Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Grade Level Reading (GLR) Another Con Game in Education?


Do you see that 60 percent of Florida's fourth graders are not reading on grade level?

This is not a new problem. Retarding America: the Imprisonment of Potential discusses the same findings in a Justice Department Study released in 1993. No telling how much money has been spent doing exactly the OPPOSITE of what this book finds. Phonics works to teach ALL children to read. But, Progressive reading instruction has been made so complicated and obtuse they really do not actually teach children to read.

I have five grandchildren and the oldest three have ALL had special tutoring. Why? Because two were taught with Sing Spell Read and Write that has now been bought by Pearson a partner in the education cabal with Bill Gates with Common Core. That program has now been corrupted with the "eclectic"/Whole Language/ Progressive approach favored by the Education Establishment. Sue Dickson created a good program. Pearson bought it and corrupted it. Both of those children were at private schools.

The third attended first grade in a public school in Mobile, Alabama. It was a given that Whole Language/Progressive/Eclectic method would be his reading instruction. The school  was touted as the best in Mobile. I had hope that a good Phonics background might possibly have infiltrated. He came to visit and in listening to him "read" I knew it had not and he needed help. And fast. I do not believe in waiting until the third grade to "fix it". By then they are so discouraged they have given up. He now attends an ABEKA private Christian school and is doing great.


Pearson has bought up all these book publishing companies. And more.


Let me share with you the Education Establishment's idea of training for teaching reading.  Below you will see"attack skills" for reading. If you see this in your child's classroom, RUN!



The "methods" above will be taught in a Progressive classroom. After all of that do you think the child has retained the meaning of anything he might have read previously? Do you think their "comprehension" might suffer? This is why so many children are illiterate. 

Some folks (powerful folks) actually bought Kenneth Goodman's 1967 conclusions in "Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game." Goodman and his wife, Yetta, later edited a book entitled The Whole Language Catalog that became the bible of Progressive Education.  A "guessing game" will not get a space ship to the moon, supply the information to successfully build bridges, nor will it keep airplanes in the sky. Folks, the Emperor is wearing no clothes in education. 

Below you will find a screen shot from the Florida State University catalog. Do you see phonics anywhere? Do you see anything regarding using Explicit Phonics to Directly instruct children in reading? Can any teacher trained like this actually teach children to read with Phonics? 
Below you will see how important Hillsdale College considers Phonics. 

Notice HILLSDALE COLLEGE calls it EXPLICIT PHONICS and that is quite different from ECLECTIC/WHOLE LANGUAGE. 

This is the catalog entry for Elementary Education from Pensacola Christian which uses the ABEKA curriculum. Whereas an Education degree takes 48 hours at FSU, it only takes 16 at Pensacola Christian. Why? Where do prospective teachers Pensacola Christian earn extra hours? In Content areas. So they might actually KNOW SOMETHING to teach!


So what is Grade Level Reading? First of all it is a bigoted concept that makes distinctions between the abilities of children in different economic strata. Why is their answer always something new and untested? Why not use a program known for its effectiveness for all children?

Why do I cynically think -- money and power.  I remember when I first discovered the "great debate" between SIDE (systematic, intensive, direct and early) phonics instruction and look say/whole word/whole language. And then with new math. How in the world can you politicize reading and math? Read the Whole Language catalog. It is filled with politics! And now with GLR we see a full frontal assault on the family in the name of reading instruction!



These screen shots are from the Grade Level Reading https://gradelevelreading.net/resources/technology-for-successful-parenting

That is a goal. Not a fact. 

 This reminds me of the Music Man. Reading-infused? How about the think system. Just put a band instrument/book in the kid's hand and he will WANT to play/read and therefore-- ta da!!! he plays/reads!

I am reminded of a Simpsons episode where a banner across the school entrance read "Share the Blame". Really? If only parents (who frequently are themselves victims of the schools' inability to teach reading) had read to their child in the womb, as a toddler, etc. the school could teach them to read. How did poverty stricken, English as a second language immigrants in the 1890s learn to read? They were taught with Websters Blue Backed Spellers! Phonics! 

What are those community driven efforts? WOMB TO TOMB control of a child. OUTCOMES ACCOUNTABLE (what the heck does that mean?) systems of CARE (total control of your child including religious training --secular humanism--and disciplinary instruction) requiring DATA COLLECTION on you AND your child. 

Has Outcomes-based education (a.k.a. Mastery Learning, a product of the Chicago Anenberg project headed by Barack Obama and Bill Ayers) worked? In Chicago, only 1 in 4 children can read.



Only a totalitarian society can impose OUTCOMES WOMB TO TOMB for your child. And we would give it up because the schools stupidly refuse to use a method of instruction for reading THAT HAS WORKED FOR CENTURIES?

So what is the definition of Grade Level Reading. This is a screen shot of what they tell us. 

Let's analyze this: 

I just love that part about "world-class standards" and "equitable opportunity"! Just what does that mean? I would prefer United States standards since our education system was ONCE THE ENVY OF THE WORLD!  But now that we have COMMON CORE BASED ON THE WORLD CORE CURRICULUM OF ROBERT MULLER AND THE UNITED NATIONS, THOSE STANDARDS HAVE DECLINED!
  • Close the gap in reading achievement that separates many low-income students from their peers? That means equity in learning. That means those with the opportunity to excel will sacrifice their excellence to lift others to the same bar.  It does not mean equal opportunity, it means some are subsidized at another's expense.
  • Raise the bar for reading proficiency so that all students are assessed by world-class standards. Now most folks would assume that meant better than the US standards. But what if it means your child's vocabulary will be restricted to a rolodex of memorized words that all children world-wide memorize and that limits their understanding of the world to THOSE words. 
  • And insure that all children, including and especially children from low-income families, have an equitable opportunity to meet those higher (presumed) standards. 

Please think about the words used here! Don't assume you understand. Think! They are telling you their intent. Womb to tomb control of children. Change society to fix reading?

So, do you think ceding control of your child and home to government do gooders will enable your child to read? Or do you think you are just ceding control of SOMEONE ELSE'S child?

And you are okay with this? It doesn't really matter if you are.  "Use the courts to create a sense of crisis" is how they impose this upon us. They did it with Goals 2000, the Kentucky Plan, etc. in the early 90s and where did it get us?

Your children are to them "Radical Possibilities." Grade Level Reading is merely a facade for the true intent. All the words are carefully chosen for modeling attitudes to accept this camel's head creeping slowly and determinedly into the tent (your home).
Paolo Freire (defrocked Jesuit priest and founder of liberation theology in Nicaragua and liberation pedagogy here in the US) is a hero to Progressive Educators. The Goodmans (Ken and Yetta) spotlight Freire throughout the Whole Language Catalog. He promotes the concept that children create their own meaning in reading just like radical math (Freire's baby at Harvard)  encourages children to create their own mathematical knowledge. (Does that not give you chills? Think of the bridges these folks will build, the planes they will build/repair, etc.)

Now back to this GRADE LEVEL READING. I see a campaign and a lot of money spent but, 
  • HAS THIS BEEN TESTED ANYWHERE? 
  • WHAT IS THE EMPIRICAL DATA ON THIS? 
  • Is this just ANOTHER FEEL GOOD PROJECT BASED ON POLITICS AND NOT DATA?
  • I hope you see here that Grade Level Reading is not focused on actual reading, but on getting into the child's home. 



NOW WE GET DOWN TO THE FUNDERS FOR THIS PROJECT. GEORGE SOROS AND THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS MAKE ME NERVOUS AS DOES THE CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE KNOWING HOW BIASED THEY ARE AGAINST ANYTHING CONSERVATIVE.

Apparently Systematic, Intensive, Direct and Early Phonics Instruction is now considered "conservative" since mainly Christian schools use it. And yet, all children, black and white learn best with Intensive Phonics. Marva Collins used Professor Phonics Gives Sound Advice and Open Court Readers and taught minority children labeled Learning Disabled/Dyslexic/etc. to read when the public schools could not. John Winston used the Spalding Writing Road to Reading to bring his school serving 3 housing projects, 98% minority, at least 40 identified dyslexics produced yearly and many discipline problems and brought the Reading scores up from the 24th percentile to the 80th, only one or two identified dyslexics/learning disabled and very few discipline problems.


My conclusion regarding the Grade Level Reading is that third grade is too late to begin teaching children to read. That was exactly what we saw with our grandson. According to the school, he was doing fine at the end of the first grade. But listening to him attempt to read I knew he was struggling. We sent him to Diane Steensland, a Speech Language Pathologist in Dothan, Alabama and the only person I know who can identify, analyze and remediate effectively. She showed me how he could sound out the initial sound and the ending sound and would guess what might be in the middle. If you look above at those "attack skills" you will see that according to Progressive teaching, he was doing as he had been instructed--guessing. He now attends an ABEKA school and thrives. Praise God!

Now, it would appear Grade Level Reading is doing another one of those feel good campaigns that I have seen so often.

There an excellent Phonics program that works for all children, but it is so effective and inexpensive the Establishment Educators refuse to use it!
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/spalding-writing-road-to-reading-and.html

My goodness! If you used a program that actually worked, all those reading specialists would be out of business!  All of those book publishers that sell remediation materials to go along with the reading books would be unnecessary!

And if they did well and had a future, these socialists would have not excuse to come into our homes to "fix them."


RADICAL POSSIBILITIES: YOUR CHILDREN 
Think  about the fact that many children no longer learn cursive writing. They now can no longer read the major documents of our democratic republic. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are written in cursive. Must we all now depend on someone's translation into print? Would that also include their interpretation of those documents?

How dumbed down can we allow the Education Establishment to take us? How much power/control of your family are you willing to cede?

In the name of equity in society lifting reading scores. Hogwash!
The Politics of Common Core
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-politics-of-common-core-powerpoint.html

The Truth about Phonics
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-truth-about-phonics-that-will-help.html

Sing Spell Read and Write, Dolch Words
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2018/07/sing-spell-read-and-write-dolce-word.html

Social Engineering, Co-operative Learning
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2018/05/social-engineering-co-operative.html

The Bigotry of Low Expectations
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-bigotry-of-low-expectations-profits.html

The Yes We Can Movement to Manipulate 
 https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-yes-we-can-movement-to-manipulate.html

TEACHERS AS LIBERATORS PRODUCE STUDENTS AS REVOLUTIONARIES: 
Whole Language Lives On!

RADICAL POSSIBILITIES: YOUR CHILDREN 
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/radical-possibilities-your-children.html

Response to AL.Com article "Alabama Superintendent Proposal to Raise Academic Standards."
SECULAR HUMANISM IS NOW THE RELIGION OF OUR SCHOOLS

COMMON CORE: THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES

COMMON CORE=PETRI DISH FOR RADICALS
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-petri-dish-for-radicals.html

REVOLUTIONARY PEDAGOGY

Revolutionary Pedagogy: Or, so you thought reading, writing and calculating were why you sent your child to school?
These are some posts on my blog that are the most pertinent to this issue. There are many others that might interest you as well. Welcome to my blog.

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