Why Kids Still Cannot Read

If you want our children to do better in school, then it is important to begin to understand the reasons why they are not. In researching the various trends and strategies in education, everyone, including educators and parents alike, can communicate more effectively about the issues.

One issue I read about is the fact that during the couple of decades new views of reading instruction emerged and morphed in school districts nationwide. The issue now isn't whether phonics or whole language methods are better for beginning readers, but how to blend these reading programs tailored each individual child.

It was known as "the reading wars," waged during the 1980s and '90s. It was around 1987 when apparently, personal journals became one of the latest classroom tactics for teaching kids to read. Defined as whole language, it was an instructional philosophy emphasizing that children focus on meaning, which contrasts with phonics based methods of teaching reading and writing - with an emphasis in instruction for reading and spelling.

At that time, many people believe that children were poor readers because the old skills-based approach that emphasized phonics. The fact that memorization ended up turning reading into a chore, thus alienating them from reading at all.

But ultimately whole language proved to be a disaster when applied to real kids and teachers. Eight years after whole language first appeared in California grade schools, by the mid-90s, fourth-grader reading scores had plummeted to near the bottom nationally, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP).

It was in 1997 when Congress formed the National Reading Panel to evaluate the research on teaching practices to determine what really works. Thereafter, the federal No Child Left Behind Act required that school districts use scientifically proven instructional methods as they strive to make all children proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Today there is a trend towards balanced or comprehensive literacy. Most educators agree that there is no one program that fits all children for learning to read.

This makes sense insofar as what I have experienced with our Children of the City programs such as Create Success, an after school and summer program with a high priority on individual students and their academic success with intense tutoring to improve each child's reading and math levels. I think that if more communities in the United States had programs like this, our kids would learn to read much faster.

One student that has been helped tremendously through this program, is a second grade boy named Weixum. His favorite topic is about dinosaurs, and he now reads books that are way above the standard reading level of a second grader, and he does fine interpreting the text. Why? He sounds out the harder Latin based words. You would never guess that Weixum does not speak English at home. His teacher initially referred him to Children of the City’s Create Success for help with his homework and reading.

To learn more about my involvement in this and other charities, please go to my charity website known as http://www.roccobasile.org/ where I continue to list facts, trends and success stories.