Reading &#38; Other Learning Disabilities &#187; Parenting

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To Help Children: The Special Needs Talk Radio Network

The Special Needs Talk Radio network is dedicated to helping parents and teachers help children with special needs. For a description and schedule of its six shows, go to http://specialneedstalkradio.com.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

Monday’s Radio Show

Public and Private School Programs: Pros and Cons

When: Monday, 12/19/2011, 9 – 9:30 PM EST
Where: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential
Guest: Staci Greenwald, Esq., Special Education Attorney

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

PsychologyToday.com wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.” A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.”

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words. And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

Description

Warns parents to look beyond the hype attributed to many charter schools. Give 2 recent examples.

Help Your Struggling Reader Develop a Strong Vocabulary

Howard — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:18:58 +0000

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

If struggling readers do not have strong knowledge of the vocabulary they hear in class and see when reading, they cannot become good readers. Below are three easy principles for helping struggling readers develop strong listening and reading vocabularies. Of course, you need to adapt these principles to the developmental level of your child or student. One more “of course”: Make the activities fun and interesting.

Ask Struggling Readers to Go Beyond Dictionary Definitions of Words: If the word’s important, help your child or student discuss its meaning, its parts (e.g., prefix), and its use. If possible, use lots of pictures, diagrams, and skits. If the word is grimace, start grimacing; ask your child or student to start.

“Knowing a word is much more than simply matching it with a definition. Truly knowing a word means that the word is embedded in a rich concept base and that the reader can use and understand it in multiple contexts. We learn most words by listening and by reading, but vocabulary instruction can also play an important role in expanding a student’s meaning vocabulary…. Students should learn how to determine word meaning from context, but this involves their understanding of context’s limitations. Word meaning can also be enhanced through discussion of morphemes, such as endings, prefixes, and roots. It is important that students be engaged in activities that contribute to active engagement, such as personalizing word learning … and comparing words.” [Caldwell, J. S., & Leslie, L. (2005). Intervention strategies to follow informal reading inventory assessment: So what do I do now? Boston: Allyn & Bacon, p. 116].

Give Struggling Readers Repeated Exposure to Important Words: Provide your child or student with repeated exposure to important words, words you think he needs to learn, remember, and use. Make sure he sees the words in a variety of reading materials and often hears them at home or in class. When he writes, encourage him to use these words.

“Repeated exposure to vocabulary in many contexts aids word learning. Students learn new words better when they encounter them often and in various contexts. The more children see, hear, and work with specific words, the better they seem to learn them. When teachers provide extended instruction that promotes active engagement, they give students repeated exposure to new words. When the students read those same words in their texts, they increase their exposure to the new words.” [Bonnie B. Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIER), p. 36]

Help Struggling Readers Relate Their New Word to What They Already Know: Ask your child or student how his new word resembles or differs from words he knows. Ask him to associate his new word with what he thinks it relates to, such as “asteroid” reminds him of space. Ask him to use his new word to explain what he already knows.

“Vocabulary development in any subject can proceed by asking students to reveal any vocabulary framework that they already have. Those known words may help them associate meaning with new vocabulary. In that way, definitions and the particular meaning within a given sentence have a context and a set of relations to build on…. [Have] students … list synonyms and/or definitional phrases that they already associate with the topic….. Suppose, for example, an article on protecting the environment includes the word ‘menace.’ The teacher lists words that students associate with threats to the environment. Associated terms and synonyms are then listed in [a] T-bar chart.” [Smith, Carl B (Undated). ERIC]

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

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Monday’s Radio Show

How Response-To-Intervention Can Help Maximize Your Child’s Potential

When: Monday, 12/12/2011, 9 – 9:30 PM EST
Where: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential
Guest: Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

Link. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/michigans-embarrassing-school-reform-legislation/2011/11/22/gIQAwaQNwN_blog.html

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

A Charter School Satire: 7-Steps to Wealth

Howard — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:44:00 +0000

Charter Schools: A Satire on 7-Steps to Wealth

I. M. Greedy

I know there are some good charter schools run by honest do-gooders who help kids. Just look at the KIPP schools and the Harlem Children’s Zone. Good for them. Hooray. Whoopee. But they don’t want what we want: money, money, and lots more money. So, if you want wealth, if you want lots of free taxpayer money, join me.

Look, I took a few college courses. Didn’t like college. Never came close to graduating, but in the charter world, that’s unimportant. So, how can we make millions of dollars in education without knowing much about education or spending much of our own money? I have the answer, a plan that will make us look like good Samaritans, do-gooders, and make us rich. Hear that cash-register: Ker-ching! It’s simple: Let the state pay for our private schools—opps, our publicly-funded (and poorly regulated) charter schools.

Here’s my seven point plan. Let’s do what people in other states have done in bits and pieces. But here, we’ll do it all.

I’ll come up with a fancy name and idealistic image for our charters. Perhaps the name will include smart-sounding words like cooperative learning or self-efficacy or aesthetic appreciation or social-emotional intelligence. Who knows? I don’t know what these words mean, but they’re impressive, they’ll get us $$$$$, lots of $$$$$. As long as I come up with a good name that tugs at the heart of desperate parents and unemployed or young idealistic teachers, we’ll get plenty of students. And I’ll hire retired principals with doctorates, on the cheap, to give us credibility and protect us from state certification requirements. Retired principals may come and go, but they’re cheap and they look good.
I’ll hire teachers at low, low salaries. With all the slashing of school budgets, teacher firings headlining the news, and the pie-in-the-sky idealism of teachers, I’ll pay them quarters, not dollars. This is so easy that easy is too difficult a word. Yeah, that’s business. Ker-ching!
I’ll write a proposal to get the state to give us plenty of money for each student we accept into our charters. The typical reimbursement to charters of 90% of public school costs plus transportation is fine if each kid costs us only 50%. This gives us 40% free money. Ker-ching! With the massive greed and dominating ideology of politicians and the governor’s desire to starve old-fashioned public schools and make people hate them, and publicly fund free-enterprise charters, writing a proposal in this political climate will be easy. All I have to do is say the right things. We don’t have to do them, at least not soon. The name of the game isn’t reality; it’s Look-Good Public Relations.
I’ll establish three or four dummy corporations from which we’ll buy supplies, take trips, and pay rent. Just think of the profit we can make if the charters buy pencils from one of our dummy corporations at $5 a dozen, instead of the local 99¢ a dozen. Even better, as the charters’ Executive Director, at $563,000 annually, I’ll contract with our dummy travel corporation for deals we could get elsewhere at half the price. For $25,000 a month, our dummy real estate corporation will rent us buildings that should cost $2000 a month. Better yet, make rent $60,000 a month. It’s all legal. All approved by you as a member of our charter “community” board. No doubt about it, I’m a genius. Ker-ching! And you’ll get rich.
I’ll absolutely accept kids with disabilities or learning problems into our charters. The law requires it and we can get lots of sympathy pictures. No one will fault us for this, no one. And of course, very quietly but persistently we’ll force many of these kids back to the public schools.Yeah, for legality and public relations, we’ll keep a few. I’m not mean, but I know the three rules of business: profits first, profits second, profits always. Educating lots of kids with disabilities will destroy our test scores and cost too much. Let the old public schools pay for these kids. Case closed. Sayonara kids.
I’ll get plenty of publicity for all our charters’ wonderful achievements—real or not. Maybe I’ll get the governor to give our charters a great award and pose for pictures with us. He loves pictures celebrating success—his success. Like anyone’s really going to dig deep to check the claims in our press releases. Checking is too expensive, and if necessary, we can argue that student records are confidential. (Thank you privacy advocates.) And without whistle blowers, charter stories are boring–no good pictures; TV needs videos of fires or of old ladies getting mugged.
I’ll let the charters buy a private jet to fly us around the country to publicize our miracles. We’ll be famous, we’ll be esteemed, we’ll be gurus, we’ll be regulars on TV. No doubt about it—we’ll be rich. And the public and the kids? Sorry guys—smart people know life ain’t fair. Ker-ching!

Many people are afraid of using charters to get wealthy. Newspaper stories about the charter indictments in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and other states scare them. But we’re bolder, smarter, more knowledgeable about how the system works. Don’t worry. We won’t rip-off the state. Heck, the state is our golden goose. We’ll change the laws, not break them. We’ll work with politicians to make loose laws. And we’ll give them great-sounding, easy to remember talking points. Here’s one: Charters need lots of freedom to innovate. And we’ll get rich—Ker-ching!

Don’t believe we can do this? Look at the Michigan legislature. They’re unleashing charter and virtual schools. Forget the research—charters and virtuals everywhere. This week’s Washington Post says Michigan’s charter bills have very little, if any, quality controls. Just about anything goes. Smile: Lobbying and ideology always win. Ker-ching!

So, want to join the charter gravy chain? For a penny-pinching investment of $33,300, you’ll get 3% of the action. You’ll be an educational reformer. An innovative do-gooder. The public will love you. As the old public schools starve, taxpayers will love charters. At least until we get rich. Ker-ching!

Sincerely,

I. M. Greedy (My Pseudonym)

Huckster Town, USA

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

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To Help Children: The Special Needs Talk Radio Network

The Special Needs Talk Radio network (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/) is on the air. Each of its six shows is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with special needs and their families.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

Monday’s Show (11/28/2011): Monitoring Your Child’s Academic Progress

When: Monday, November 28, 2011, 9 – 9:30 PM EST
Where: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential
Guest: Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

Charter School Miracles?

Howard — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:13:03 +0000

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Many parents of children with reading disabilities and other learning disabilities get discouraged, disgusted, and angry at public schools that fail to provide their children with critical reading and related services. Their feelings are understandable. They see their children falling further and further behind their peers. They see their children’s frustration, anger, and tears. They see their children struggle and suffer endlessly, as the public schools’ indifference seems impenetrable. And so, many seek the salvation of publicly-funded charter schools. After all, they perform miracles.

Unfortunately, they don’t.

Like many public schools, some charter schools, such as the highly touted Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), probably do great things. I doubt, however, that they perform miracles. Why? Compelling data doesn’t exist that schools can quickly turn most struggling readers into competent ones, most children with reading disabilities into children without disabilities. Like quality public schools, quality charters can probably help many struggling readers become highly proficient, highly motivated readers; but many doesn’t mean all or most. And after 40+ years in general and special education and observations of innumerable private and public schools in two countries, I don’t believe in miracles; instead, to help struggling learners succeed, I believe in clear, highly motivating goals; knowledgeable, skilled, well-supported teachers; strong leadership; hard work; parent-school collaboration; and steady progress. Despite the likelihood that the HCZ is doing some great things, it may be one of dozens of charter school miracles that are far more hype than miracle.

Here’s what Diane Rativtch, Research Professor of Education at New York University and former Assistant Secretary of Education in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, recently wrote about Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ):

The HCZ “is an antipoverty program in Harlem that provides a broad array of medical and social services to children and families, such as health programs, preschool, after-school tutoring, and parenting classes. Its three charter schools are far better funded than nearby regular public schools. Its small high school has classes of fewer than fifteen students with two licensed teachers in each classroom. Because it has a very wealthy board of trustees, HCZ has an endowment of $200 million. Even with the ample resources available to HCZ, its charters had many students in 2010 who did not meet state standards for proficiency in reading: 62 percent in one school, and 38 percent in the other. In the seventh grade, where students were in their third year, only 15 percent met state standards. When Geoffrey Canada first recruited students to his charter middle school, they entered with low scores; after three years, when their scores remained low, he kicked out the entire class. The neighborhood public schools can’t do this.” (Diane Rativtch, updated version of The Death and Life of the Great American School System, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/reports-on-charter-schools-expose-new-problems/2011/10/31/gIQAcMye3M_blog.html).

This is not a condemnation of the HCZ. I admire HCZ’s comprehensive whole-child model (e.g., health care, counseling) and the expressed values of Geoffrey Canada. It’s a condemnation of the well-financed public relations campaign to make parents believe that public schools are automatically bad, that charter schools perform miracles. Charters don’t. (But many give the impression they do. Here’s one trick some use to cut expenses, improve test scores, and look miraculous: “counsel” struggling students and students with disabilities to drop out and return to public schools.)

In part, those public schools that are poorly run and unresponsive to children’s needs share the blame for the rise in charters and for the justifiable desperation of parents to help their children escape these public schools. Clearly, public schools have a moral and often legal obligation to provide children with the expertise and services they need to succeed. When children need critical services, such as extra reading help from reading specialists, public schools have an ethical and moral obligation not to deny, deny, deny, not to aggravate the suffering of children and their families. Shame on public schools that deny; greater shame on the politicians who fail to adequately fund public schools, who mandate policies that cripple children, teachers, and schools. To a far greater degree than public schools, such politicians are to blame.

If you’re the parent of a child with reading disabilities or other learning disabilities, if his school is denying him critical services, and if a far better school placement is unavailable, you must do at least six things:

(1) Develop good relationships with school personnel. (Good relationships do not mean agreement or acquiescence.)

(2) Learn the relevant education laws, in detail.

(3) Make sure your child gets high quality evaluations that result in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with meaningful and measurable goals (and in some states, short-term objectives). If your child is ineligible for special education, get him the high quality evaluations needed to develop in-school remedial programs or after school tutoring programs. Make sure tutoring helps him succeed with the strategies taught in school.

(4) Carefully and frequently monitor his progress.

(5) If progress is poor, meet with the school to revise his program, which may include his IEP and methods of instruction.

(6) Become politically knowledgeable and active.

Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds will give you a great deal of information on points 1 through 5. Our blog will often help on point 6.

Yes, our suggestions can be complicated, time consuming, and exhausting. But they’re what children need if schools are denying them critical services. The research is clear: In general, charters are not the answer. In large part, the answer is knowledgeable, supportive, informed, persistent, politically active parents who, as part of a group, work to turn poor schools and dysfunctional neighborhoods into good ones.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

Where: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

Next Monday’s Show: Writing

As many parents, teachers, and children know, learning to write is hard work, work that’s easier said than done. But it can also be fun, liberating, and enormously satisfying. It can unlock potential. This coming Monday, a motivating writing teacher, Jaclyn Pryzbylkowski (Voorhees NJ Middle School), will discuss How Writing Instruction Can Help Children Achieve Their Potential.

When: Monday, November 7, 2011, 9 – 9:30 PM EST

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialneedstalkradio/2011/10/25/maximizing-your-childs-potential

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

Free Podcast: How Occupational Therapy Can Help

Howard — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:43:31 +0000

Free Podcast

How Occupational Therapy Can

Help Children Achieve Their Potential

Susan Orloff, OTR/L

Author of Learning Re-enabled

Reading Fluency: Key Questions and Answers — II

Howard — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:00:06 +0000

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

If your child reads at a second grade level or above, and reads words and sentences accurately—-but slowly and laboriously or without adequate expression—-he needs help with reading fluency. If his school won’t provide adequate fluency instruction, discuss these questions and answers with school personnel. They may not be aware of fluency’s importance and the ease with which teachers can help many students become fluent readers.

What is reading fluency?

A good analogy for understanding reading fluency comes from public speaking. Fluent public speakers embed in their voices those same elements that are associated with reading fluency – accuracy in speech, appropriate speed, and phrasing and expression. The speaker’s use of these aspects of fluency facilitates the listener’s comprehension. Speaking in appropriate phrases, emphasizing certain words, raising and lowering volume, and varying intonation help the listener understand what the speaker is trying to communicate (Rasinski, 2004, p. 2).

Is reading fluency important?

Scientifically-based research reviews have established that reading fluency is a critical component of learning to read and that an effective reading program needs to include instruction in fluency (Rasinski, 2004, p. 2, references removed)

Fluency problems can also dampen self-efficacy and motivation for reading, as students’ find reading difficult, laborious, and unsatisfying (Margolis, 2004, p. 193).

What are the components of reading fluency?

Fluency incorporates both automaticity—the quick, accurate, and virtually instantaneous recognition of words—and prosody, or reading expressively with such features as appropriate pitch, stress, and phrasing. As such, fluency has been referred to as a bridge to comprehension, in part because both of these elements play an important role in skilled reading. Automaticity allows students to recognize words effortlessly, thereby freeing their working memory from the mentally draining, slow work of decoding and allowing them to attend to meaning. Next, prosody incorporates elements of expression and phrasing, helping to shape the meaning of a sentence in speech. The same is true in written language. Is the narrator being sarcastic? Who is voicing the words inside the quotation marks? Is the situation being described comical or sad? Prosody adds expression to written text, helping to engage learners in their reading and adding an important element to the overall process of understanding text (Kuhn & Schwanenflugel, 2006, p. 2, references removed).

To develop fluency, should students read lots of “hard” or lots of “easy” books?

To build fluency, students need to read easy books filled with words they can recognize (Richek et al, 1996, p. 130)

Students need regular opportunities to read easy materials—materials at their independent level—to enhance and develop their reading fluency (Heilman, Blair, & Rupley, 2002, p. 270).

With so many components, reading fluency sounds complicated. Can teachers actually teach fluency in the schools?

Well-designed oral reading instruction can take a number of forms. Among these are

(a) echo and choral reading

(b) repeated reading

(d) paired and partner reading

(e) reading while listening

(f ) radio reading

(g) reader’s theatre

(h) Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)

(i) wide reading, and even

(j) the use of captioned television….

Each of these approaches has been shown to be effective both in research and in clinical and classroom practice and each is relatively easy to implement (Kuhn & Schwanenflugel, 2006, p. 4, references removed).

References

Heilman, A. J., Blair, T. R., & Rupley, W. H. (2002). Principles and practices of teaching reading (10^th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill

Kuhn, M., & Schwanenflugel, P. (2006). All Oral Reading Practice Is Not Equal or How Can I Integrate Fluency Into My Classroom? Literacy Teaching and Learning, 11(1), 1-20, p. 2.

Margolis, H. (2004). Struggling readers: What consultants need to know. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 15(2), 191-204

Rasinski, T. (2004). Assessing reading fluency. Honolulu, Hawai‘i: Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. Available for download from www.prel.org/programs/rel/rel.asp.

Richek, M. A., Caldwell, J. S., Jennings, J. H., & Lerner, J. W. (1996). Reading problems: Assessment and teaching strategies. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialneedstalkradio/2011/10/18/maximizing-your-childs-potential

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Free Podcast

Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency

Dr. Tim Rasinski of Kent State University

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds

(www.reading2008.com)

The KansasCityExaminer.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. The Coffee Klatch awarded it a Coffee Klatch emblem, signifying excellence.

American Educational Policy: Punish Children’s Differences?

Howard — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:49:34 +0000

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Recently, Marion Brady offered thought-provoking insights on educational policy that deserve serious consideration, something that many Democrat and Republican politicians are loathe to do.

Think there’s something wrong with a same-standards-and-tests-for-everybody approach to educating? Think a math whiz shouldn’t be held back just because he can’t write a good five-paragraph essay? Think a gifted writer shouldn’t be refused a diploma because she can’t solve a quadratic equation? …. If you think there’s something fundamentally, dangerously wrong with an educational reform effort that’s actually designed to standardize, designed to ignore human variation, designed to penalize individual differences, designed to produce a generation of clones …. [complain to] to your senators and representatives before they sell their vote to the publishing and testing corporations intent on getting an ever-bigger slice of that half-trillion dollars a year America spends on educating. (Brady, 2011)

But wait: Brady is wrong. Retention works. That’s why we do it over and over and over. If a kid fails, the only way to help him is to retain him in grade until he gets it right. It’s not punishment. It’s not harmful.

That’s what decades of research show. Right?

Wrong. The thrust of the valid research shows:

The continued use of grade retention constitutes educational malpractice. It is the responsibility of educators to provide interventions that are effective in promoting academic success, yet research examining the effectiveness of retention reveals lower achievement, more behavior problems, and higher dropout rates among retained students. It is particularly disconcerting that a disproportionate number of students of ethnic minority and low income backgrounds are retained. Moreover, children’s experience of being held back is highly stressful; surveys indicate that by sixth grade, students report that only the loss of a parent and going blind is more stressful. (Jimerson, quoted in Hamson, 2009)
The academic future of the students who were actually retained was poor. The academic performance of the Chicago third graders who were retained was similar to that of third graders who were not retained, retained sixth graders performed more poorly than their counterparts who were not retained, and retained eighth graders were far more likely to drop out and to do so at a younger age than students who were not retained. Furthermore, 78% of the students retained in eighth grade had dropped out by the time they turned 19…. These results mirror those of past retention studies that have reported that retained students either show declines in achievement over several years after retention or have academic outcomes that are no better after repeating a grade than those of low-achieving promoted students. In addition, students who have been retained have higher dropout rates than their promoted low-achieving peers. (Abbott at al., 2010, p. 6)
Failure to achieve grade-level expectations in reading is the primary reason students in the early grades are retained …. Research on grade retention clearly points to a connection between retention and dropout. … Grade retention was the most powerful predictor of later dropout, with retained students being 11 times more likely to drop out of school. (Reschly, 2010, p. 69).
No other educational practice is as demonstrably harmful to students as the practice of grade retention (Florida Association of School Psychologists, post 2003, undated)

Makes me wonder about the knowledge and motivation of so many of our elected officials—Democrat and Republican. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make me wonder about the power of political contributions and paid lobbyists.

References

Abbott, M., Wills, H, Greenwood, C. R., Kamps, D., Heitzman-Powell, L., & Selig, J. (2010). The combined effects of grade retention and targeted small-group intervention on students’ literacy outcomes. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 26(1), 4-25.

Brady, M. (2011). Dogs: An unusual guide to school reform. From The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, Retrieved 8/29/2011, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/dogs-an-unusual-guide-to-schoo.html.

Florida Association of School Psychologists (undated). Position Statement on Florida’s Third Grade Retention Mandate. Retrieved 10/8/2011, from http://www.fasp.org/PDF_Files/Public_Policy/PP3rdGrdRet.pdf.

Jimerson, S. R. Quoted in Haimson, L. (2009). Mayor Bloomberg Commits Educational Malpractice Once More. Retrieved 5/18/2010, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/mayor-bloomberg-commits-e_b_257548.html.

Reschly, A. L. (2010). Reading and school completion: critical connections and matthew effects. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 26(1), 67 – 90.

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/learning-disabilities-the-tragedy-of-retention.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/what-parents-must-know-about-reading-disabilities-part-ii-retenion.htm

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

The new Special Needs Talk Radio network (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/) is on the air. Each of its six shows is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with special needs and their families.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

On Monday, October 10^th, our guest will be Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Educational Consultant. He’ll discuss Raising Confident Readers: Birth and Beyond.

Dr. Gentry earned his Elementary Education degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Reading Education from the University of Virginia in 1977. For sixteen years he taught Reading Education at Western Carolina University where he directed the Reading Center. He is well known for his research and writing in literacy education and is currently an independent researcher, author, and educational consultant.

Over the next few months, our guests will include:

October 17^th —Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
October 24^th —Susan Orloff, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist, Learning Re-Enabled
October 31^st—Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems
Dr. Richard Boon, University of Georgia, Helping Teenagers Improve Their Reading
Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri, Monitoring Your Child’s Progress
Dr. Patrick McCabe, Mercy College, Developing the Confidence of Struggling Learners
Staci Greenwald, Special Education Attorney, The Pro’s and Con’s of Public and Private School Programs
Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo, How Response-To-Intervention ( RTI) Can Unlock Your Child’s Potential

If possible, look at the Special Needs Talk Radio’s website (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/). See how its many experts can help you help the children and youth you care about.

Free Podcast: Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Howard — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:44:21 +0000

Free Podcast

Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Dr. John Pellitteri

City University of New York

To download, go to:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialneedstalkradio/2011/10/04/dr-john-pellitteri

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

On Monday, October 10^th, our guest will be Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Educational Consultant, Raising Confident Readers: Birth and Beyond. Dr. Gentry earned his Elementary Education degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Reading Education from the University of Virginia in 1977. For sixteen years he taught Reading Education at Western Carolina University where he directed the Reading Center. He is well known for his research and writing in literacy education and is currently an independent researcher, author, and educational consultant.

Over the next few months, our guests will include:

October 17^th —Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
October 24^th —Susan Orloff, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist, Learning Re-Enabled
October 31^st—Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems
Dr. Richard Boon, University of Georgia, Helping Teenagers Improve Their Reading
Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri, Monitoring Your Child’s Progress
Dr. Patrick McCabe, Mercy College, Developing the Confidence of Struggling Learners
Staci Greenwald, Special Education Attorney, The Pro’s and Con’s of Public and Private School Programs
Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo, How Response-To-Intervention ( RTI) Can Unlock Your Child’s Potential

If possible, look at the Special Needs Talk Radio’s website (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/). See how its many experts can help you help the children and youth you care about.

Grades 4, 5, & 6: Why Reading Struggles Intensify

Howard — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:10:58 +0000

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

In grades 4, 5, and 6, the reading problems of many struggling readers explode. Readers slam into walls of failure and frustration. Their struggles are not unexpected. They have well-known causes:

Curriculum that fails to focus on what they need to learn to become successful readers
Curriculum that doesn’t give them the kind of instruction and practice they need
Language, memory, and organizational abilities that can’t readily handle the grade’s more complex and demanding tasks and language
Frustration level texts and tasks, such as grade level reading homework that overwhelms them
Greater amounts of independent work
The unintentional hardening of ineffective, counterproductive learning strategies
Inadequate social, emotional, and instructional support from school personnel
Invidious self-comparisons with classmates and friends who appear to achieve effortlessly
Pressure to succeed on No Child Left Behind tests
Derisive or indifferent peer actions and statements
The lure of non-school activities, such as gangs, sports, and video games.
Inadequate support from families
Discouragement, resignation, humiliation, and resistance to reading caused by years of failure

Unless intervention is effective early on, success becomes far more difficult and labor intensive.

Small gaps in reading abilities at the elementary school level often become large ones at the middle and high school level…. Students who are behind in reading get further behind; those who are making gains continue to make gains. (Bowman-Perrott, Herrera, & Murry, 2010, p. 98.)
It is clear from our [federally funded] longitudinal studies that follow good and poor readers from kindergarten into young adulthood that our young poor readers are largely doomed to such failure from the beginning. By the end of the first grade, we begin to notice substantial decreases in the children’s self-esteem, self-concept, and motivation to learn to read if they have not been able to master reading skills and keep up with their age-mates. As we follow the children through elementary and middle school grades, these problems compound…. These individuals constantly tell us that they hate to read; primarily they hate to read, primarily because it is such hard work, and their reading is so slow and laborious. As an adolescent in one of our longitudinal studies remarked recently, ‘I would rather have a root canal than read.’ (Lyon, G. R., 1997).

And unless intervention is emotionally supportive and adjusts the level, type, and volume of work to match the struggling readers’ language, fluency, reading levels, and ability to work independently, readers may become overwhelmed.

The reality is that students in the upper elementary grades [4 and 5] must learn to process texts that are linguistically more challenging and less concerned with their everyday experiences. Their fluency must become broader and more flexible. For students who do not continue to build fluency during this time, comprehension will surely not improve. (Walpole, McKenna, & Philippakos, 2011, p. 67)
The comprehension demands of texts, as well as the sheer volume of reading expected of students, escalate dramatically in the middle and upper elementary grades. Thus, a component weakness that appears to have little impact on comprehension in one grade—such as mild vocabulary deficits or slow reading—may have a much greater impact in subsequent grades. (Spear-Swerling, 2006).

This situation strongly suggests that parents:

Get reading evaluations for their children as soon as even slight reading problems are suspected.
Quickly get quality reading help for their children as soon as even slight problems are found.
Monitor their children’s progress, frequently and carefully.
Provide their children with strong, continuous social and emotional support.
Meet regularly with their children’s teachers to ensure that their children’s curriculum, assignments, and supports meet their needs.

Chapters 6 through 13 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com) discusses these issues in detail and offer numerous strategies to help parents help their children and get them the help they need.

References

Bowman-Perrott, L., Herrera, S., & Murry, K. (2010). Reading difficulties and grade retention: What’s the connection for English Language Learners? Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 26, 91-107.

Lyon, G. R. (1997 July 10). Congressional testimony of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD. Retrieved 9/3/2011, from http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/no-longer-just-a-hope.htm.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2006). Assessment of Reading Comprehension, Retrieved 9/1/2011, from http://www.ldonline.org/spearswerling/Assessment_of_Reading_Comprehension?theme=pri.

Walpole, S., McKenna, M. C., & Philippakos, Z. A. (2011). Differential reading instruction in grades 4 & 5. NY: The Guilford Press.