reading Archive

  • I have spent a little time today looking at the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) over the past several years. The NAEP is often referred to as the gold standard in testing and provides a longitudinal, consistent database of student achievement. Meanwhile, through the No Child Left Behind Act, the public has been sold on the idea that a regimen of high-stakes tests accompanied with punitive measures directed at teachers and schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress on these tests will produce growth in achievement and will close the so-called achievement gap. We are now more than 10 years into the experiment on our children and the results are coming in. Here is what my investigation of Washington State NAEP trends found. In the period from the mid-90s to 2003, about when NCLB kicked...

    High-Stakes Testing: Learning Improvement Tool or Corporate Boondoggle?

    Posted on April 29, 2012 | No Comments
    I have spent a little time today looking at the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) over the past several years. The NAEP is often referred to as the gold standard in testing and provides a longitudinal, consistent database of student achievement. Meanwhile, through the No Child Left Behind Act, the public has been sold on the idea that a regimen of high-stakes tests accompanied with punitive measures directed at teachers and schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress on these tests will produce growth in achievement and will close the so-called achievement gap. We are now more than 10 years into the experiment on our children and the results are coming in. Here is what my investigation of Washington State NAEP trends found. In the period from the mid-90s to 2003, about when NCLB kicked...

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  • Another view of a test used in Kennewick schools. The federal Reading First program has come under repeated scrutiny for corruption, exposing how individuals in charge of monitoring the program have pushed products, such as the DIBELS test, from which they have benefited financially (see “Reading First,” this issue). Complementing the financial corruption is ideological corruption. In Examining DIBELS: What It Is and What It Does, Ken Goodman and his colleagues carefully dissect the test, concluding that it is conceptually flawed and educationally harmful. Follow this link to the complete article: http://www.fairtest.org/dibels-pedagogy-absurd-hurts-children For the Reading First article: http://www.fairtest.org/reading-first-financial-corruption      

    DIBELS: Pedagogy of the Absurd Hurts Children

    Posted on April 24, 2012 | No Comments
    Another view of a test used in Kennewick schools. The federal Reading First program has come under repeated scrutiny for corruption, exposing how individuals in charge of monitoring the program have pushed products, such as the DIBELS test, from which they have benefited financially (see “Reading First,” this issue). Complementing the financial corruption is ideological corruption. In Examining DIBELS: What It Is and What It Does, Ken Goodman and his colleagues carefully dissect the test, concluding that it is conceptually flawed and educationally harmful. Follow this link to the complete article: http://www.fairtest.org/dibels-pedagogy-absurd-hurts-children For the Reading First article: http://www.fairtest.org/reading-first-financial-corruption      

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  • This morning I shared a table with former Kennewick school board member Kathy White and several acquaintances at the second annual reading foundation breakfast at the Three Rivers Convention Center.  I estimate 350 reading supporters attended the one hour program to hear guest speaker Captain Scott Smiley and to volunteer time or cash to support the work of the foundation. The Literacy Champion Award for 2012 was presented by last year’s winners, Hank and Nancy Sauer, to Kennewick Masonic Lodge 153 for operating the Bikes-4-Books reading program.  The Bikes-4-Books program awards bikes to young people who meet reading goals. Scott Smiley is a West Point graduate who was blinded in April of 2005 by a car bomb explosion in Iraq.  He spoke of his recovery adapting to life as a blind man.  After his recovery Smiley returned to West Point...

    Children’s Reading Foundation Read to Lead Breakfast

    Posted on April 17, 2012 | 3 Comments
    This morning I shared a table with former Kennewick school board member Kathy White and several acquaintances at the second annual reading foundation breakfast at the Three Rivers Convention Center.  I estimate 350 reading supporters attended the one hour program to hear guest speaker Captain Scott Smiley and to volunteer time or cash to support the work of the foundation. The Literacy Champion Award for 2012 was presented by last year’s winners, Hank and Nancy Sauer, to Kennewick Masonic Lodge 153 for operating the Bikes-4-Books reading program.  The Bikes-4-Books program awards bikes to young people who meet reading goals. Scott Smiley is a West Point graduate who was blinded in April of 2005 by a car bomb explosion in Iraq.  He spoke of his recovery adapting to life as a blind man.  After his recovery Smiley returned to West Point...

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  •                                          Kennewick School Board Meeting                                          February 22, 2012                                          Section 1: What transpired               Personal comments (based on my Leadership WSSDA training) in Italics                                                                           Section 2: What was not included Section 1 Present were school board members Heather Kinzley, Brian Brooks, Ron Mabry, Ben Messinger and Maricarmen Garza.  KSD staff: Dave Bond (Superintendent), Ron Williamson, Vic Roberts, Chuck Lybeck, Jack Anderson, Linda Tucker, Lorraine Cooper, about six citizens.  President Dawn Adams was sick and did not attend.   The meeting was called to order at 5:30 PM by Vice-President Heather Kinzley who led the Pledge of Allegiance.   Communication from Parents, Staff and District Residents:  None   Consent Items:  Minutes of 2/8/12 regular meeting, Certified, Classified and Extracurricular Personnel Actions, and Travel Requests, Payroll and vouchers and Delta High School Inter Local Agreement Addition.  Motion to accept was made by Brian,...

    Kennewick School Board Report for February 22

    Posted on March 2, 2012 | 1 Comment
                                             Kennewick School Board Meeting                                          February 22, 2012                                          Section 1: What transpired               Personal comments (based on my Leadership WSSDA training) in Italics                                                                           Section 2: What was not included Section 1 Present were school board members Heather Kinzley, Brian Brooks, Ron Mabry, Ben Messinger and Maricarmen Garza.  KSD staff: Dave Bond (Superintendent), Ron Williamson, Vic Roberts, Chuck Lybeck, Jack Anderson, Linda Tucker, Lorraine Cooper, about six citizens.  President Dawn Adams was sick and did not attend.   The meeting was called to order at 5:30 PM by Vice-President Heather Kinzley who led the Pledge of Allegiance.   Communication from Parents, Staff and District Residents:  None   Consent Items:  Minutes of 2/8/12 regular meeting, Certified, Classified and Extracurricular Personnel Actions, and Travel Requests, Payroll and vouchers and Delta High School Inter Local Agreement Addition.  Motion to accept was made by Brian,...

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  • The word DIBELS has a kind of nonsense tone to it and for those who don’t know, it refers to the much-used reading test which includes reading nonsense words. This has rapidly become a go-to test in the massive focus on reading instruction pushed by NCLB and now RttT. I have always been suspicious of its efficacy and now I have this note from my friend Michael Martin:   I’ve tried to explain this to several people here. Particularly for low-income black children, the research says their primary problem is a low vocabulary. So they can read but they don’t know the words used on the tests. Instead of providing exposure to vocabulary building texts, they are instead given “remedial reading” instruction which mostly consist of Phonics classes where they are taught that words do not have any meaning, they...

    What’s Wrong with the DIBELS

    Posted on March 1, 2012 | 1 Comment
    The word DIBELS has a kind of nonsense tone to it and for those who don’t know, it refers to the much-used reading test which includes reading nonsense words. This has rapidly become a go-to test in the massive focus on reading instruction pushed by NCLB and now RttT. I have always been suspicious of its efficacy and now I have this note from my friend Michael Martin:   I’ve tried to explain this to several people here. Particularly for low-income black children, the research says their primary problem is a low vocabulary. So they can read but they don’t know the words used on the tests. Instead of providing exposure to vocabulary building texts, they are instead given “remedial reading” instruction which mostly consist of Phonics classes where they are taught that words do not have any meaning, they...

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  • by Louise Gustafson, retired educator Since the mid-1960s the Kennewick School  District has been known for its strong reading program.  So, those who claim that it was the Rosier administration along with the formation of the Reading Foundation that promoted reading in the District are just ill informed. The only difference in the reading approach was the institution of the inane goal, in my opinion, that 90% of third graders would read at “grade level” by the end of third grade. Variables in learning styles and other factors influencing learning are just too great to make such a goal effective. That’s probably the reason that the statistics cited from OSPI show that reading scores in Kennewick don’t necessarily hold up over the years.   As a long time educator, I want all children to have opportunities to have instruction at...

    The History of Reading in Kennewick

    Posted on November 5, 2011 | No Comments
    by Louise Gustafson, retired educator Since the mid-1960s the Kennewick School  District has been known for its strong reading program.  So, those who claim that it was the Rosier administration along with the formation of the Reading Foundation that promoted reading in the District are just ill informed. The only difference in the reading approach was the institution of the inane goal, in my opinion, that 90% of third graders would read at “grade level” by the end of third grade. Variables in learning styles and other factors influencing learning are just too great to make such a goal effective. That’s probably the reason that the statistics cited from OSPI show that reading scores in Kennewick don’t necessarily hold up over the years.   As a long time educator, I want all children to have opportunities to have instruction at...

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  • In response to letters to the Tri-City Herald about his criticism of Kennewick School District’s reading goal, Dr. Valiant has added a comment to superintendent Dave Bond’s editorial on the Tri-City Herald website.  To read Bob Valiant’s original editorial click on this link:  http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/09/24/1656861/the-verdict-is-in-on-kennewicks.html   To read Dave Bond’s editorial with Bob Valiant’s response click on this link: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/10/09/1673797/focus-on-reading-spells-success.html

    Bob Valiant’s Reply to Dave Bond and Others

    Posted on November 3, 2011 | No Comments
    In response to letters to the Tri-City Herald about his criticism of Kennewick School District’s reading goal, Dr. Valiant has added a comment to superintendent Dave Bond’s editorial on the Tri-City Herald website.  To read Bob Valiant’s original editorial click on this link:  http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/09/24/1656861/the-verdict-is-in-on-kennewicks.html   To read Dave Bond’s editorial with Bob Valiant’s response click on this link: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/10/09/1673797/focus-on-reading-spells-success.html

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  • Kennewick’s test results for reading, math, writing and science are available here.  Scores reported are from the  WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning), MSP (Measurements of Student Progress), HSPE (High School Proficiency Exams), EOC (End of Course) and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress).

    Kennewick School District Test Results

    Posted on October 10, 2011 | 5 Comments
    Kennewick’s test results for reading, math, writing and science are available here.  Scores reported are from the  WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning), MSP (Measurements of Student Progress), HSPE (High School Proficiency Exams), EOC (End of Course) and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress).

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