"High Quality Practice"-2nd grade,Reading First?

The summary of the interim report on the effectiveness of Reading First schools noted that time second graders were engaged with print was reduced by "a statistically significant 8.42 percentage points." These are kids in schools across 12 states, and in 18 sites within one statewide program. No matter what else we find out about what has been going on in Reading First schools, this should be a huge red flag waving in all our faces.

Instead of reading, these second graders had the time they were engaged in "high quality practice" increased, and the authors of the summary seem to imply that's a good thing, as well as first graders who saw their time increased for "highly explicit instruction." In a recent Ed Week article state administrators also bragged about how reading first has changed classroom instruction. Sadly these are not changes that will raise reading achievement, even in the short term, but I wonder who will study the impact these practices will have in squeezing any potential for raising life-long readers right out of these children.

In an email exchange with Mike Petrilli I was reminded of my first & second grade classroom experiences. I came to first grade reading, and the sight word Dick and Jane readers were staples that I remember finding humorous-since nobody I knew talked quite like that. The teacher celebrated my reading and made time for me to read and write little books. (I didn't like it when subs came because I didn't get the same freedoms.)

Then I went to second grade. In second grade we had to learn accents on words. We had to be able to hear them, and we had to learn how to record them on the right syllable on workbook page after workbook page. I was awful at it. (I don't think I could do it today.) I remember feeling like I was now less of a "reader." It was the first time in school when I did not feel successful. I thought that year would never end. And, to make matters worse, the teacher never smiled. (I remember because her twin subbed for her, and she smiled. Even then we knew the difference.) I know we received both "highly explicit instruction" and "high quality practice" on listening for accents. I even remember being humiliated at the chalkboard.

I survived that one year in a classroom with highly explicit instruction & high quality practice, but think about the kids who have been in Reading First schools for multiple years...spending less time reading, and more time in high quality practice.