by Carol A. Josel | May 21, 2025 | Carol A Josel, Education reform, Making Education News, Reading Wars
AS IT STANDS TODAY Reportedly, 75% of our elementary schools currently use basals, filled with short stories that DON’T gradually get harder, thus making pacing difficult. To date, at least 8 states have introduced or passed bills that aim to end the teaching of...
by Carol A. Josel | May 19, 2025 | Carol A Josel, Making Education News, Reading Wars
Whole Word and Whole Language now reign AND SO… 1970 to 1980: Commissioner of Education James E. Allen launches the Right-to-Read Program, a literacy call-to-arms. He gives up after ten years, saying, “Whole Word is too ingrained.” 1975: Phonics proponent Marva...
by Carol A. Josel | May 14, 2025 | Academics, Making Education News, Reading Wars
ABOUT LOOK/SAY (WHOLE WORD) and WHOLE LANGUAGE: 1929: Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a pioneer in the study of learning disabilities and dyslexia, warns educators: “The sight word method would cause reading disabilities among a very large number of...
by Carol A. Josel | Apr 22, 2025 | Academics, Articles, Carol A Josel, Making Education News
As Washington Post’s Peter Stevenson put it, “If there is one comparison you never make, it’s comparing someone to Hitler. It just isn’t done because almost no one in history was as bad as Hitler was.” Or, so you’d think, but… Seems a number of politicians,...
by Carol A. Josel | Apr 12, 2025 | Academics, Bush's No Child Left Behind, Carol A Josel, Education reform, Kindergarten now the new first grade, Making Education News, Obama's Common Core Standards
REMINDER: George W. Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) claimed it “has raised expectations and improved results.” REMINDER: NCLB’s follow-up, the Barack Obama/secretary of Education Arne Duncan ’s July 24, 2009, $4.35 billion Race to the Top and June 2, 2010...
by Carol A. Josel | Apr 6, 2025 | Academics, Carol A Josel, Making Education News, Quotable Quotes, Technology
** According to a recent National Center for Education Statistics School Pulse Panel survey of 1,500 schools, more than 80% say they’re “seeing stunted behavior and socioemotional development in their students.” ** While federal law requires that states test...
