| Mon, 25 Sep 2006
Dear IRA Board Members:
I read IRA’s press release in response to the OIG report on Reading First.
I’m dismayed by the ongoing support IRA has expressed for a policy that that
is proven to be corrupt. That corruption is not incidental, nor is it
separate from the programs schools were coerced into using. Contrary to its
most basic ethical and legal imperative, Reading First panels have mandated
commercial programs and assessments that profit the handful of "scientific
researchers” who have been lining their pockets at the expense of teachers
and children.
The contents of this report is nothing new to any of us. It only affirms
what so many of us have been screaming in the wilderness for years now:
Reading First and NCLB are not policies that are designed to help schools.
They are first and foremost a Trojan horse for discrediting public education
while profiting a handful of “researchers” who have hijacked education and
annihilated an entire research and philosophical paradigm. Where has IRA
been throughout all of this? Who and what has it stood for?
What is also troubling is that in addition to its support of Reading First,
IRA appears to be drifting further and further from the needs of its
constituents and its own organizational goals in other ways. The IRA
president who is closely aligned with federal education policy, corporate
interests and Reading First, has departed from the goals of our
organization. In rapid succession, Timothy Shanahan published two shocking
commentaries, the first advising teachers not to allow their students to
read in school, the second in support of using scripted commercial programs.
These commentaries, expressing his opinion—in clear opposition to the
research findings of the panel of which he was a member—are given credence
by his position in IRA. Schools and literacy coaches are disseminating these
articles in the belief that they are “research-based” and represent the
informed perspectives of the International Reading Association. The
president of IRA has his own corporate connections and of course, intimate,
first-hand experience with Reading First “expert” panels. His corporate
connections and misrepresentations of the research are strikingly similar
to the problems that lie at the heart of the tainted workings of Reading
First.
Therefore, these are not just national concerns. I hope they will concern
the leaders of the International Reading Association as well, because its
reputation and effectiveness are increasingly being drawn into question.
Where does IRA stand? Who does it stand for?
I hope that IRA will come back to its base and reaffirm its goals. I
understand that a national organization must maintain a middle ground and
the appearance of balance. However, given the clear political and corporate
agenda of Reading First, and given Timothy Shanahan’s advocacy for policy at
odds with IRA’s goals, not taking a stand amounts to taking a stand. I hope
you will reassume a position of leadership. Teachers need you.
Elaine Garan
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