Sent to the Oakland Tribune, Jan 6, 2006

 

Reports of a recent national comparison of states published by Education Week focused on California’s overall above-average evaluation for its educational system (“Study: State schools measure up on everything but funding, “ Jan 5).

 

Missing from newspaper articles (and missing from a press release from the state superintendent of education) is an embarrassing statistic contained in the report:  On national tests of reading given in 2005, California’s fourth and eighth graders were in next to last place among all states, and there has been no improvement since 1992, the first time test results were analyzed by state.

Since 1992, California installed an extremist version of phonics (intensive, systematic phonics). Studies consistently show that heavy phonics instruction has no significant impact on tests of reading comprehension given after grade 1.

 

Since 1992, California has drastically cut spending on school libraries, already very low in 1992.  Studies show that school library quality and staffing are significant predictors of achievement on reading tests. California’s school (and public) libraries are among the worst in the nation, which means that many children have little access to reading material.

 

California’s “reading problem” includes policy makers who don’t read the research.

 

Stephen Krashen

Professor Emeritus

University of Southern California