Get it Right on Reading, BAM

New York Post

Barack Obama has promised to "guarantee every American an affordable, world-class, life- long, top-notch education, from early childhood to high school - from college to on-the-job training." To make good on that, the president-elect will have to confront a system that failed to teach me and millions of others to read - a system that institutionalizes illiteracy in our schools.

Sixty years ago, I went to school like any child in America. Instead of learning how to read and write, I graduated from high school and college - and even worked for 17 years as a secondary-school teacher - without being able to read or write. I finally learned how to read at age 48 - by at last getting the essential phonics instruction I needed.

I wish I could say I'm unique, but our high-school dropout rate of 30 percent is only the tip of the crisis. If anything in our country needs the hope of change, I would say it is the education system.

The agonizing thing is, research has shown us what works - instructional methods that stress the basics: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. These were identified and validated by the National Reading Panel 2000 - yet our schools too often use teaching methods that don't work.

Prime among these is the "whole language" approach - which insists, contrary to fact, that children will automatically assimilate the skills they need to read, without being taught phonics, by exposure to books that are rich in language.

This is a grave disservice to countless students: About a third of all learners have some difficulty with the written word. For these learners, deciphering the 26 letters of the alphabet, the 44 sounds they represent and the 70 or more ways to spell them must be taught explicitly and systematically.
The solution won't come only in our schools - colleges and universities must be held accountable, so that they properly educate and train teachers in the right methods of instruction.

Tragically, the issue has become politicized. Ideology leads too many prestigious professors to still deny the facts. And, though the reading-instruction sections of the bipartisan "No Child Left Behind" had the backing of the most respected reading researchers and educators, teachers' unions (among other vested interests) took issue with imposing accountability for results in the classroom.

To repeat: We already have the tools that can give us the means to teach virtually every child to read. All we need is the commitment to put that science into action.

If he's serious about fixing the schools, Obama must embrace a complete overhaul.

Start with reading, the foundation of education, by implementing proven research-based teacher training in universities - holding all levels of educators and schools accountable, and finding fair and equitable methods to reward excellence in teachers. As for students, scientific diagnostic tests should be administered each year to offer prescriptive reading remediation for individuals as needed.

The "dumb row" is a devastating place for any child to languish. As an innocent schoolboy, I didn't know how to ask for help. As an angry, frustrated teen, I didn't ask for help because I'd given up on myself and teachers.

As an adult, I was ashamed and embarrassed to ask for help. I hid my secret with excuses and pretended that I was literate -relying on other "smarts" to survive in the literate world.

It is surprising how people can fake literacy. For example, after teaching, when I was a real-estate entrepreneur, I was the boss and had secretaries to do any reading or writing I requested. If they weren't available at a meeting, I could always use an excuse like, "I forgot my reading glasses."

Millions of children, teens, and adults now lack the equal opportunity to succeed in school and the workplace. They can't reach their full potential because we've failed (and are still failing) to teach them to read. The cost to society is incalculable.

But we can do it. We've spent the money, we've done the research, we have the science.

Obama has demanded that we restore a sense of urgency concerning our education system. Let us hope he has the courage to lead the change we need.