappointing. I reviewed this is previous posts.

I had previously sent in a question asking them about the dismal results for Striving Readers. Deshler answered