XPost: alt.education, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://nypost.com/2025/09/10/opinion/vibe-based-literacy-other-fads-   
   destroyed-education-for-kids/   
      
   The latest release of results from the National Assessment of Educational   
   Progress — the “Nation’s Report Card” — makes for grim reading.   
      
   There’s no sugarcoating it, and no silver linings: Scores are stagnant or   
   down across the board, and for our lowest-performing students, achievement   
   is as dismal as it has ever been.   
      
   But the correct response to these results is not despair. It’s to look   
   closely at the places that seem to be getting it right, learn from them,   
   and follow their lead.   
      
   We’re accustomed to thinking of the South as an educational backwater.   
   That’s pure Yankee arrogance. As my AEI colleague Rick Hess recently noted   
   in National Review, Alabama and Louisiana are the only two states in the   
   country with math or reading scores higher today than they were in 2019,   
   before COVID.   
      
   Mississippi, often dismissed as hopeless, is now one of the most hopeful   
   stories in American education: Black students there rank third in the   
   nation, and its low-income students outperform their peers everywhere   
   else.   
      
   There are lessons closer to home, too. In New York City, Success Academy   
   charter schools continue to post extraordinary results. More than four in   
   five Success students score at or above grade level in reading, even   
   though the vast majority come from low-income black and Hispanic families.   
      
   Success’ consistency underscores a key point: Schools that insist on a   
   structured, knowledge-rich curricula and high expectations for all   
   students do better than those that chase the latest pedagogical fad.   
      
   And in Steubenville, Ohio, a working-class town far from any policy think   
   tank, the district has for decades quietly produced some of the nation’s   
   most impressive literacy results. Virtually every child learns to read   
   proficiently by the end of third grade. How? Not through a trendy program   
   or silver bullet, but by sticking with the same evidence-based “Success   
   for All” reading model for a quarter-century.   
      
   That means systematic phonics, training every teacher to teach reading,   
   and aggressive early intervention for struggling students.   
      
   When journalist Emily Hanford, whose podcast “Sold a Story” exposed the   
   failures of “balanced literacy,” visited Steubenville, she got blank looks   
   when she asked teachers if they had ever heard of Lucy Calkins or Fountas   
   & Pinnell, the gurus of America’s failed reading orthodoxy, who promoted   
   what one critic witheringly dubbed “vibes-based literacy” — prioritizing   
   student interest and teaching them to guess at unfamiliar words rather   
   than providing systematic phonics instruction.   
      
   Calkins’ “balanced literacy” approach, which dominated New York City   
   elementary schools for decades, is not supported by evidence, leading to   
   poor outcomes for many students, particularly those from low-income,   
   minority and immigrant households.   
      
   “Steubenville had no need to pursue the latest trend, to even know what   
   the latest trend was,” Hanford reported, “because what they were doing was   
   working. It’s been working. For 25 years.”   
      
   That’s the through line connecting Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,   
   Success Academy, and Steubenville: All resisted the temptation of fashion   
   and ideology. They stayed the course, implemented practices that are   
   demonstrably effective, and refused to abandon what works.   
      
   It’s also why US Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been touting a   
   “back to basics” approach to literacy and drawing attention to the   
   progress in Southern states.   
      
   The same lesson applies now in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams’ “NYC   
   Reads” initiative is finally forcing schools to align reading instruction   
   with the settled science of how children learn.   
      
   The program is still young, but already there are encouraging signs: this   
   summer, the city reported that reading scores for third- and fourth-   
   graders had ticked upward, especially among Black and Hispanic students.   
   That’s no miracle — it’s what happens when schools adopt proven curricula,   
   train teachers, and intervene early.   
      
   But here’s the danger: the moment a new mayor takes office there will be   
   an irresistible impulse to scrap NYC Reads simply because it wasn’t his   
   idea.   
      
   Whoever leads City Hall — whether Zohran Mamdani or anyone else — must   
   resist that temptation. The single most important thing New York’s next   
   mayor can do for children is to stay the course on NYC Reads.   
      
   Education is littered with stories of promising reforms undone by   
   impatience, politics, or ideology. We should be skeptical of anyone   
   promising miracles in education. There’s no such thing. What there is—what   
   Mississippi, Louisiana, Success Academy, and Steubenville, Ohio are   
   showing — is the possibility of steady, persistent improvement when adults   
   commit to what works.   
      
   The secret is no secret at all: trust the science of reading, commit to   
   it, and stick with it. New York City — and the nation — should do the   
   same.   
      
   Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute   
   and a former New York City public school teacher.   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama   
   / Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)